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Yo-Yo Ma is coming to Denver to perform with the Colorado Symphony in a sold-out show on May 5, and we have a pair of tickets to give away to a lucky CPR Classical newsletter subscriber!
By providing your email, you’ll be entered to win the Yo-Yo Ma sweepstakes and automatically subscribed to CPR Classical’s free monthly newsletter. (You may unsubscribe at any time.) Entries will be accepted until April 28, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. MDT, and the winner will be contacted on April 29 via email. If you’re already a newsletter subscriber, feel free to enter using the form above, or watch your email inbox on April 11 to opt-in for your chance to win. See sweepstakes rules.
Yo-Yo Ma’s history with Colorado
Colorado holds extraordinary memories for cellist Yo-Yo Ma across his six-decade career.
He told me his first visit to Colorado in 1961 is etched in his mind. He was six years old, a year before Leonard Bernstein introduced him to the world with his 10-year-old sister Yeou-Cheng Ma accompanying him at the piano.
Ma recalled approaching the Rocky Mountains on the horizon as a boy. “The Colorado Symphony was then the Denver Symphony Orchestra and my family came to America (from Paris) for a trip. My sister played the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto… It always leaves a glow in my heart. It’s a vivid memory,” Ma shared.
In 2001, Yo-Yo Ma performed twice in Colorado the week of 9/11. “I was actually in Denver on September 11th to play a concert and of course the question was raised, ‘Should we cancel the concert?’” Many performances were being called off across the country, but not in Colorado. Ma played with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic the night of 9/11 and with the Colorado Symphony later in the week. “They thought this was the moment we needed music and we needed to gather people.” He continued, “I can tell you, music never sounded more potent. Poignant. Perhaps some of the most powerful memories of people coming together. That stays with me.”
Yo-Yo Ma returned in 2009 when Colorado Public Radio conducted a special fundraiser for the Colorado Symphony. Ma joined me on-air from backstage at Boettcher Concert Hall to rally support for the orchestra, ultimately raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Colorado Symphony. He capped the campaign by playing the Dvorak Cello Concerto to a full house.
Nearly a decade later, Ma decided to launch his two-year world tour of all six Bach Solo Cello Suites at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. CPR Classical broadcast the event live on August 1, 2018.
Ma returns to Colorado May 5 to play Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the Colorado Symphony led by Peter Oundjian, on a program with Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony. Tickets are sold out, but you can enter to win a pair of excellent seats at Boettcher Concert Hall by subscribing to the CPR Classical newsletter.
By providing your email, you’ll be entered to win the Yo-Yo Ma sweepstakes and automatically subscribed to CPR Classical’s free monthly newsletter. (You may unsubscribe at any time.) Entries will be accepted until April 28, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. MDT, and the winner will be contacted on April 29 via email. If you’re already a newsletter subscriber, feel free to enter using the form above, or watch your email inbox on April 11 to opt-in for your chance to win. See sweepstakes rules.
Hear CPR Classical by clicking “Listen Live” at the top on this website, or download the Colorado Public Radio app. Listen on your radio to CPR Classical at 88.1 FM in Denver, or on radio signals around Colorado. You can also tell your smart speaker to “Play CPR Classical."
