Following the conversation, audience members were invited to ask questions of the musician before he set up to perform J.S. Bach’s first cello suite.

Ma demonstrated the different timbres of his two instruments—a 1712 Davidoff Stradivarius and his 1733 Montagnana cello—by playing the first movement on the Stradivarius and all six on the Montagnana.

After the performance, which was received with a standing ovation, University President Lawrence H. Summers headed to the podium to personally thank Ma and present him with the medal.

“Yo-Yo Ma honors us with his presence tonight,” he said. “He brings honor to his alma mater, not just through the beauty he promotes but through the understanding and passion for art that he brings to us all.”

In addition to performing, Ma has spent his career promoting the study of music more broadly.

After graduating from the Juilliard School and Harvard, Ma established the Silk Road Project to promote the study of the study of music and culture along the Silk Road trade route stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the Pacific Ocean.

Through this project he has sought to expand his cello repertoire, premiering works by a diverse group of contemporary composers.

—Staff writer Kimberly A. Kicenuik can be reached at kicenuik@fas.harvard.edu.