“Culture – the way we express ourselves and understand each other – can bind us together as one world.”

– Yo-Yo Ma

Today, I’m thrilled to bring you a video that has really captured what it means to exercise one’s creativity, in all its forms. Created by French-born American cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the video was assembled from clips submitted to him in response to the prompt “Show the world how you express yourself and what brings your community together.”

Set to his iconic performance of Bach’s Prélude from Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, the crowd-sourced video joyfully brings together the perspectives of wildly diverse people from all around the globe. The video is part of Ma’s Bach Project, now in its third year. The project explores how culture connects us. It seeks to help us imagine and build a better future.

“When we’re defining culture, it’s often about how you can turn something that’s not yours into your own. I always felt that Bach was my music — I lived my whole life living and experiencing this music almost every day. It’s in my skin, it’s in my bones, it’s in my memory – it’s in all my experiences. And I believe that until we stop becoming human, Bach’s music is going to be continually listened to, because of the kind of understanding that he brings to human nature. It is one way that #cultureconnectsus.”

– Yo-Yo Ma

You can learn more about the Bach Project on the program’s website, and you can follow the incomparable Yo-Yo Ma on his website, and on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.