[MUSIC PLAYING]
RU-PEI YEH: Hi, I'm Ru-Pei Yeh, cellist in the New York
Philharmonic.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
My dad runs a recording studio.
And he really loves the sound of the cello.
When it was about time for me to pick an instrument,
my dad said, OK, you're going to play the cello.
I was only six so I was, like, OK.
But practicing was very difficult.
So my dad said to me, if you continue
playing the cello through sixth grade,
then you get to decide whether or not you want to continue.
Come sixth grade, my dad said, do you
want to continue playing the cello?
I had spent every day of my life for six years
practicing and playing the cello.
It'd be such a waste to give it up,
and I had really grown to love it.
So I decided to go on and continue playing the cello.
My cello was made in 1827.
It's an Italian cello made by Lorenzo Ventapane.
This lady from Providence came to my teacher
at New England Conservatory and said that her dad
used to play the cello.
He was a diplomat from Italy.
He had brought this cello over, but he never
was a concert cellist.
She wanted the cello to go to a student who
is serious about the cello and could
make the voice of the cello carry on in the future.
I spent a day with them, basically,
as an audition before I got to play on the cello,
and I played a little bit for them.
And that's how I came across this cello.
When I first joined the orchestra,
we went on tour to Asia.
That was my very first tour.
It was in October.
I joined in September.
And it was Maestro Lorin Maazel was conducting.
We played Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique,
and I didn't realize that the orchestra had played it
in the previous season.
I think we rehearsed the piece for maybe about half an hour.
We didn't even get through all of it.
And then we went on stage and played
and Tokyo was our first performance.
I remember thinking, man, everybody knows this so well.
They're just sight reading this, and this sounds amazing.
I better get really familiar with this music.
It was very memorable because my parents also
came from Taiwan to Japan.
And it was the first time they were seeing me playing
in the New York Philharmonic.
And they got tickets that were in the balcony
directly across from me.
So all I see when I look up from my music stand--
I could see the conductor, and I could see my parents just
staring right at me.
INTERVIEWER: We dug up this photo of Bill Murray.
RU-PEI YEH: Yes!
I do remember that.
Yes, that was at the Volkswagen factory.
He came up to us afterwards, and he said,
you were the best in your row.
And that's what he said in Ghostbuster.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
- That was a wonderful rehearsal.
- You heard that.
- Yes, you're the best one in your row.
[END PLAYBACK]
RU-PEI YEH: This is one of the best cello
sections in the world.
Everybody plays at such high level and not just that.
We're also so close to each other.
We hang out outside of work.
A lot of our kids are around the same age,
and they're getting to grow up together, hearing the orchestra
and being part of the family.
Being in this section, it really makes
me feel like I better stay in shape.
I got to sound good because everybody sounds so amazing.
There's so much pride in being in this section,
and that's a really great thing.
[MUSIC PLAYING]