Yo Yo Ma

It was the day the music almost disappeared. Musician Yo-Yo Ma forgot his $2.5-million, 266-year-old cello in the trunk of a taxi Saturday, but police tracked it down at a garage in Queens in time for his evening concert. "I did something really stupid," Ma said sheepishly after he got the instrument back. "I was in such a rush, I was so exhausted, I'd given a concert at Carnegie Hall last night. I just forgot."

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma was in Washington this week to press for an increase in arts funding from the federal government. The musician was joined by former Guns N' Roses drummer Matt Sorum, and they performed together briefly for an audience on Capitol Hill. Ma was in Washington for Arts Advocacy Day -- an annual event that took place Monday and Tuesday. The event is intended to boost awareness and government funding for the arts sector. The nonprofit advocacy group Americans for the Arts is the key organizer and hosted a Google Hangout discussion that featured Ma answering questions from the public.

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma will soon become a United Nations peace envoy, but actor Brad Pitt is not yet on the list to get the same honor as his Oscar-winning friend Angelina Jolie. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday met Ma, considered to be among the world's greatest cellists, and confirmed to reporters that, "Yes, he will be a peace envoy." Asked if Pitt would become a U.N. goodwill ambassador, Annan laughed and said, "I will consider it, and I will let him know you recommended him."

Abstract painter Zao Wou-ki, whose work fetched millions of dollars and set records at auction, died Tuesday. He was 93. Zao suffered from Alzheimer's disease and poor health. He was living near Geneva with his third wife, Francoise Marquet, a former curator of the Museum of Modern Art of Paris. The Beijing-born artist is known for blending Chinese techniques with Western aesthetics, a style that proved valuable to Asian collectors.   ART: Can you guess the high price?

When cellist Yo-Yo Ma was 25, he had an operation for scoliosis, a congenital curvature of the spine undoubtedly aggravated by playing the cello. Now, just turned 33, he looks back at the 10-day hospital stay from a somewhat surprising perspective. "In one way, it was a most wonderful thing to go through, because you think about what's important--you may come out being able to play the cello but if not, you realize you can still go on and lead a productive life.

Yo-Yo Ma will not perform at four sold-out concerts beginning tonight at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The cellist has pneumonia and pleurisy, according to a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Instead of Ma, 25-year-old Chinese pianist Xiang-Dong Kong will serve as soloist in an altered program, including Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto. Kong, who lives in Orange County, had been scheduled to make his Philharmonic debut Aug. 3 at the Hollywood Bowl.

Yo-Yo Ma got the second standing ovation on Monday night at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. The first was reserved for arts patron Arlene Cheng, whose husband, George, arranged for the superstar cellist to appear at a surprise private recital for her birthday. George Cheng not only arranged for Ma to play for his wife, he also commissioned a musical tribute in her honor, gave an endowment of $100,000 to a music competition she helped found and kept mum about her age.

Yo-Yo Ma has traveled the Silk Road. Repeatedly. He's journeyed further in person and in music, reached wider, than any other solo cellist, current or past. On stage, his comfort level appears the same whether he's cavorting with Big Bird, being accompanied by Condoleezza Rice or gamely joining in an ensemble of kamancheh, shakuhachi, tabla, dumbek, riq and other world instruments in a dusty, far-flung Asian corner.

"The View" 10 a.m. Thursday, ABC: performance from “Jesus Christ Superstar.” “Open Call” 9 p.m. Thursday, KCET: Fine Cut Festival of Student Films: Hosted by mezzo-soprano opera singer Suzanna Guzman, “Goat Rodeo Live: Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile” 10 p.m. Friday, KOCE: The four string virtuosos combine bluegrass and classical music at a concert at Boston's House of Blues. “Burt Wolf: Travels & Traditions” 5:30 p.m. Saturday, KLCS: The Great Rivers of Europe: Cologne to Zell: A museum dedicated to mechanical musical instruments; Lorelei Rock; the city of Zell.

Yo-Yo Ma will perform the premiere of a cello concerto by Chen Yi as part of the Pacific Symphony's annual "American Composers Festival," Feb. 28-March 21, in several Orange County venues. Under the theme "Trade Winds From China," the festival will look at the Chinese Cultural Revolution and its impact on Chinese culture as well as Western influences on Eastern art and music. It will be the first of three festivals planned to focus on non-European music.

His band's latest album is called “Who's Feeling Young Now?,” but Chris Thile can now count himself a little older and wiser. On Tuesday, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is set to announce this year's recipients of its so-called genius grants, a wide-ranging list of 23 overachievers that reportedly includes Thile, according to the Associated Press . The 31-year-old mandolin whiz first found fame with the teenage bluegrass trio...

