Yo-Yo. Ma.

I think everyone has the one album or record that they can remember being so important to them, in some way. It might have turned you on to music, it could have been an album that helped you through a really bad time in your life. It might be associated with some very powerful event in your life – falling in love, loss of a friend, or something else. Everyone I have talked to about this agree that there is some extremely important piece of music in their lives, one which they hold very dear to their hearts.

The most important piece of music in my life are Bach’s Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello, performed by Yo-Yo Ma.

I first heard this piece on a TV special about Yo-Yo Ma on PBS when I was a young teenager. The music was beautiful, and I really wanted to hear more. I went out and purchased this album, and listened to one suite each night. Never before had I understood classical music – but this was just the one solo cello so I could focus on the music itself. The music is very moving, at times joyful and playful, and at other times very sad and almost depressing. Ma has truly mastered this music, and has made it his own. It also belongs to me, I think. This album has almost become the soundtrack to my own life. I listen to it a great deal – while writing, in the darkroom, and in many other situations. There are certain memories of mine attached to specific movements in the suites, so that when I listen to them, I can call up those memories.

If you like music, I’d say give it a listen. It might not have the same effect on you that it does on me, but it’s a wonderful album.

- Jason Dean