At Brown, Yo-Yo Ma shares how he finds humanity and purpose through music

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] - After renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma sat down on stage in the De Ciccio Family Auditorium in Brown's Salomon Center for Teaching, he immediately picked up his bow.

In a somber start to his speaking engagement, Ma played a Bach cello suite for a few minutes as a way to recognize the tragic shooting that took place at Brown on Dec. 13, 2025.

"One of the purposes of music is, first, just to sit together and have a moment," Ma said during an April 30 campus visit organized by the student-led Brown China Summit.

After the short musical performance, Ma - who was born in Paris to Chinese parents and has lived in Massachusetts since the 1970s - engaged in a wide-ranging discussion of topics, including the concept of home and the power of a college education, in a talk moderated by Brown University Associate Professor of Music Anthony Cheung.

The following are excerpts from Ma's talk.

On the impact of a liberal arts education:

Everything I've done since college - every project I've done, every time I think about anything - the root of inspiration came from something that happened in college. And, I have to say that … I think you all know this, that you are more than…your major, your professor. What are the questions you asked yourself when you were 8 years old, 12 years old, 16 years old? The liberal arts education at its best, for me, opened all those worlds that I had no idea - or that I only had questions about - because I had two "tiger parents," so I was doing a lot of music.

On his favorite academic subjects:

My favorite courses in college were in anthropology, archaeology and evolutionary biology - because I wanted to figure out where we [humans] come from. Why do we do what we do? The reason I play music is actually to figure out who did it and why. One of my favorite courses was [on] the rise and fall of civilizations.

On curiosity:

I'm a very curious person, and I realized that I could follow my curiosity through the lens [of music]. Everything that I was interested in, I could actually explore through playing the cello, which takes me places, allows me to talk to people - to find connections.

On exploring his cultural heritage and identity:

I decided that I didn't want to be made to choose one thing, and I just wanted to add everything into who I am. And so, my conclusion is: I'm a human being… All these things are part of my background. I'm interested in China, not just modern-day China, but I was interested [in college] about what created China in the first place.

On finding his purpose:

I've always felt like I need to find what the purpose of doing music was. Maybe because I started at such a young age, I never felt that I made a decision … I want to do music. You might be surprised to hear that I wasn't happy being a musician, or decided, you know, okay, I am a musician, until I was 49 years old … I realized I couldn't do anything else.

On the power of music:

It's pure energy. It moves air molecules. It's neuroscience. It's physics. It's many, many things. It addresses your conscious and subconscious self at the same time. What else can do that? And you know, it's analytical and empathetic thinking, both at the same time.

On Bach:

It's the first music I learned. So, it's kind of like a best friend of some sort. I think of him both as a scientist and an artist - a scientist in that he was absolutely objective in his writing and his point of view - but he was also [like] your favorite uncle that you could say everything to and he would totally understand it with no judgement.

Approaching music in the age of AI:

The motivation behind sound is what makes it really interesting. So, for me, I can talk to you about human motivation, and my question always is: why? So, to me, music is not … sounds … it's that there's always a human behind it and it's figuring out who that human is, and why that person has chosen to produce it. With music, I look for pattern recognition, symmetry, asymmetry… That's exactly what creates music and what creates life. So, I would look for, in the AI part, where is the asymmetry? Was it deliberately installed?