The rejuvenative force of spring (or is it hunkering down for the winter?) leads to many an autumn baby. This week In the Muse would like to celebrate the birthdays of two alliteratively named figures whose work can be found in the Music Division’s diverse collections.
Vaudeville, Broadway, and film dancer Harriet Hoctor was born September 25, 1905. The Music Division is home to the Harriet Hoctor Collection, which consists of photographs, clippings, posters, programs and publicity materials, a scrapbook (1923-1925), choreographic notes, monographs and poems, correspondence and other papers documenting her life and career. Among the highlights of the collection are her correspondence with Mary Pickford, Ted Shawn, Walter Winchell, Billy Rose, Milton Berle, and Florenz Ziegfeld.
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma was born October 7, 1955. He began his cello studies at the age of four, and gave his first public recital at the ripe age of five. His active performing career began after graduation from Harvard in 1976, at which time he was already being compared to two of the twentieth century’s best-known cellists, Mstislav Rostropovich (d. 2007) and the legendary Pablo Casals (d. 1973). In 1978, Ma was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize.
Ma has mastered not only the standard cello repertoire but has also collaborated with such diverse musical figures as Argentine music pioneer Astor Piazolla, bluegrass fiddler Marc O’Connor, and singer Bobby McFerrin. See Yo-Yo Ma in the video program Great Conversations: The Virtuosos in the Performing Arts Encyclopedia.
Portions of this post were excerpted from an article written by James Wolf for the Great Conversations web presentation. Read more about Yo-Yo Ma in the full article here.