Some months ago, I was at the shop of Yo-Yo Ma’s luthier for a cello tune-up. That day I learnt more about the instrument than I had in a lifetime of deliberate listening and studying. I also got to experience true mastery: what it feels like, what it looks like, what it sounds like. The shop is located on a major shopping street, but occupies the top floor of the building. There is little indication at the street-level entrance that there is anything noteworthy on the upper stories. It’s not just borderline impossible to get an appointment with the Master. The shop’s location works to deter being visited by the uninitiated, but still signals class and means aplenty. Stepping in from the unpresuming concrete stairwell, you are transported into a 19th century house-museum. Everything from carpet to ceiling is cozy, soft and mellow. Instruments, tools & pictures are exhibited on the walls and in special vitrines. Most of the pictures show some manner of a cruel joke. My favorite is a boy bent over a basin and soaping up a violin with a washcloth. The drawing is pithily titled “Keep your instruments clean.” or something to that effect. The entry hall is somehow bustling with people and the dedicated receptionist is busy, but that’s for regular customers. Someone else meets us and leads us into a cozy room deep inside, where we wait for the Master luthier. I assume the business makes most of its revenue from selling instruments. The six- and seven-figure kind. As far as I’m concerned, everything is extremely well-organized, yet unpresuming. A well-oiled machine – oiled, not perfumed. The tune-up takes less than 10 minutes and the cello is unrecognizable. Now it just makes sense when played. The other half-hour of the sit-down is filled with … Continue reading What I Learnt from Yo-Yo Ma’s Master Luthier