Piece Description

Yo-Yo Ma has become a kind of musical Marco Polo, traveling the world with his cello. In this first-person feature, Ma describes his approach to a piece by another musician known for crossing musical borders, contemporary composer Bright Sheng. Sheng, who wrote the soundtrack for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," draws on both Chinese folk music and the academic training he got in New York City. True to Ma's nature as a world traveler, he reveals that the secret to the rustic plucking sound he gets in this piece is ... a plastic hotel room key. This piece is crafted especially for classical stations to use during music programming. An additional feature on Yo-Yo Ma's approach to a wide variety of musical styles is available here. As in all the pieces in David Schulman's CPB-supported Musicians in their own words series, the story is told through a mix of the performer's voice and music. There is no reporter's voice heard, allowing the feature to be seamlessly incorporated into station news, talk, or music programming. Scripts for intro and outro are attached, and may be edited at will. This piece also works well pegged to local performances. This piece debuts on PRX.