Critically acclaimed international cellist Yo-Yo Ma will make his first-ever appearance with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra next season, the orchestra announced on Thursday.
Tickets to the Dec. 5 concert β he's scheduled to perform DvorΓ‘k's Cello Concerto with the orchestra β will be hard to get. Season subscribers who renew beginning next week through April 1 get first dibs with an early-bird discount; new season subscribers are next in line through May 1. By the time single tickets go on sale Aug. 24, there likely will be few if any left, predicted TSO marketing director Sue DeBenedette.
Prices for the single tickets will depend on how many are left, she added.
"This is a real coup," TSO music director and conductor George Hanson said. "He comes around occasionally, but with the orchestra and playing DvorΓ‘k? You are not going to see this again in a very, very long time."
Ma regularly journeys to smaller markets like Tucson for recitals β he has played three with UApresents in the past dozen years. But he plays with very few orchestras outside the major markets of Europe and the U.S. β think New York Philharmonic.
Hanson said Ma has likely heard through the classical music grapevine of other internationally renowned musicians who have boasted to their managers of great experiences in Tucson. Among those artists is violinist Joshua Bell, who during his 2008 TSO concert praised the orchestra from the stage.
"(Ma's) manager would not offer it to us if word weren't getting around that great artists are coming here and having a great experience," Hanson said. "When you combine it with the other achievements of our orchestra, namely an international recording that went to the top of the charts, this is confirmation once again of what an extraordinary jewel Tucson has in its midst."
"We're a good orchestra artistically and we're a good orchestra in terms of how we operate," added TSO Executive Director Susan Franano.
The 53-year-old Ma was a child prodigy who began studying violin and viola even before picking up the cello at age 4. At 5, he made his first public concert. At age 7, he performed for President John F. Kennedy.
Ma increased his pop-culture currency in January when he joined renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman and young clarinetist Anthony McGill on John Williams' "Air and Simple Gifts" commissioned to be played at President Barack Obama's inauguration. It was later revealed that the musicians had pre-recorded the piece due to severe, below-freezing conditions that would have ruined a live performance, organizers said.
Ma has not been to Tucson since his sold-out 2004 UApresents concert.
Did you know
In the past dozen years, internationally renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma has performed in Tucson three times, all with the UApresents at Centennial Hall and all sold out:
β’ March 1997 in recital with pianist Kathryn Stott.
β’ October 2000 unaccompanied.
β’ December 2004 at the UApresents Gala with pianist Emanuel Ax.
