Why the Silk Road?

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma founded the Project in 1998 with a vision of connecting the world’s neighbourhoods by bringing together artists and audiences around the globe.  The Project takes inspiration from the historical Silk Road trading routes, employing the Silk Road as a modern metaphor for sharing and learning across cultures, art forms and disciplines.

The Silk Road Project

The Silk Road Project is an internationally minded non-profit arts, cultural and educational organization that promotes innovation and learning through the arts.  Under the artistic direction of Ma and the leadership of CEO and Executive Director Laura Freid, the Silk Road Project presents performances by the acclaimed Silk Road Ensemble, engages in cross-cultural exchanges and residencies, leads workshops for students, and partners with prominent cultural institutions to create educational programs and materials.  Silk Road Connect, the Project’s multidisciplinary arts integration approach, inspires students and educators to make connections across all areas of their lives and studies.  Developing new music is a central undertaking of the Silk Road Project, which has been involved in commissioning and performing nearly 70 new musical and multimedia works from composers and arrangers around the world.

The Silk Road Ensemble

The Silk Road Ensemble is a collective of musicians, composers and performing artists from more than 20 countries around the world.  Many of the musicians first came together under the artistic direction of Yo-Yo Ma at a workshop at Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts in 2000.  In sharing traditions from various cultures, the Ensemble develops and performs new music and multimedia pieces, exploring and expanding contemporary musical crossroads.  The Silk Road Ensemble has performed to critical acclaim throughout Asia, Europe and North America and has recorded five albums.  The Ensemble’s most recent recording, ‘Off the Map’, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album in 2011.

For more information on the Silk Road Ensemble, please visit http://silkroadproject.org/ensemble.

Yo-Yo Ma

Artistic Director

Whether performing a new concerto, revisiting a familiar work from the cello repertoire, coming together with colleagues for chamber music, reaching out to young audiences and student musicians, or exploring cultures and musical forms outside the Western classical tradition, Yo-Yo Ma seeks connections that stimulate the imagination.

Ma maintains a balance between his engagements as soloist with orchestras throughout the world, his recital and chamber music activities, and his recording projects. In each he works to expand the cello repertoire through both performances of lesser-known 20th-century music and the commissioning of new works.  Ma has made over 75 albums, including over 15 Grammy winners, reflecting his wide-ranging interests.  Besides the standard concerto repertoire, he has recorded many of the works he has commissioned or premiered and has made several successful crossover discs.

Ma serves as the artistic director of the Silk Road Project.  He is also a creative consultant to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a member of the President's Committee on the Arts & Humanities, and a recipient of the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom.  In 2011, President Obama bestowed on Ma the prestigious Kennedy Center Honour for his artistic contributions to the United States and to the world.