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 or about two thousand years, the Silk Road--a network of trade routes that connected East Asia to the Mediterranean--was the main conduit for the spread and exchange of goods, ideas, religions, and cultural elements among the many peoples of Eurasia. Along it, Buddhism spread from India to China, Korea, and Japan; Islam from the Middle East to the subcontinent and Southeast Asia; Christianity--particularly Nestorian Christianity--to the Far East. Not only silk and spices but paper, printing processes, gunpowder, the magnetic compass, and prized ceramics and laquerware flowed westward, while glassware and gold and silver metalwork flowed eastward. Developments in mathematics and the sciences--as well as in art and music--coursed back and forth, building upon each other. The legacy of the exchanges enacted along the Silk Road from about 500 b.c. until a.d. 1500 permeates cultures in both East and West to this day.
Yo-Yo Ma, at forty-six the foremost cellist of his generation, has long been fascinated by cross-cultural exchanges both past and present. His worldwide concert tours over the past twenty-five years have enabled him to perceive not only the uniqueness of each country or region he visits, but also commonalities and the sometimes ancient echoes of interconnectedness between them. Nothing in history so exemplifies these intercultural bonds as the Silk Road--as Ma has called it, the World Wide Web of its day. "Throughout my travels," he says, "I have thought about the culture, religions, and ideas that have been influential for centuries along these historic land and sea routes, and have wondered how these complex interconnections occurred and how new musical voices were formed from the diversity of these traditions." His interest was especially piqued by Dartmouth College enthnomusicologist Theodore Levin's book The Hundred Thousand Fools of God, which chronicles the author's musical travels through Central Asia. In 1998, Ma came up with the idea for the Silk Road Project, an ambitious undertaking exploring cross-cultural exchange between lands of the Silk Road and the West through concerts, festivals, exhibitions, educational outreach, recordings, publications, and the commissioning of new musical works. In June of that year, he met with Levin--who now is on leave from his professorship to serve as curatorial director of the Silk Road Project--and other scholars and experts to determine the basic aims and structure of the project. Three years of preparation were brought to flower last August, when the first of a series of over a dozen festivals was brought to the public. Coproduced by the project and local organizations in major cities in Europe, North America, and Central and East Asia, these "Partner City Festivals," as the project has dubbed them, have already taken place in various cities in Europe, Japan, and, briefly, Washington, D.C. This month, after festivals in Lyon and Paris in early April, Silk Road Project festivals will come to the United States through October, with stops at Berkeley, New York, Seattle, and Chicago. A climax will be reached when the entire Smithsonian Folklife Festival--an annual summer event in Washington, D.C.--takes up the theme of the Silk Road. The aim of the multifaceted Silk Road Project is basically threefold: to illuminate the historical contributions of the Silk Road; support innovative collaborations between composers and musicians from Asia, Europe, and North America; and explore classical music within a wider global context. Although there are extramusical aspects to the project, the core of it is musical, as Ma is the artistic director and driving force. The Partner City
Appearing at all festivals is Ma himself and the Silk Road Ensemble, a collective of fine musicians from Silk Road nations and the West. Located by Ma and Levin and their system of contacts over three years of searching, the non-Western musicians represent the best of indigenous classical music (though a few of them are well known as popular musicians in their countries as well), while the Western musicians are either classically trained or experienced in "world music." All share an openness to other musical cultures and to combining their native traditions in innovative ways. As these performers have their own national and sometimes international touring schedules, the personnel of the Silk Road Ensemble varies from festival to festival, depending on what pieces are being presented. The music performed falls into three categories: new works commissioned by the Silk Road Project (in some cases the composers will be among the performers); traditional indigenous pieces; and works by Western classical composers that were inspired by cultures of the Silk Road. Cross-Cultural Voices  vital part of the project is the commissioning of new music from composers native to countries along the Silk Road. Says Ma, "Through the project, we are striving to bring new ideas, talent, and energy into the world of classical music, and at the same time, nurture musical creativity drawing on wonderfully diverse and distinguished sources of cultural heritage." In 1999, a panel reviewed works of forty composers representing the musical traditions of China, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, and Mongolia, choosing sixteen from whom to commission chamber pieces reflecting the theme of cross-cultural exchange. In January 2001, a second panel reviewed new music representing the traditions of Armenia, Italy, India, Japan, Korea, Pakistan, and Turkey and selected four composers. The commissions--nearly all of which include a cello in the instrumentation--are being integrated into the repertoire of the Silk Road Ensemble.
