Silkroad, formerly the Silk Road Project, Inc., is a not-for-profit organization, initiated by the cellist

Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma (''Chinese'': 馬友友 ''Ma Yo Yo''; born October 7, 1955) is an American cellist. Born in Paris to Chinese parents and educated in New York City, he was a child prodigy, performing from the age of four and a half. He graduated from ...

in 1998, promoting collaboration among artists and institutions, promoting multicultural artistic exchange, and studying the ebb and flow of ideas. The project was first inspired by the cultural traditions of the historical Eurasian

Silk Road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...

trade routes and now encompasses a number of artistic, cultural and educational programs focused on connecting people and ideas from around the world. It has been described as an "arts and educational organization that connects musicians, composers, artists and audiences around the world" and "an initiative to promote multicultural artistic collaboration." In July 2020,

Rhiannon Giddens Rhiannon Giddens (born February 21, 1977) is an American musician. She is a founding member of the country, blues and old-time music band the Carolina Chocolate Drops, where she is the lead singer, fiddle player, and banjo player. Giddens i ...

took over from Yo-Yo Ma as Artistic Director.

Recent events

In 2009, Silkroad began an educational pilot program for middle-school students in New York City public schools. The program, called Silk Road Connect, focuses on passion-driven education through arts integration and is being developed with help from education experts at the

Harvard Graduate School of Education The Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) is the education school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1920, it was the first school to grant the EdD degree and the first Harvard school ...

. In July 2012, Silkroad and Harvard Graduate School of Education presented "The Arts and Passion-Driven Learning," an arts education institute that modeled the Silk Road Connect arts integration approach. The program has continued each year since. In celebration of its 10th anniversary, Silkroad presented performances and programs by the Silk Road Ensemble in North America, Asia and Europe from 2008 to 2010. Its anniversary season began with the Silk Road Ensemble's performance with Yo-Yo Ma of the

United Nations Day United Nations Day is an annual commemorative day, reflecting the official creation of the United Nations on 24 October 1945. In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly declared 24 October, the anniversary of the Charter of the United Nations, ...

Concert in October 2008. Tenth-anniversary activities also included a North American concert tour by the Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma in March 2009, which featured the North American premiere of ''Layla and Majnun'', a chamber arrangement for the Silk Road Ensemble of a traditional Azerbaijani opera. The organization has published a book, ''Along the Silk Road'', and commissioned more than 70 new chamber music compositions. Silkroad has also created educational materials entitled "Silk Road Encounters" and has partnered with the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) to produce ''Along the Silk Road'', a curriculum for students in grades six-10, and ''The Road to Beijing'', a documentary made available with related lessons about

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

in advance of the

2008 Summer Olympic Games The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nati ...

Partnerships

Silkroad is affiliated with

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

; the organization moved its offices to the Harvard campus in Boston, Massachusetts, in July 2010 at the outset of a renewed five-year affiliation with the University, designed to enable new artistic and cultural opportunities at Harvard and in surrounding communities. Silkroad has been affiliated with both

and the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

in the USA, where the Silk Road Ensemble engaged with faculty and students in annual residencies. Silkroad's partnership with Rhode Island School of Design took place from 2005 through 2010. As part of Silkroad programming, the Silk Road Ensemble has also been involved in short-term residencies at

Museum Rietberg The Rietberg Museum is a museum in Zürich, Switzerland, displaying Asian, African, American and Oceanian art. It is the only art museum focusing on non-European art and design in Switzerland, the third-largest museum in Zürich, and the largest t ...

in Zurich, Switzerland;

The Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

;

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

;

Rubin Museum of Art The Rubin Museum of Art, also known as the Rubin Museum is a museum dedicated to the collection, display, and preservation of the art and cultures of the Himalayas, the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia and other regions within Eurasia, with a per ...

in New York City;

Nara National Museum The is one of the pre-eminent national art museums in Japan. Introduction The Nara National Museum is located in Nara, Nara, Nara, which was the capital of Japan from 710 to 784. Katayama Tōkuma (1854–1917) designed the original building, whi ...

