The legendary Russian–American cellist Gregor Piatigorsky made it his mission to popularise the cello throughout North America. His superstar status brought him to some of the greatest concert halls in the world, but Piatigorsky had a particular interest in performing in more rural parts of the countries he visited, often in front of audiences who had never heard a cello before. His passion for commissioning new works, together with his own compositions and transcriptions of popular tunes for the cello, contributed to his ability to reach a wider audience with whom he could share his love for the ‘box with four strings’.
I think Piatigorsky would be extremely pleased to see how his vision has continued to evolve and flourish in our present time. An artist who has contributed to this rise in popularity to an unprecedented degree is Yo-Yo Ma. Ask anyone on the street who Yo-Yo is, and the chances are they will have heard of him. That is an amazing feat when you think about it. His honest approach to music, together with his ever-curious mind, have resulted in fascinating collaborations with artists ranging from Stéphane Grappelli and Bobby McFerrin to Carlos Santana and Chris Thile. His appearances on TV shows like Sesame Street have also inspired many youngsters to start playing the cello.
Yo-Yo is one of the few artists to have maintained a good balance between the exploratory genres and the standard classical repertoire, while constantly striving towards an ever higher artistic pursuit in all that he does. Similarly, Canadian cellist Matt Haimovitz has a passion for stepping into the non-classical genre (check out his take on Jimi Hendrix’s Star-Spangled Banner) but he also connects with his audience by playing the Bach Suites in pubs and other ‘offbeat’ venues. He says that this allows him to ‘put a human face to Bach’. I agree that this can humanise classical music, making it more approachable and reforming the general public’s preconceived ideas of what it means to go to a classical concert.