Sony Classical, which records all of Ma's albums, gave seed money for the project and will produce a series of recordings by Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, each of which includes commissioned works alongside traditional ones. The first of these discs, Silk Road Journeys: When Strangers Meet (SK 89782), was released in Japan and internationally earlier this year; it is being released in the United States in March or April. In the first-ever global education initiative of its kind, the Silk Road Project is also encompassing a comprehensive public education program that
Developed with the collaboration of the Asia Society in New York, the Silk Road Encounters education kit includes a sourcebook with background information on the history of the Silk Road and the religions, art, and music spread on its routes; an audio CD sampler in which Silk Road Ensemble musicians discuss their instruments and perform on them; a video in which Ma and ensemble musicians guide students through a musical exploration of the Silk Road; a teacher's guide with six model lesson plans; and a slide packet with works from the Asia Society's exhibition Monks and Merchants: Silk Road Treasures From Northwest China, Gansu, and Ningxia, 4th--7th Century, which ran last November through January. The materials have already been distributed to many teachers and are also available for homeschoolers and families. The printed material can be downloaded from the Silk Road Project's informative Web site. The major funding for the Silk Road Project came from the Aga Kahn Trust for Culture, and an important part of the project's work is its outreach to Central Asia, where a series of concerts and festivals will include a number of traditional artists from the region. Originally scheduled for the fall of 2001, this portion of the project had to be postponed until the spring of 2003 due to the events of September 11 and the ensuing disruption in Central Asian nations. Says Levin, "The Silk Road Project is creating opportunities for composers and performers from the East and West to embark on new musical explorations that draw both on the legacy of tradition and on modern musical ideas. Its goal is to illuminate contemporary culture in the lands of the Silk Road--many of which have only recently become accessible to outsiders--and to help musicians and artists from these lands integrate themselves into the global circulation of culture." By far the largest festival in the multiyear project is being coproduced by the Silk Road Project and the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies. For the first time since its inception in 1967, the Smithsonian's Folklife Festival will have a single theme: "The Silk Road: Connecting Cultures, Creating Trust." Running June 26--30 and July 3--7, the festival will offer visitors the Silk Road in miniature, with over 350 musicians, artisans, cooks, and storytellers from over twenty countries offering concerts, food, and demonstrations of pottery painting, carpet weaving, glassblowing, papermaking, martial arts, calligraphy, puppetry, and more. The festival will be laid out along the National Mall in downtown Washington, D.C., with pavilions suggestive of Silk Road architecture. Visitors will be able to follow the Silk Road from Nara, Japan (in the pavilion closest to the U.S. Capitol), through Xi'an (China), Samarqand (Uzbekistan), and Istanbul (Turkey) to Venice in the pavilion nearest the Washington Monument. Showing the development of living traditions from noodles to tea drinking and blue-and-white porcelain, the festival will highlight ways in which the many cultures of Eurasia were brought closer through commercial and cultural exchange that continues today. The Smithsonian has coordinated with the Silk Road Project in other ways, too. Since September 7, 2001, and through July 7, the institution's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is showing The Cave as Canvas: Hidden Images of Worship Along the Silk Road, an
In addition, the Sackler, in association with the University of Washington Press and the Silk Road Project, has published Along the Silk Road, volume 6 in its ongoing Asian Art and Culture series. The beautifully illustrated 120-page book discusses diverse aspects of cultural exchange and innovation along the Silk Road in a number of essays by the likes of composer Bright Sheng, textile specialist Elizabeth Wayland Barber, and Japanese art historian (and volume editor) Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis. Under Ma's inspiration, a number of "satellite" ventures have been undertaken, though not directly under the auspices of the Silk Road Project. Three new cello concerti have been (or are being) composed that link to the theme of Silk Road interchange. The first, The Six Realms, by Peter Lieberson, premiered in May 2000 with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Through the Ancient Valley, by Richard Danielpour, premiered in March 2001 with the New York Philharmonic. The third, a multimedia concerto by Tan Dun, has been commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In addition, Bright Sheng, artistic adviser to the Silk Road Project, is composing a quadruple concerto for Ma, pianist Emanuel Ax, pipa, and sheng (two Chinese instruments) to be premiered by the New York Philharmonic in the spring of 2003. Some of these works will be included in festival concerts with major orchestras. The work of the Silk Road Project is meant to be sustainable, in more ways than one. A new body of work is being created, as is a network connecting composers and musicians to each other and supporting cultural institutions--and, most vitally, to varied and demonstrably enthusiastic audiences. Organizers hope that others will take it upon themselves to develop projects and festivals based upon the vision and format of the Silk Road Project. If those programs have someone at the helm as farseeing, committed, and personally engaging as Ma, their impact on the development of transnational culture and, ultimately, world peace, may be profound. 
The Silk Road Project Festival will tour to Cal Performances at the University of California at Berkeley in late April; Carnegie Hall, New York, May 3, 4, 7, and 10; the Seattle Symphony in May; the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in May and also autumn; the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Washington, D.C., June 26--30 and July 3--7; Italy in autumn, and Central Asia in spring 2003. Susan Osmond is an arts editor for The World & I. |
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