“The family was very Chinese and conservative,” Chang says. “The father had a pretty tight grip on the family. The father insisted that Yo-Yo do his practicing, learn his Chinese and lead a very disciplined life.”

Coming to Harvard taught Ma that there was more to life than music.

Despite his notoriety in the music world, at Harvard, Ma was just another student.

“Nobody knew who he was,” Chang says. “He hadn’t started his career yet—he was basically completely unknown.”

In his first year at Harvard, Ma’s performances were mostly outside of school. He says that he probably did too much outside playing that year.

“I actually overslept one of my exams,” Ma says.

So he shifted his focus to college life and chose to play with Harvard groups like the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, Bach Society Orchestra, Lowell House Opera and Gilbert & Sullivan Players.

“I actually discovered college as a community,” Ma says.

And soon, the community discovered Ma.

“He was a star,” says David J. Schraa, a former residential tutor in Kirkland House. “Even people who didn’t know or care anything about classical music knew he was a big deal.”

But Chang says that Ma was not the most famous man on campus—that distinction went to the quarterback and receiver.

“Yo-Yo was a distant third after the football players,” he says.

By the time Ma, a resident of North House, graduated with a B.A. in music, his outlook on life had been forever shaped by his undergraduate experiences.

“I met so many people who were as passionate in their interests as I was passionate in music.” Ma says. “That opened up so many worlds to me.”

“By the end of four years he was much more outgoing—he just opened up,” Chang says. “More than what he gleaned academically, he gleaned the most from how to communicate and interpersonal relationships.”