What is your proudest accomplishment? Do you practice a lot? Those are some of the questions Strings Magazine recently asked Yo Yo Ma. The Magazine honored the 60 year old cellist with an extensive interview, including additional commentary from his sister, and a member of the Silk Road Project who was only a little girl when Ma first performed in China.
Ma comments on his relationship with music, his views on music in society, children, education, and many other topics. His views regarding musical education, or rather the questions he asks about the way our society values, or does not value, art, are very thought provoking.
“And what are educational systems based on? Where did our high school subjects come from? Our studies are from 1910, so [do] we need to reboot that? How does art fit into that, how does that fit into arts funding and science funding? What are we educating our children for? Is it a transactional thing? Do you pay that money in order to get better jobs or is there something about education that is different?”
Read the whole article here.