The Toronto Music Garden: Biographies

Yo-Yo Ma

The Music Garden is the first piece in a six-part, made-for-television series by Rhombus Media Incorporated and internationally acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The series, Inspired by Bach, is an innovative multidisciplinary recording of Johann Sebastian Bach's Suites for Unaccompanied Cello.

While returning often to the standard concerto repertoire, Mr. Ma has been expanding his repertoire to premiere or perform works by diverse, and often lesser known, composers, and to commission new concertos. During his career, he has collaborated with a variety of artists, including local filmmaker Atom Egoyan, Isaac Stern, Kathryn Stott, and Emanuel Ax.

Mr. Ma was named the 1999 laureate of the $50,000 Glenn Gould Prize. Created by The Glenn Gould Foundation, the Glenn Gould Prize is intended as a tribute by the people of Canada to the life and work of Glenn Gould. Administered by the Canada Council for the Arts and awarded every three years to an individual who has earned international recognition as the result of making an exceptional contribution to music and its communication through the use of any of the communication technologies. Mr. Ma has donated the cash prize associated with this award to the Toronto Music Garden.

Strongly committed to the musical education of children, Yo-Yo Ma has worked with student musicians at numerous schools, including Tanglewood and Interlochen, and often takes time while touring to conduct musical classes for young people.

Mr. Ma began studying cello at the age of four. His principal teacher was Leonard Rose at the Jiulliard School of Music in New York. He has more than 45 albums to his credit, including 10 Grammy Award-winners.

Mr. Ma plays a 1733 Montagnana cello and a 1712 Davidoff Stradivarius cello.

Julie Moir Messervy

Julie Moir Messervy specializes in designing contemplative gardens such as The Music Garden, her most recent undertaking. Ms. Messervy has built gardens throughout the Boston area for the past 15 years, including at The Arnold Arboretum and The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where she helped design Tenshin-en, The Garden of Heart and Heaven.

Ms. Messervy trained with the eminent Japanese garden master Kinsaku Nakane in Kyoto, Japan after receiving her Masters of Architecture and City Planning degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is principal of Messervy Associates, a landscape design consultation firm, and author of several books, including the award-winning the Inward Garden, 1995. Her most recent publication, The Magic Land, was released by Macmillan USA in February 1998.

James Douglas Fleck, OC

James Douglas Fleck spearheaded the drive to raise over one million dollars in private donations for the City of Toronto's Music Garden. Mr. Fleck is no stranger to innovative artistic endeavours. Aside from his work as Chairman of Fleck Management Services, his directorship of numerous financial and commercial organizations — including Zurich Life Insurance Company of Canada — and his part-time position with the Faculty of Management at the University of Toronto, Mr. Fleck is a key figure in Toronto's burgeoning arts community. He is the president of the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Harbourfront Foundation, a director of the North York Symphony and a founding president of The Power Plant art gallery at Harbourfront.

Mr. Fleck is also a member of the Chief Executives Organization and the World Business Council. He was a recipient of the Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977 and was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1997.

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