The medal was presented backstage at the Barbican, ahead of Yo-Yo’s recital with pianist Kathryn Stott, on Saturday 2 November. The presentation was made by RPS Chair Angela Dixon, with RPS Chief Executive James Murphy.

First presented in 1871, the RPS Gold Medal is awarded for the most outstanding musicianship to the finest musicians of any nationality. It bears the image of Beethoven, to celebrate the close relationship between the composer and the Society which commissioned his Ninth Symphony. Recipients are chosen by the Board and Council of the RPS, their choice annually approved by RPS Members. Among prior recipients are Brahms, Elgar, Henry Wood, Sibelius, Stravinsky, Britten, Bernstein, Messiaen, Boulez, Ligeti, Kathleen Ferrier, and more recently Jessye Norman, Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Janet Baker, Mitsuko Uchida, and John Williams. The latest recipients have been violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, composer and conductor Thomas Adès, and composer Arvo Pärt.

Yo-Yo Ma is only the third cellist in history to receive the medal, following Pablo Casals (1912) and Mstislav Rostropovich (1970).

On presenting the medal to Yo-Yo, Angela Dixon said:

‘Yo-Yo, on behalf of audiences worldwide, the Board and Council of the Royal Philharmonic Society would like to thank you for the extraordinary musical gifts you have given us all. Few artists have done as much in our lifetime to rouse interest in classical music on a global scale, and to illuminate music’s purpose, power and potential in our lives. 

You set a gold standard in your musicianship. You are a generous collaborator and commissioner, lowering drawbridges to classical music, presenting it as a fresh, playful force. You’re an exemplar to your fellow musicians, demonstrating how music can be a passport to limitless horizons. This is evident across your extraordinary discography of more than a hundred albums, charting so much terrain. It’s also at the heart of your intrepid ventures like the Silkroad collective, the Bach Project, and lately Our Common Nature, each distinctly connecting cultures and communities through music. In endeavours like these, and your dedicated humanitarian work with the United Nations and beyond, we see music as a catalyst for conversation and understanding.

UK audiences are always so exhilarated to hear you. Please keep coming back. With great admiration and gratitude, it is my pleasure to award you the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal.’

ABOUT YO-YO MA

Yo-Yo Ma’s multi-faceted career is testament to his belief in culture’s power to generate trust and understanding. Whether performing new or familiar works for cello, bringing communities together to explore culture’s role in society, or engaging unexpected musical forms, Yo-Yo strives to foster connections that stimulate the imagination and reinforce our humanity.

Most recently, Yo-Yo began Our Common Nature, a cultural journey to celebrate the ways that nature can reunite us in pursuit of a shared future. Our Common Nature follows the Bach Project, a 36-community, six-continent tour of J. S. Bach’s cello suites paired with local cultural programming. Both endeavors reflect Yo-Yo’s lifelong commitment to stretching the boundaries of genre and tradition to understand how music helps us to imagine and build a stronger society.

Yo-Yo is an advocate for a future guided by humanity, trust, and understanding. Among his many roles, Yo-Yo is a United Nations Messenger of Peace, the first artist ever appointed to the World Economic Forum’s board of trustees, a member of the board of Nia Tero, the US-based nonprofit working in solidarity with Indigenous peoples and movements worldwide, and the founder of the global music collective Silkroad.

His discography of more than 120 albums (including 19 Grammy Award winners) ranges from iconic renditions of the Western classical canon to recordings that defy categorization, such as Hush with Bobby McFerrin and the Goat Rodeo Sessions with Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile. Yo-Yo’s recent releases include Six Evolutions, his third recording of Bach’s cello suites, and Beethoven for Three, the third in a new series of Beethoven recordings with pianist Emanuel Ax and violinist Leonidas Kavakos. Yo-Yo’s latest album Merci with pianist Kathryn Stott, features the music of Gabriel Fauré, following the arcs of Fauré’s inspiration and influence in a deeply personal expression of gratitude for the relationships that make music magic.

Yo-Yo was born in 1955 to Chinese parents living in Paris. He began to study the cello with his father at age four and three years later moved with his family to New York City, where he continued his cello studies at the Juilliard School before pursuing a liberal arts education at Harvard. He has received numerous awards, including the Avery Fisher Prize (1978), the National Medal of the Arts (2001), the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2010), Kennedy Center Honors (2011), the Polar Music Prize (2012), and the Birgit Nilsson Prize (2022). He has performed for nine American presidents, most recently on the occasion of President Biden’s inauguration. Yo-Yo and his wife have two children. He plays three instruments: a 2003 instrument made by Moes & Moes, a 1733 Montagnana cello from Venice, and the 1712 Davidoff Stradivarius.

www.yo-yoma.com