“It is a different experience when you watch a performer,” Kao said. “It will be a wonderful experience.”

Ma will make his first stop in East Lansing on Monday to perform a sold-out show at the Wharton Center with Kathryn Stott, an internationally known performer and one of Britain’s most versatile pianists. Ma has collaborated with her for nearly 30 years.

Since the age of five, Ma has been performing classical music. 53 years later, he has earned a Harvard University degree and numerous awards, become a member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and has cultivated audiences around the globe.

After seeing Ma perform in Taiwan as a teenager, and again with the Boston Symphony Orchestra two years ago, Kao said she jumped at the opportunity to perform with him and watch him perform with Stott at Wharton Center.

“I was touched by his music,” Kao said. “I cannot believe that I can listen to his music again at MSU.”

When professor of cello Suren Bagratuni found out Ma would be coming to MSU, he said he was extremely pleased that his students would have an opportunity to meet Ma and play for him, just as Bagratuni did more than 20 years ago. Bagratuni said he met the famous cellist his first year in the U.S., after he sought out Ma for a letter of recommendation.

“He was nice enough to take time out of his busy schedule to hear me,” Bagratuni said. “I played for him in his home for about a half an hour to 40 minutes. He said, ‘Well, whatever you need me to do, I will do it for you,’ and he wrote me the letter of recommendation.

“He’s a wonderful man and wonderful cellist. It’s not very often you meet people who can combine those two qualities together so nicely.”