in Nara, Japan; the

Peabody Essex Museum The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, US, is a successor to the East India Marine Society, established in 1799. It combines the collections of the former Peabody Museum of Salem (which acquired the Society's collection) and the ...

in Salem, Massachusetts; and the

Aga Khan Museum The Aga Khan Museum (french: Musée Aga Khan) is a museum of Islamic art, Iranian (Persian) art and Muslim culture located at 77 Wynford Drive in the North York district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is dedicated to Islamic art and obj ...

in Toronto.

''The Music of Strangers''

''The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble'' is a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

about Silkroad directed by

Morgan Neville Morgan Neville (born October 10, 1967) is an American film producer, director and writer. His acclaimed film '' 20 Feet from Stardom'' won him the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2014 as well as a Grammy Award for Best Music Film. H ...

, who also produced with

Caitrin Rogers Caitrin Rogers is an American documentary film producer. She is best known for producing ''20 Feet from Stardom'' (2013), which earned her an Academy Award, an Independent Spirit Award, and a Grammy Award. Early life and education Rogers was bor ...

. The film was released in U.S. theaters starting in June 2016. The Orchard has acquired all worldwide rights to the film with the exception of U.S. domestic television rights, which

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

has acquired. Reviews of the documentary included: Rotten Tomatoes 85%; Washington Post 3/4; and, 7/10 IMDb.

The Silk Road Ensemble

The Silk Road Ensemble is a

musical collective Musical collective is a phrase used to describe a group of musicians in which membership is flexible and creative control is shared.Liisa Ladouceur"Collegjthk ctive Souls" ''This Magazine'', November/December 2004. The concept is distinct from th ...

and a part of Silkroad. The ensemble is not a fixed group of musicians, but rather a loose collective of as many as 59 musicians, composers, arrangers, visual artists and storytellers from

Eurasian Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago ...

cultures. The Ensemble has regularly commissioned new works from across a broad musical spectrum, including works by

Zhao Jiping Zhao Jiping () (b. Pingliang, Gansu, China, August 1945) is a Chinese composer from Shaanxi. He is best known for his film scores for the Fifth Generation Chinese director Zhang Yimou. He is the current Honorary Chairman of the Chinese Musician ...

and Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky, and is known for its series of interdisciplinary festivals and residencies presented in North America, Europe, and Asia. They have performed in many locations along the historic Silk Road, including Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, India, the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan. The Ensemble uses various instruments from the Silk Road region, including a

pipa The pipa, pípá, or p'i-p'a () is a traditional Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets rang ...

, a Chinese short-necked plucked lute; a

duduk The duduk ( ; hy, դուդուկ ) or tsiranapogh ( hy, ծիրանափող, meaning “apricot-made wind instrument”), is an ancient Armenian double reed woodwind instrument made of apricot wood. It is indigenous to Armenia. Variations of th ...

, an Armenian double reed woodwind; a

Shakuhachi A is a Japanese and ancient Chinese longitudinal, end-blown flute that is made of bamboo. The bamboo end-blown flute now known as the was developed in Japan in the 16th century and is called the .

, a Japanese bamboo flute; and a

morin khuur The ''morin khuur'' ( mn, морин хуур, morin khuur), also known as the horsehead fiddle, is a traditional Mongolian bowed stringed instrument. It is one of the most important musical instruments of the Mongol people, and is considered a ...

, a Mongolian horse head fiddle; among many others.

