Thus Ma learned to play very difficult music with ease, and his precocious talent surfaced quickly. After one year of training, he knew three of the Bach suites from memory.
A Prodigy and Student
When he was seven years old, the family moved to New York City, where Ma had the good fortune to be heard by such great musicians as Pablo Casals and Isaac Stern. In 1963, Leonard Bernstein invited Ma and his sister to perform with other youngsters at the "American Pageant of the Arts" in Washington D.C., a fund-raising event for the future Kennedy Center. Stern referred the family to cellist Leonard Rose of the prestigious Juilliard School in New York City as an instructor for Ma. When he completed high school at the age of 15, Ma enrolled at the Juilliard School. The following summer he attended the prestigious Meadowmount music camp. He was far from disciplined in his musical studies and admitted to leaving his cello in the rain on occasion. When he returned to New York, Ma left Juilliard and enrolled at Columbia University, determined to learn about life outside the practice rooms and music halls. Ma's adolescent rebelliousness manifested itself further when, unbeknownst to his parents, he dropped his classes at Columbia without completing a single semester.
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