FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. – Cellist Yo-Yo Ma will make his first-ever appearance in northeastern Florida by opening the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival's 15th anniversary season in January.
Universally considered one of the world's greatest cellists, he has made over 90 recordings and received 18 Grammy awards. Ma is acclaimed for his extraordinary technique, rich tone and collaborations with musicians from other genres and cultures, which have reinvigorated classical music and expanded its audience.
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The Jan. 14 concert is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at First Baptist Church, 1600 South 8th Street in Fernandina Beach. Tickets for the general public will go on sale Oct. 1 at aicmf.com or by calling 904-261-1779.
Mr. Ma's performance is made possible in part by CBC National Bank's festival sponsorship. CBC has headquarters in Fernandina Beach and operates branches in Beauford and Port Royal, S.C.
"CBC's relationship with our Festival extends back 15 years to our inaugural season when the bank became one of our first corporate sponsors," said Christopher Rex, the festival's general and artistic director.
Born to Chinese parents in Paris, Ma was a child prodigy and at age five gave his first public recital. He later moved to New York with his family and made his Carnegie Hall debut at age nine. He studied at the Juilliard School under cellists Leonard Rose and János Scholz.
Ma initially was celebrated for performances and recordings of the classical cello repertoire. In addition to recitals, he frequently performed as part of a trio with pianist Emanuel Ax and violinist Young-Uck Kim and as part of a quartet with Ax and violinists Isaac Stern and Jaime Laredo. Mr. Ma and Ax received high acclaim for their recordings of the sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms. Of special interest to Mr. Ma are the six suites for unaccompanied cello by Johann Sebastian Bach, challenging masterpieces that were some of the first music he learned to play as a young boy.
In addition to the traditional repertoire, Ma has recorded with jazz, bluegrass and tango artists. He also played on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), the sound track recording for the movie of the same name, and in 2003 he collaborated with Latin American musicians on Obrigado Brazil. Another collaborative effort with progressive bluegrass musicians resulted in the critically acclaimed recording The Goat Rodeo Sessions in 2011.
Planning for the Festival's 2016 season is still underway, but thus far several highly acclaimed artists are scheduled: two performances by the Dover Quartet, the Festival's Quartet-in-Residence; superstar mandolinist Chris Thile, who will replace Garrison Keillor as host of A Prairie Home Companion in 2016; violinist Anne Akiko Meyers; the American String Quartet; and the Christiania Trio, consisting of violinist David Coucheron, pianist Julie Coucheron and cellist Christopher Rex.