Discography

The Silk Road Ensemble has recorded eight CDs. The group's 2009 CD ''Off the Map'' was nominated in the Best Classical Crossover Album category at the

53rd Grammy Awards The 53rd Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 13, 2011, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. They were broadcast on CBS with a rating of 26.6 million viewers. Barbra Streisand was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year two nights pri ...

in 2011. * 2001 - ''Silk Road Journey: When Strangers Meet'' * 2005 - ''Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon'' (released earlier in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in 2004 titled ''Enchantment'') * 2007 - '' New Impossibilities'' * 2008 - ''Traditions and Transformations: Sounds of Silk Road Chicago'' * 2009 - ''Off the Map'' * 2013 - ''A Playlist Without Borders'' * 2016 - ''Sing Me Home'' * 2017 - ''The Vietnam War: A Film By Ken Burns & Lynn Novick oundtrack' * 2020 - ''Falling Out of Time''

Members

In addition to Ma, performing members of the ensemble include: *Siamak Aghaei -

santur The santur (also ''santūr'', ''santour'', ''santoor'') ( fa, سنتور), is a hammered dulcimer of Iranian origins.--- Rashid, Subhi Anwar (1989). ''Al-ʼĀlāt al-musīqīyya al-muṣāhiba lil-Maqām al-ʻIrāqī''. Baghdad: Matbaʻat al-ʻU ...

/composer *Edward Arron -

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

Kinan Azmeh Kinan Azmeh ( ar, كنان العظمة, Kinān Azme, born June 10, 1976, in Damascus), is a Syrian clarinet player and composer of contemporary music. Performing with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, the Bavari ...

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

*Jeffrey Beecher -

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

Mike Block Michael Glen Block (born May 25, 1982) is an American cellist, singer, composer, and arranger. Career Block has worked with Yo-Yo Ma, Bobby McFerrin, Lenny Kravitz, Shakira, The National, Joe Zawinul, Alison Krauss, Rachel Barton Pine, and Ma ...

*Nicholas Cords -

viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

Gevorg Dabaghyan Gevorg Gourgeni Dabaghyan ( hy, Գևորգ Դաբաղյան; b.1965) is an Armenian duduk player of liturgical and folk music, born in Yerevan. In 1991 he founded the Shoghaken Folk Ensemble, a group of Armenian folk musicians and singers who specia ...

Sandeep Das Sandeep Das is an Indian tabla player and composer currently based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. His collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma for The Silk Road Ensemble - Sing Me Home - won the Grammy award for Best World Music Album at the 59th ...

tabla A tabla, bn, তবলা, prs, طبلا, gu, તબલા, hi, तबला, kn, ತಬಲಾ, ml, തബല, mr, तबला, ne, तबला, or, ତବଲା, ps, طبله, pa, ਤਬਲਾ, ta, தபலா, te, తబల� ...

/composer * Joel Fan -

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

*Haruka Fujii -

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

*Jonathan Gandelsman -

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

* Joseph Gramley -

/composer *Ben Haggarty - storyteller *He Cui - sheng *Hu Jianbing - sheng,

bawu The ''bawu'' (; also ''ba wu'') is a Chinese wind instrument. Although shaped like a flute, it is actually a free reed instrument, with a single metal reed. It is played in a transverse (horizontal) manner. It has a pure, clarinet-like timbre an ...

*Rauf Islamov -

kamancheh The kamancheh (also kamānche or kamāncha) ( fa, کمانچه, az, kamança, hy, Քամանչա, ku, کەمانچە ,kemançe) is an Iranian bowed string instrument used in Persian, Azerbaijani, Armenian, Kurdish, Georgian, Turkmen, and ...

*Colin Jacobsen -

/composer *Siamak Jahangiry -

ney The ''ney'' ( fa, Ney/نی, ar, Al-Nāy/الناي), is an end-blown flute that figures prominently in Persian music and Arabic music. In some of these musical traditions, it is the only wind instrument used. The ney has been played continually ...

Kayhan Kalhor Kayhan Kalhor ( fa, کیهان کلهر, ku, کەیھان کەڵھوڕ, translit=Keyhan Kelhur, born 24 November 1964) is an Iranian-Kurdish kamancheh and setar player and vocalist composer and master of classical Iranian traditional music. Ea ...

