Greetings from our new home in Boston, Massachusetts! The Silk Road Project moved to an office on Harvard University's Allston campus in July, at the outset of a renewed five-year affiliation with Harvard designed to enhance artistic and cultural opportunities at the University and in local communities.
Our partnership with Harvard will include annual performances, opportunities for Silk Road Ensemble musicians to contribute to classroom activities, and public celebrations of the arts and humanities. We hope to explore additional educational opportunities in our neighborhood.
In the meantime, we've been settling in. Since our move, we've added an Education Coordinator to our staff, Allison Trombley, an experienced educator specializing in K-12 arts integration who is administering our Silk Road Connect program and helping us plan to enhance learning opportunities for young students in the United States and beyond.
We have had a few opportunities to meet with Harvard faculty and administrators and to welcome Silk Road Ensemble members and friends to
our space as they passed through town. Recently, to help us illustrate a Japanese concept, mono no aware (roughly translated as the pathos of things), Kojiro Umezaki brought his shakuhachi for a brief demonstration with board member Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis, who spoke most eloquently on the topic, which provided one inspiration for the Project's founding. You can read more about the concept in our interview with Ko in this issue.
Most recently, just before Halloween, the Project took part in a Harvard-organized "Treat and Greet" open house with neighboring organizations. Local residents brought children to trick-or-treat, and our gongs, drums and other musical instruments were a big hit with the kids. |