Yo-Yo Ma

Born in the city of Paris on the 7th of October, 1955 to Chinese parents, Yo-Yo Ma was a child prodigy who’s been playing at an advanced level from the young age of four. One can say that his upbringing was the main reason for his genius. His father, Hiao Tsiun-Ma, was a violinist and instructor at the Nanjing National Central University (now Nanjing University and Southeast University). On the other hand, his mother Marina Lu was a singer. And his sister too was a violinist before pursuing a career in the medical field. 

The young boy has been playing instruments from the earliest possible age. He was playing the violin as well as the piano and viola in his youngest years, until focusing on the cello when he turned four. His family eventually moved to New York when Ma was seven, and this is where musical opportunities popped up for the young genius. 

He was only seven when he managed to play in front of two US presidents: namely Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. A year later at age eight, he appeared in American TV for the first time where he played in a concert conducted by the legendary Leonard Bernstein.  And in 1964 when he was nine, he was a guest on the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson where he performed the Sonata of Sammartini. 

At 19, he entered the Juilliard School and later Columbia University, but dropped out. He then eventually found his way to Harvard University. He later graduated in 1976 from Harvard, and he also got his honorary doctor’s degree there in 1991.