Renowned cellist comes to Benaroya for gala

The world of music is full of saints, sinners and geniuses of every stamp, but there has always been something a little special about Yo-Yo Ma. The renowned cellist and musical innovator taps into music — and life — with a kind of radiance that bypasses issues of ego and all the petty conflicts of the music business. A phone conversation with Ma is always an uplifting experience, and a concert with him is something more: a revelation of the spirit of the music, in which the immaculately soaring technique is not an end in itself, but a way to get to the heart of Bach (or Piazzolla, or whoever's on the menu).

Seattle Symphony audiences will hear Ma in action on Saturday, when he arrives to open the orchestra's season with a gala concert featuring the cellist in two French works: Fauré's Elégie for Cello and Orchestra, and Camille Saint-Saëns' Cello Concerto No. 1. The sold-out 7 p.m. concert also will mark the debut of one of the orchestra's four new concertmasters, noted violinist Ani Kavafian, in a program that extends from Gershwin's "An American in Paris" to Ravel's "Bolero." Gerard Schwarz conducts.

"I'm so excited to be back in Seattle," Ma said in a recent phone interview.

"I almost started my playing life with the Seattle Symphony, in their 'Stars of the Future' series. It was right after my freshman week in college [Ma went to Harvard], and I told my roommate, 'I've got to go away for a week.' He just looked at me. That was maybe 35 years ago! And of course I've been back to Seattle many times. I've known Jerry [Schwarz] since he was in the New York Philharmonic.

"It'll be like old home week. There is a whole history of cellists at the Seattle Symphony; it seems like all the music directors or their families have had cellists in the family [Virginia Katims, wife of the late music director Milton Katims; Cordelia Wikarski Miedel, wife of the late music director Rainer Miedel; Miedel himself; and now Julian Schwarz, son of Gerard]. I'm looking forward to being there so much."

Ma has had a cello in his hands since he started playing at the age of 4 (he'll turn 52 next month). After graduating from both Harvard and Juilliard, he has emerged as his generation's pre-eminent concert cellist, and a musical innovator whose interests span the classics, film scores, tango, baroque music, American fiddle traditions (with Mark O'Connor and Edgar Meyer) and music of many other cultures. He has recorded more than 50 albums, 16 of them Grammy winners. Among Ma's many awards are the Avery Fisher Prize (1978), the Glenn Gould Prize (1999), the National Medal of the Arts (2001), the Dan David Prize (2006) and the Sonning Prize (2006).

These days, Ma is much occupied with his Silk Road Project, the international group of top musicians from countries along the ancient Silk Road trade routes linking Europe and Asia. (He was here with the Silk Road Ensemble for two memorable concerts last March.) A recent recording featuring the Ensemble in similar repertoire with the Chicago Symphony and conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya has been scooting up the classical charts since its release nearly two months ago.

"Did you like it?" Ma asks.

"It's a snapshot in the evolution of this group, part of our residency in Chicago. I'm so happy to have the chance to go deeply into a community in the heartland that is proud of being a world city. We came to Chicago almost every month for a year, working with kids in the schools and matching musicians with different neighborhoods.

"It is so wonderful to be with a group of people who have virtuosity and generosity, and so many creative ideas. They take an idea and run with it and complete it on their own; I'm following, sort of in the basement."

Ever since Ma founded the Silk Road Project in 1998, he says he has been surprised by the results that occur when some of the world's greatest players of ethnic and world instruments get together.

"It has changed my musical life," he says simply.

"I am learning to really pay attention to the emotional power of different kinds of musical grooves and cycles. I'm learning from the 'big boys,' and I feel like my ears are in kindergarten — no, in preschool."

What is so special about the Silk Road Project for Ma is what he calls "the development of individual and group awareness. This is a totally different focus of music making that leads to a healthy sense of invention, as people lead and then pull back — and suddenly you think, 'Oh, I think something's brewing' and you join in."

Next, the Silk Road Ensemble will go to Switzerland, India and Japan, as well as continuing residencies at Harvard and the Rhode Island School of Design.

"It is wonderful traveling with this amazing group of playmates," says Ma.

"Our priority is to make sure we enjoy what we do. Whether the luggage shows up or not, or how many hours we're grounded at an airport — none of that matters. I'm just glad to be alive. I just want to have as much meaning as possible in my life."

Melinda Bargreen: mbargreen@seattletimes.com