Yo-Yo Ma to receive 1st Fred Rogers award
LATROBE — Cellist Yo-Yo Ma will receive the first Fred Rogers Legacy Award, which is named for the creator and late host of the public television show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
Ma was a guest on the show and became friends with Rogers. The TV icon’s legacy continues at the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media at St. Vincent College near Latrobe, Rogers’ hometown about 40 miles east of Pittsburgh.
Karen Strubel Myers, the center’s director of development, says the award recognizes meritorious and charitable work.
Ma is being honored, among other reasons, for his Silk Road Project. It seeks to promote cultural and artistic studies linked to the trade route of the same name.
Ma will give a recital after accepting the award May 23 at a ceremony in the St. Vincent Basilica.
