From TOLEDO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
The Toledo Symphony Orchestra (TSO) will welcome renowned cellist and 19-time Grammy Award winner Yo-Yo Ma to perform Elgar’s Cello Concerto on Friday, May 5, 2023 at 8 p.m. at the Peristyle. Yo-Yo Ma’s appearance is made possible through a gift from John and Barbara Burson with additional support provided by Pat Appold. Tickets are on sale now.
Visit https://artstoledo.info/Yo-Yo-Ma, stop by the Toledo Alliance for the Performing Arts’ Box Office,1838 Parkwood Avenue, or call 419-246-8000, Monday-Friday, 9-5 p.m.
This will be Yo-Yo Ma’s third appearance with the Toledo Symphony. He first appeared in 1984 when he performed the Cello Concerto by Dmitri Shostakovich conducted by Yuval Zaliouk. In 2003, he performed Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme conducted by Alistair Willis. In addition to Elgar’s Cello Concerto, the Toledo Symphony will perform the fourth symphony by Johannes Brahms, originally scheduled in early 2020 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. TSO Music Director Alain Trudel will conduct the program.
“Yo-Yo Ma remains among the most revered cellists in music history,” says Zak Vassar, President & CEO for the Toledo Alliance for the Performing Arts. “As a musician, humanitarian, and world citizen, he is a living legend who brings joy to his performances. I imagine that hearing Yo-Yo Ma perform Elgar will be, for some, a life-changing event.”
Yo-Yo’s discography of more than 100 albums (including 19 Grammy Award winners) reflects his wide-ranging interests. In addition to his many iconic renditions of the Western classical canon, he has made recordings that defy categorization, among them “Appalachia Waltz” and “Appalachian Journey” with Mark O’Connor and Edgar Meyer and two Grammy-winning tributes to the music of Brazil. Yo-Yo’s recent recordings include: “Sing Me Home,” with the Silkroad Ensemble, which won the 2016 Grammy for Best World Music Album; “Six Evolutions — Bach: Cello Suites;” and “Songs of Comfort and Hope,” created and recorded with pianist Kathryn Stott in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yo-Yo’s latest album is “Beethoven for Three: Symphonies Nos. 2 and 5,” with pianist Emanuel Ax and violinist Leonidas Kavakos.
“Yo-Yo Ma is one of those very rare artists that makes everyone around him better,” says TSO Music Director Alain Trudel. “His incredible commitment to the music community and love of people makes him the ultimate natural guest for us.”
Yo-Yo was born in 1955 to Chinese parents living in Paris. He began to study the cello with his father at age four and three years later moved with his family to New York City, where he continued his cello studies at the Juilliard School before pursuing a liberal arts education at Harvard. He has received numerous awards, including the Avery Fisher Prize (1978), the National Medal of the Arts (2001), the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2010), Kennedy Center Honors (2011), the Polar Music Prize (2012), and the Birgit Nilsson Prize (2022). He has performed for nine American presidents, most recently on the occasion of President Biden’s inauguration.
HOW TO ATTEND:
What: Yo-Yo Ma and the Toledo Symphony
When: Friday, May 5, 2023 at 8 p.m.
Where: Peristyle Theater, 2445 Monroe Street, Toledo, Ohio
More info: Visit https://artstoledo.info/Yo-Yo-Ma, stop by the Toledo Alliance for the Performing Arts’ Box Office located at 1838 Parkwood Avenue, or call 419-246-8000, Monday-Friday, 9-5 PM.
