World-famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma ’76 attracted overflow crowds to Sanders Theater yesterday, as more than 1,000 students, faculty and community members watched him receive the Harvard Arts Medal in a ceremony complete with an interview and performance.

The medal, which honors a Harvard or Radcliffe alum distinguished in the arts, is awarded annually at the close of Arts First, four days dedicated to celebrating the creative and performing arts at Harvard.

Previous recipients of the award include Jack Lemmon ’47, John Updike ’54 and Mira Nair ’79.

According to John Lithgow ’67, who moderated the ceremony, this year’s recipient was particularly deserving and distinguished in his field.

“I feel like I have an extraordinary relationship with Yo-Yo,” Lithgow said. “He gives so much of himself in his music that you feel like you know him inside-out the first time that you listen to him play.”

“And if you haven’t had the chance yet to hear Yo-Yo, you will tonight,” Lithgow continued.

But before the 14-time Grammy Award winner took to the stage, an ensemble of students and faculty set the mood with a Schubert string quartet.

In addition, Anthony Cheung ’04 was awarded the Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts for performance on the piano and cello.

After a brief introduction by Lithgow, Ma joined the Third Rock From the Sun star center-stage for a casual conversation on the musician’s life and passion for music.

“This stage is very important to me because there have been so many wonderful memories here. Without question, everything I’ve done in the past 10 to 20 years is a direct result from my time spent at Harvard,” Ma said.

When asked about his first experiences with music, Ma described a childhood spent studying the cello with his father.

“I tried to learn the violin at age three, but could only make sounds like fingernails down a blackboard,” he said.

“My parents thought I had zero musical talent, but then I discovered the cello,” he said.

Discussing his undergraduate experience, Ma also spoke more generally about the role of an artist.

“Our work is not done until the thing that makes us passionate is received by somebody so that is continues to grow within them,” he said. “Music is an internal code inside of me. My job is to translate that code so that it means something personal to someone else.”

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.