Yo-Yo Ma, solo cello concert

Yo-Yo Ma is coming to the Schwarzman Centre for a short residency from 29 April to 2 May 2027, and the main event is a solo cello concert on Sunday 2 May. It's part of the centre's second season, which runs from January to July 2027 and brings together music, dance, theatre, visual art, film and literature, with many projects developed alongside Oxford University researchers.

Ma's residency isn't just the concert. On 29 April he'll be joined by historian Peter Frankopan for the Tanner Lecture, so there's a talking point to the music. The solo cello concert on 2 May is the other half of the visit, and it sits within the centre's Planetary Health season, which focuses on the links between the arts, science, technology, the environment and human wellbeing. Ma's own interest in using music to connect people, cultures and the natural world fits right into that.

He's one of three Cultural Fellows in residence that season. Wayne McGregor's research into turning inner bodily signals into choreographic cues feeds into Tenderness Data, and Anoushka Shankar's new material grows from collaborations with Oxford academics on sound, health and wellbeing. The residency is part of a wider programme that brings together international musicians, artists, choreographers and filmmakers to explore those same intersections of art, science and wellbeing.

The Schwarzman Centre is on Woodstock Road in the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, and it houses seven of the university's humanities faculties and the Bodleian Humanities Library. Yo-Yo Ma's residency runs from 29 April to 2 May, with the Tanner Lecture on 29 April and the solo cello concert on 2 May.