Music and Connection -- Yo-Yo Ma

Disclaimer: Yes, this video is an ad -- and for that, I apologize. If this bothers you don't click through. (I have no referral id embedded, it's just a plain YouTube URL.)

However, despite this fact (and I hate spam as much as the next person, and run ad blockers, and so on), this video struck me (especially as a musician) because of the profound message that Yo-Yo Ma shares. Transcript below. Emphasis mine.

You probably know me, if you know me at all, as someone who does this. [plays notes on cello] I've been playing the cello for over 60 years, so I should be getting it right, by now. However, is that what I'm trying to do? Am I trying to get it right or am I trying to find something? [...] I really don't like to tell people things. So I hope you won't expect me to do that. But during our time together, we're going to talk about what creates magical moments. That magic is something living. And to me, that's the essence of what I try to do in music, transmitting something so it lives in somebody else. At one point, I had the audacity to think I could play a perfect concert. I was in the middle of a
concert and I realized everything's going perfectly well. And I was bored out of my mind. That was the moment that I made a fateful decision that I was actually going to devote my life to human expression, versus human perfection. Music connects people. You're sharing something with others. You're almost like the scientist for the inner soul. The whole act of life is a balance of unbelievably intricate forces, of which music is a subset.