/composer * Ganbaatar Khongorzul - urtiin duu (

long song The long song ( mn, , ''Urtyn duu'') is one of the central elements of the traditional music of Mongolia. This genre is called "Long song" not only because the songs are long, but also because each syllable of text is extended for a long duration ...

) *Dong-Won Kim -

janggo The ''janggu'' (, also transliterated as ''janggo'' or ''changgo'') or sometimes called ''seyogo'' (slim waist drum) is the most representative drum in traditional Korean music. It is available in most kinds, and consists of an hourglass-shaped ...

, vocals/composer *Ji Hyun Kim - kayagum, vocals *You-Young Kim -

*Li Hui -

*Liu Lin -

sanxian The (, literally "three strings") is a three-stringed traditional Chinese lute. It has a long fretless fingerboard, and the body is traditionally made from snake skin stretched over a rounded rectangular resonator. It is made in several sizes ...

*Ali Asgar Mammadov -

tar Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. "a dark brown or black bit ...

*Max Mandel -

*Gulia Mashurova -

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...

*Kevork Mourad - visual artist *

Cristina Pato Cristina Pato Lorenzo (born August 17, 1980) is a Galician bagpiper, pianist and composer. She is a member of the Silk Road Ensemble led by Yo-Yo Ma and an educational adviser to the Silk Road Project. In 2017 she was collaborating with Harvard ...

Galician bagpipe The Galician gaita ( gl, Gaita galega, pt, Gaita galega, es, Gaita gallega) is the traditional instrument of Galicia and northern Portugal. The word is used across northern Spain as a generic term for "bagpipe", although in the south of Spain ...

/composer *

Alim Qasimov Alim Hamza oghlu Qasimov ( az, Alim Həmzə oğlu Qasımov; born August 14, 1957) is an Azerbaijani musician and one of the foremost mugham singers in Azerbaijan. He was awarded the International Music Council-UNESCO Music Prize in 1999, one of ...

mugham Mugham ( az, Muğam) or Mughamat ( az, Muğamat) is one of the many classical compositions from Azerbaijan, contrasting with tasnif and ashik. It is a highly complex art form that weds classical poetry and musical improvisation in specific l ...

vocals *

Farghana Qasimova Fargana Alim qizi Qasimova ( az, Fərqanə Alim qızı Qasımova; born August 6, 1979) is an Azerbaijani mugham singer in Azerbaijan. She is the daughter of famous mugham singer Alim Qasimov. She has twice received presidential awards for the p ...

vocals * Bassam Saba -

oud , image=File:oud2.jpg , image_capt=Syrian oud made by Abdo Nahat in 1921 , background= , classification= * String instruments *Necked bowl lutes , hornbostel_sachs=321.321-6 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum , ...

/composer *Shane Shanahan -

/composer *Mark Suter -

/composer *Kojiro Umezaki -

shakuhachi A is a Japanese and ancient Chinese longitudinal, end-blown flute that is made of bamboo. The bamboo end-blown flute now known as the was developed in Japan in the 16th century and is called the .

/composer *

Wu Man Wu Man (; b. Hangzhou, Zhejiang, January 2, 1963) is a Chinese pipa player and composer. Trained in Pudong-style pipa performance at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, she is known for playing in a broad range of musical styles and i ...

*Wu Tong - sheng,

/composer *Betti Xiang -

erhu The ''erhu'' (; ) is a Chinese two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, which may also be called a ''Southern Fiddle'', and is sometimes known in the Western world as the ''Chinese violin'' or a ''Chinese two-s ...

*Yang Wei -

*DaXun Zhang -

*Reylon Yount -

yangqin The trapezoidal yangqin () is a Chinese hammered dulcimer, likely derived from the Iranian santur or the European dulcimer. It used to be written with the characters 洋琴 (lit. "foreign zither"), but over time the first character changed t ...

*Jason Duckles - Cello Silk Road Ensemble composers and arrangers include: *

Rabih Abou-Khalil Rabih Abou-Khalil ( ar, ربيع أبو خليل, born August 17, 1957) is an oud player and composer born in Lebanon, who combines elements of Arabic music with jazz, classical music, and other styles. He grew up in Beirut and moved to Munich, Ge ...

