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By Kevin Shihoten
01 Oct 2007
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| Silk Road Ensemble member Jonathan Gandelsman (violin). |
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| photo by David O'Connor |
Over ten days starting tomorrow, Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble will give their first tour in China, presenting concerts and cultural exchange workshops in Shanghai, Suzhou, Hong Kong and Beijing.
Performances during the tour include traditional and new works, such as an arrangement of Ambush from Ten Sides, an ancient folk melody by Wu Tong, a champion of Chinese traditional music and a popular rock musician in China, and Li Cangsang.
The workshops are part of the Silk Road Project's Innovators in Tradition exchange program with musicians from Azerbaijan, China and India, funded in part by the United States Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which fosters cultural exchange between the U.S. and countries worldwide.
Ma and company will kick off the tour with the premiere of Kuai Le, a new song by Osvaldo Golijov, during the Opening Ceremony of the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Shanghai Stadium on October 2.
"As China heads toward the [2008 Summer] Olympics, ever mindful of [the slogan] 'One World, One Dream,' at the Silk Road Project we too are looking at and thinking about our one world," said Ma in a statement. "Participating in the Opening Ceremony of the Special Olympics, we are reminded that the heroes in our world come from many different places and many different walks of life." The ceremony will broadcast the ABC Family Channel on October 4.
Visit www.silkroadproject.org for more information. |
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| Top: Silk Road members Nicholas Cords (viola) and Kojiro Umezaki (shakuhachi) at Tanglewood Music Center. Bottom: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble.
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| photo by Todd Rosenberg/Sony BMG Masterworks (top) and Michael Lutch (bottom) |
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