When you learn something from people, or from a culture, you accept it as a gift, and it is your lifelong commitment to preserve it and build on it. Yo-Yo Ma More Quotes by Yo-Yo Ma More Quotes From Yo-Yo Ma As you begin to realize that every different type of music, everybody's individual music, has its own rhythm, life, language and heritage, you realize how life changes, and you learn how to be more open and adaptive to what is around us. Yo-Yo Ma life-changing heritage different Music enhances the education of our children by helping them to make connections and broadening the depth with which they think and feel. If we are to hope for a society of culturally literate people, music must be a vital part of our children's education. Yo-Yo Ma children people thinking When your heart and your mind are engaged, you cannot go wrong. Yo-Yo Ma engaged mind heart Passion is one great force that unleashes creativity, because if you're passionate about something, then you're more willing to take risks. Yo-Yo Ma creativity passion creative The worst thing you can do is say to yourself, "I want to be just like somebody else." You have to absorb knowledge from someone else, but ultimately you have to find your own voice. Yo-Yo Ma worst voice want But an innovation, to grow organically from within, has to be based on an intact tradition, so our idea is to bring together musicians who represent all these traditions, in workshops, festivals, and concerts, to see how we can connect with each other in music. Yo-Yo Ma innovation together ideas Each day I move toward that which I do not understand. The result is a continuous accidental learning which constantly shapes my life. Yo-Yo Ma understanding each-day moving I think one of the great things about being a musician is that you never stop learning. Yo-Yo Ma great-things musician thinking Culture opens our hearts to one another. And the currency in culture is not money, but trust. Yo-Yo Ma currency heart culture Music is one of the ways we can achieve a kind of shorthand to understand each other. Yo-Yo Ma achieve kind way When we enlarge our view of the world, we deepen our understanding of our own lives. Yo-Yo Ma diversity understanding views Our cultural strength has always been derived from our diversity of understanding and experience. Yo-Yo Ma diversity strength understanding Classical music is one of the best things that ever happened to mankind. If you get introduced to it in the right way, it becomes your friend for life. Yo-Yo Ma classical-music life way A Senegalese poet said 'In the end we will conserve only what we love. We love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught.' We must learn about other cultures in order to understand, in order to love, and in order to preserve our common world heritage. Yo-Yo Ma other-cultures community order Sharing is a much better way to communicate than proving. Yo-Yo Ma celebration communicate way Perfection is not very communicative Yo-Yo Ma perfection I have yet to find something that beats the power of being in love, or the power of music at its most magical. Yo-Yo Ma being-in-love power-of-music beats Bach takes you to a very quiet place within yourself, to the inner core, a place where you are calm and at peace. Yo-Yo Ma calm music quiet I think there are so many ways to become interested in music. I believe signs of sustained interest gives a sense of the right time. Music, if thought of as a language, would perhaps indicate that as early as possible is not so bad. I do believe that a really nurturing first teacher that makes the child love something is crucial. Yo-Yo Ma teacher believe children I think the purpose of a piece of music is significant when it actually lives in somebody else. A composer puts down a code, and a performer can activate the code in somebody else. Once it lives in somebody else, it can live in others as well. Yo-Yo Ma pieces purpose thinking
