Yo-Yo Ma in Chicago

Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist, born in Paris in 1955 and raised in New York. His repertoire extends across Baroque music, the standard cello concertos, chamber music and contemporary works. He is particularly associated with Bach’s six Cello Suites, which he has recorded several times, and with collaborative albums including Hush with Bobby McFerrin, Appalachia Waltz with Edgar Meyer and The Goat Rodeo Sessions. In 1962, the seven-year-old Ma performed for President John F. Kennedy at a televised cultural event in Washington, where Leonard Bernstein introduced him. After decades of recitals and concerto engagements, he founded the Silk Road Project in 1998; its musicians began workshops at Tanglewood in 2000 and later toured as the Silkroad Ensemble. The Bach Project, launched in 2018, included complete performances of the cello suites at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens and Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado. He gives solo recitals at Carnegie Hall and joins orchestras for concerto performances at Symphony Hall in Boston.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra founded in 1891 by conductor Theodore Thomas. Its extensive recording catalogue includes Fritz Reiner’s interpretations of Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra and Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, as well as Gustav Mahler symphonies conducted by Georg Solti. The orchestra gave its first concert at the Auditorium Theatre in 1891 and moved into Orchestra Hall in 1904. It began its summer residency at the Ravinia Festival in 1936, adding open-air concerts to its annual season. In 1971, Georg Solti led its first European tour.