…Yo-Yo Ma, now 68, will be the featured guest for the Grand Teton Music Festival’s 50th anniversary celebration of Walk Festival Hall, joining Music Director Donald Runnicles and the Festival Orchestra in Haydn’s Concerto for Cello in C Major.
Since his first recording in 1978, his discography has reached well beyond 100 releases, from standard cello repertoire (including three classic recordings of Bach’s cello suites) to works by contemporary composers like John Williams, Tan Dun, Astor Piazzolla and Philip Glass. Other collaborators have been Stéphane Grappelli, Bobby McFerrin, Mark O’Connor, Chris Botti, James Taylor, Carlos Santana, Diana Krall, Miley Cyrus and Sting. His Silk Road Ensemble, interpreting music from the countries and cultures encountered along the ancient trade route from the Mediterranean to the Far East, has produced going on a dozen albums, and with Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile, he has cut three “Goat Rodeo” albums and counting.
This vast trove has garnered 20 Grammy Awards and a Latin Grammy (for this album of Brazilian music). Other honors and accolades include an 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.
“Yo-Yo’s a very good friend,” said Runnicles, who welcomed the cellist to Walk Hall in 2017, “and a very busy man.”
A “unique spirit” and “something of a pied piper,” Runnicles said he was a “very fitting” guest to help celebrate the 50th year of the festival’s home venue.
“I know he will charm us all,” the maestro said.
