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The world’s greatest living cellist will likely mesmerize his sold-out audience when he performs at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s Castle Theater on Jan 22.
“Yo-Yo Ma isn’t Superman, he just seems like it,” lauded a concert review in the San Jose Mercury News.
“During the cellist’s recital, one had the sense that nothing can go wrong when he performs. It’s his ease and soulfulness, a unique combination.”
Ma will present an all-Bach program, which will include “Suite No. 1 in G Major,” “Suite No. 5 in C Minor” and “Suite No. 3 in C Major.”
An astonishing prodigy, as a young child he would learn a piece of music, commit it to memory and play it perfectly almost immediately. At age 5, he could play three Bach cello suites.
After graduating from Harvard, Ma saw his career take off. Between 1983 and 1989, he recorded more than 25 albums and won five Grammy Awards.
An interest in anthropology and history led him to travel the world in search of new musical adventures.
Having long nurtured a dream of travelling to the Kalahari Desert, in 1993 he journeyed to southern Africa on a quest, as he explained in the documentary “Distant Echoes,” “to learn whether I could find any common ground between us.”
He participated in their ritual trance dances and played Bach for them. The trip to the Kalahari Desert “changed my life,” he noted.
A wonder for music beyond the confines of the classical world led to him studying Appalachian folk with American fiddler Mark O’Connor. And in time he would record two albums with O’Connor as a trio with bassist Edgar Meyer, “Appalachia Waltz” and the Grammy-winning “Appalachian Journey,” which included guests like James Taylor and Alison Krauss.
A love for tango led a trip to Argentina. Hearing a piece by Astor Piazzola, “the music caught me like a fever, and it won’t let go,” he reported, subsequently recording the Grammy-winning album “Soul of the Tango” in 1997. A few years later, he released a tribute to Brazilian music, “Obrigado Brazil.”
His most enduring cross-cultural synthesis has been his Silk Road Project, named after the ancient trading route that linked Asia and Europe.
Forming the Silk Road Ensemble, Ma assembled musicians from various nations (more than 60 members from 24 countries) for concerts that might feature traditional music from Mongolia, China and Iran, as well as newly commissioned works. Their latest recording, “Playlist Without Borders,” includes pieces that meld cello, Indian tabla, Galician bagpipe and Chinese sheng.
Working with many acclaimed musicians, in 2008 Ma teamed with our own Jake Shimabukuro for a version of John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War is Over),” featured on the album “Songs of Joy & Peace.”
“I was absolutely thrilled,” Shimabukuro recalled. “I flew out to New York and recorded a track, just the two of us with a couple of microphones. It was such an experience sitting 2 feet away from him.”
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New Zealand’s Maisey Rika returns to Maui to play the McCoy Studio Theater on Saturday. A rising star in her homeland, Rika has swept the Maori Music Awards and recently opened for John Legend and India Arie.
Rika began singing professionally at 13 years old. Her first recordings brought her to national stardom with “E Hine,” a classic collection of Maori traditional songs that went double platinum and won “Best Maori Language Album” at the New Zealand Music Awards. She was nominated for “Best Female Vocalist” in 1998 at age 15.
Typically touring with her brother JJ on backup guitar, this soulful artist writes her own songs with English and Maori lyrics. Exploring universal themes of hardship, happiness, love and justice, her songs have tackled cultural issues of alienation, child abuse and youth drug addiction.
“A lot of people, I find these days, especially our young ones, they don’t have any stability,” she told New Zealand’s Dominion Post. “I find that culture really gave me a place to start from, a place of belonging, and I think that’s really lacking right now. Anything that encourages people to stay true to who they are or their culture, I’m down with that.”
Her impressive latest CD “Whitiora,” debuted at number one on New Zealand’s Top 40 chart. At the 2013 Waiata Maori Music Awards, it won five awards, which included the Best Maori Female Artist and Best Maori Traditional Album.
n Maisey Rika with Hawane Rios will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the McCoy Studio Theater. Tickets are $25 and $35. Call 242-7462, visit the box office, or go online to www.mauiarts.org.
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Also at the MACC, the eighth biennial performance of the Ebb & Flow Arts’ Ebb & Flow Ensemble will be presented at 5 p.m. Sunday in McCoy Studio Theater. Preceding it at 4 p.m. will be a talk by the Ebb & Flow director Robert Pollock.
The ensemble comprises members of the Hawaii Symphony, with concertmaster Ignace Jang on violin, violinist Helen Liu, violist Ethan Pernela and cellist Joanna Morrison-Pernela; with director Pollock performing on piano, and special guest, Scott Janusch, on oboe.
Works in the concert include Benjamin Britten’s “Phantasy Oboe Quartet” and Jean Francaix’s “Cor Anglais (English Horn) Quartet.”
Also on the program are works by Mario Davidovsky -his Pulitzer Prize-winning “Synchronisms No. 6” for piano and electronic sounds, with special video by Peter Swanzy, the world premiere of Pollock’s “Piano Quartet,” and “String Quartet” by Hawaii’s Neil McKay, who will be present at the concert.
“We are honored for the eighth time since 2001, to be presented by Maui Arts & Cultural Center,” says Pollock. “We plan a special encore for the occasion.”
* Ebb & Flow tickets are $25 per person. Call 244-7469.