Don Mischer is pulling a three-peat. The television director will helm next year's Academy Awards telecast for the third consecutive year, the academy announced Thursday afternoon. Mischer, who also served as producer of the show for the past two years, brings a wealth of experience to the highly anticipated telecast. In addition to the Oscars, Mischer has directed several Super Bowl halftime shows, the Kennedy Center Honors and television specials featuring musical performers such as Barbra Streisand, Justin Timberlake and Yo-Yo Ma. He will executive produce the Emmy awards, which take place Sept.

Dustin Hoffman is having quite a year. The 75-year-old actor who just debuted his inaugural directing effort at the Toronto International Film Festival this last weekend will be among seven recipients of the annual Kennedy Center Honors. The award given for lifetime achievement in the performing arts also will be presented to comedian and talk show host David Letterman, who at 65 recently celebrated his 30th year of late-night television; 76-year old bluesman Buddy Guy; iconic rock band Led Zeppelin; and Soviet Union-born prima ballerina Natalia Makarova, 71. "With their extraordinary talent, creativity and tenacity, the seven 2012 Kennedy Center Honorees have contributed significantly to the cultural life of our nation and the world," said Kennedy Center Chairman David M. Rubenstein.

Click here to download TV listings for the week of Aug. 5 - 11 in PDF format This week's TV Movies   SUNDAY Fort Marshall, the fictional military base that serves as the setting for the drama "Army Wives," is celebrating its 100th anniversary. By some coincidence, the show itself hits the 100-episode mark. With Kelli Williams and Catherine Bell. (Lifetime, 10 p.m.) An "Escape From Los Angeles" can be as easy as a drive down the 5 to San Diego or up the 15 to Las Vegas.

Lenox, Mass. - Travelers come to the Berkshires in western Massachusetts for the mountains and the museums, the camping and the theater, the just-off-the-boil summer days that fade into cool evenings and single-blanket nights. But most of all they come for Tanglewood, the classical music festival that is one of America's most beloved excuses for a starlit picnic. This year, it's particularly important to pack the champagne glasses. The mother of all classical-paloozas is turning 75. Tanglewood is so central to the appeal of Lenox, its ridiculously picturesque hometown, that it's easy to forget Lenox was a destination long before the upstart festival arrived in 1937.

"The View" 10 a.m. Thursday, ABC: performance from “Jesus Christ Superstar.” “Open Call” 9 p.m. Thursday, KCET: Fine Cut Festival of Student Films: Hosted by mezzo-soprano opera singer Suzanna Guzman, “Goat Rodeo Live: Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile” 10 p.m. Friday, KOCE: The four string virtuosos combine bluegrass and classical music at a concert at Boston's House of Blues. “Burt Wolf: Travels & Traditions” 5:30 p.m. Saturday, KLCS: The Great Rivers of Europe: Cologne to Zell: A museum dedicated to mechanical musical instruments; Lorelei Rock; the city of Zell.

The great Johann Sebastian Bach is often called the most universal of all the classical composers. And there is evidence to bear that out. Bach translates effortlessly into just about any culture or genre. Jazz composers have updated his music. Beatniks grooved to him; hippies switched on synthesizer Bach. The Swingle Singers made a career of Bach scat. And over the years we've all laughed at P.D.Q. Bach.

Yo-Yo Ma seems to travel with two pianists these days. In December, before a sold-out house in Royce Hall at UCLA, the very popular, Paris-born, Chinese-American cellist appeared in recital with Emanuel Ax, a longtime partner. Then Tuesday night, barely four months later, Ma showed up at Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena with his other pianistic associate, Jeffrey Kahane. Again, the house was sold out, with an extra 75 seats added in the orchestra pit.

Fans of Barbara Cook who were expecting to catch the Broadway legend Saturday at the Valley Performing Arts Center in Northridge will have to wait a little longer. Cook, 84, has postponed the concert after experiencing "an unexpected reaction to medication," according to the performing arts center. The concert has been rescheduled for June 30. Tickets for Saturday's concert will be honored for the new date. Requests for refunds must be made by 4 p.m. on June 5. Cook is still scheduled to appear next week in Las Vegas for a four-day engagement at the Smith Center.

SUNDAY Owners and players were naughty, but hoops fans must have been awfully nice, because "NBA Basketball" is finally back, baby. And that includes the Lakers battling the Bulls and the Clippers facing the Warriors. (ABC, 2 p.m.; ESPN, FS Prime, 7:30 p.m.) Fa-la-la-la-la la-la-la-la! Yuletide carols ancient and otherwise will be trolled at the "52nd Annual L.A. County Holiday Celebration," a reprise of the homegrown Christmas Eve event held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.