Video NewsSilk Road radioPostcards from the road Maps
Wall design
Music & Artists

Silk Road Ensemble Western string players performing in front of works of art in a gallery at the Art Institute of Chicago

© DONG-WON KIM

Engaging New Audiences
Silk Road Ensemble members Colin Jacobsen, Nicholas Cords, Eric Jacobsen and Jonathan Gandelsman perform in a gallery of the Art Institute of Chicago. Residencies in museums and universities allow Ensemble members to take inspiration from works of visual art, collaborate on new projects, and share musical traditions with audiences in informal settings.

Yo-Yo Ma

© TODD ROSENBERG/SONY BMG MASTERWORKS

"I think that in today's world no one grows up listening to one music. Part of being alive in this world is knowing who you are and how you fit in the rest of the world. I’m certainly interested in what the rest of the world thinks and feels and how they want to express themselves in sound."

– YO-YO MA


Yo-Yo Ma

Artistic Director, cello, morin khuur (United States) 
The many-faceted career of cellist Yo-Yo Ma is testament to his continual search for new ways to communicate with audiences and to his personal desire for artistic growth and renewal. Mr. Ma maintains a balance between his engagements as soloist with orchestras worldwide and his recital and chamber music activities. His discography includes over 75 albums, including more than 15 Grammy award winners.

Mr. Ma serves as the Artistic Director of the Silk Road Project, an organization he founded to promote the study of cultural, artistic and intellectual traditions along the ancient Silk Road trade routes. Since the Project’s inception, more than 60 works have been commissioned specifically for the Silk Road Ensemble, which tours annually. 

Mr. Ma also serves as the Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Institute for Learning, Access and Training. His work focuses on the transformative power music can have in individuals’ lives, and on increasing the number and variety of opportunities audiences have to experience music in their communities.

Mr. Ma was born in Paris to Chinese parents who later moved the family to New York. He began to study cello at the age of four, attended the Juilliard School and in 1976 graduated from Harvard University. 

He has received numerous awards, among them the 2001 National Medal of Arts, the 2006 Sonning Prize, the 2008 World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award, and the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom. Mr. Ma was recently selected as a 2011 Kennedy Center Honoree. 

Mr. Ma serves as a UN Messenger of Peace and as a member of the President’s Committee on the Arts & the Humanities. He has performed for eight American presidents, most recently at the invitation of President Obama on the occasion of the 56th Inaugural Ceremony.

Mr. Ma appears on the Silk Road Ensemble recordings Silk Road Journeys: When Strangers Meet, Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon, and New Impossibilities.