Cellist Yo-Yo Ma to Announce Grand Prize Winner of 'Celebrate and Collaborate' Contest on NPR News' All Things Considered

Today on NPR News' All Things Considered, world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma will announce the grand prize winner of the Indaba Music contest, "Celebrate and Collaborate with Yo-Yo Ma." Through Indaba Music, the leading online music collaboration web application and social network, Ma made available a pre-recorded melody of the classic piece, "Dona Nobis Pacem" (Give Us Peace). Members of the Indaba Music community, including musicians from all over the world, were challenged to record a counterpart to Ma's cello or create a set of variations based on the main musical theme. The grand prize winner will receive a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to record with Yo-Yo Ma.

"I have always been a believer in what I can learn from other musicians of all ages, from all musical traditions," says Yo-Yo Ma. "Through Indaba Music's growing community of artists, I feel that I will find not only amazing talent with which to work but also engage a new audience - I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with."

An online community of professional, amateur and student musicians, Indaba Music offered this opportunity to work with Yo-Yo Ma to its more than 125,000 artists. Several prominent music schools and music educators used this as a teaching opportunity and integrated it into coursework.

Musicians had until December 31, 2008 to submit their piece. Ma challenged musicians to be creative and inspire him by submitting versions that move beyond the classical genre.

"Yo-Yo Ma values new kinds of artistic collaboration. His latest album, Songs of Joy and Peace, features creative collaborations with some of his favorite artist friends - James Taylor, Diana Krall, Alison Krauss, Chris Botti and Renee Fleming," says Alex Miller, Senior VP/General Manager of Sony BMG Masterworks & Victor Label Group. "With Indaba Music, we extended an open invitation to the worldwide music community and are excited about what those musicians created."

About Indaba Music

Indaba Music is a web application as well as a social network for musicians that enable artists all over the world to create music together online. Members can connect with an international community of musicians to create online recording sessions - editing and mixing tracks recorded in different parts of the world using our online mixer. Following Indaba Music's first year of strong growth, the site is becoming an integrated platform from which musicians can manage all aspects of their digital lives. For more: www.indabamusic.com

About NPR News' All Things Considered

All Things Considered, NPR's signature afternoon newsmagazine, is hosted by Melissa Block, Michele Norris, and Robert Siegel. The program reaches more than 11.5 million listeners weekly on 650 public radio stations nationwide. To find local stations and broadcast times for the program, visit www.NPR.org/stations

About Sony Masterworks

RCA Red Seal, Sony Classical, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Masterworks Broadway and Masterworks Jazz are labels of Sony Masterworks. For email updates and information regarding RCA Red Seal, Sony Classical, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Masterworks Broadway and Masterworks Jazz artists, promotions, tours and repertoire, please visit www.sonybmgmasterworks.com

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SOURCE: Sony Masterworks

CONTACT: Kate Pokorny of Indaba Music, +1-212-677-4835 x12,
Kate@brewpr.com; or Susan Schiffer of Sony Masterworks, +1-212-833-4763,
susan.schiffer@sonybmg.com

Web Site: http://www.sonybmgmasterworks.com/