Christopher Adler Christopher Adler (born 1972) is a musician, composer and music professor at University of San Diego. A virtuoso player of the khaen, a reed instrument native to Laos and Thailand, he has been composing works for the khaen both as a solo instrumen ...

Franghiz Ali-Zadeh Franghiz Ali-Zadeh (Azerbaijani Firəngiz Əlizadə, Russian Франгиз Али-Заде; born 29 May 1947 in Baku, Azerbaijani SSR, Soviet Union) is an Azerbaijani composer and pianist, currently living in Germany. She is best known for her w ...

*Jia Daqun *

Gabriela Lena Frank Gabriela Lena Frank (born Berkeley, California, United States, September 1972) is an American pianist and composer of contemporary classical music. Biography Gabriela Lena Frank's father is an American of Lithuanian Jewish heritage and her mothe ...

Osvaldo Golijov Osvaldo Noé Golijov (; born December 5, 1960) is an Argentine composer of classical music and music professor, known for his vocal and orchestral work. Biography Osvaldo Golijov was born in and grew up in La Plata, Argentina, in a Jewish family ...

*Jeeyoung Kim *

Glenn Kotche Glenn Kotche (born December 31, 1970 in Roselle, Illinois, United States) is an American drummer and composer, best known for his involvement in the band Wilco. He was named the 40th greatest drummer of all time by Gigwise in 2008. Prior to w ...

Angel Lam Angel Lam is a New York-based Hong Kong-born composer and writer. She has composed for artists and ensembles such as Yo-Yo Ma, Aldo Parisot, The Silk Road Ensemble, Atlanta Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Aspen Music F ...

*Alisher Latif-Zadeh *Ljova (

Lev Zhurbin Lev Zhurbin (born August 18, 1978 in Moscow, Soviet Union) is a composer and violist. Biography Lev Zhurbin immigrated to the United States in the year 1990. He is often credited simply as "Ljova", the diminutive of his formal name. He is the ...

) *Nurlanbek Nyshanov * Sangidorjiin Sansargereltekh *

Vache Sharafyan Vache Sharafyan ( hy, Վաչե Շարաֆյան), (born February 11, 1966 in Yerevan, Armenia) is an Armenian composer of symphonic works, chamber music, choral music and opera. His works include 2 acts opera ''King Abgar'', ballet ''Second Moon'' ...

* Byambasuren Sharav *

Giovanni Sollima Giovanni Sollima (born 24 October 1962 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy) is an Italian composer and cellist. He was born into a family of musicians and studied cello with Giovanni Perriera and composition with his father, Eliodoro Sollima, at the Con ...

*Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky *

*Zhao Lin *

Evan Ziporyn Evan Ziporyn (b. Chicago, Illinois, December 14, 1959) is an American composer of post-minimalist music with a cross-cultural orientation, drawing equally from classical music, avant-garde, various world music traditions, and jazz. Ziporyn h ...

Silk Road Ensemble list
— The Silk Road Project

Silk Road Chicago

Silk Road Chicago was a yearlong, citywide celebration, from June 2006 to June 2007, with special events, performances, and exhibitions that explored cross-cultural discovery and celebrated the artistic legacy of the historic Silk Road. Silk Road Chicago was a partnership among Silkroad, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and the Chicago Office of Tourism,

Chicago Symphony Orchestra The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) was founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891. The ensemble makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival. The music director is Riccardo Muti, who began his tenure ...

, and

References

External links

SilkroadInstruments from the Silk RoadArtists associated with the Silk Road EnsembleSilk Road Chicago
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080509054452/http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/08/04/beyond_the_silk_road_with_yoyo_ma/ Interview with Yo-Yo Ma about the Silk Road Project- Weekend America {{Authority control Musical groups established in 1998 Musical collectives Chamber music groups Grammy Award winners