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Concertgoers queued on the steps of Royal Albert Hall early in the day for standing-room tickets to that evening’s concert by the Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma

10/8/2009 11:33:00 AM

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Silk Road Ensemble members flew to Europe from all over the world for a tour of music festivals; here they rehearse in London

10/8/2009 11:34:00 AM

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London’s Royal College of Music, where the Silk Road Ensemble rehearsed for its BBC Proms performance

10/8/2009 11:34:00 AM

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At a rehearsal for “Ambush from Ten Sides”; Olly Lowe (top right), a London-based percussionist, was invited to join the Ensemble for the BBC Proms concert

10/8/2009 11:34:00 AM

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The BBC Proms concert was broadcast live on BBC 3 Radio and was available as streaming audio for a week following the performance

10/8/2009 11:33:00 AM

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Percussionist Joseph Gramley, bassist Jeffrey Beecher, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, sheng player Wu Tong and ruan player Liu Lin during the BBC Proms concert

10/8/2009 11:33:00 AM

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The second concert on the tour took place in picturesque Ghent, Belgium

10/8/2009 11:32:00 AM

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Jonathan Gandelsman, Nicholas Cords, Shane Shanahan, Yo-Yo Ma and Colin Jacobsen rehearse Giovanni Sollima’s “The Taranta Project” on stage in the Vlaamse Opera hall in Ghent

10/8/2009 11:32:00 AM

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Ensemble members relax in Ghent after a late rehearsal

10/8/2009 11:32:00 AM

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A backstage celebration in Cologne, Germany

10/8/2009 11:31:00 AM

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The KKL performance center (right) across the lake from our hotel

10/8/2009 3:41:00 PM

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Banners for the Lucerne Festival

10/8/2009 11:30:00 AM

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How do Europeans stay so thin with these temptations in every other shop window?

10/8/2009 11:30:00 AM

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View from the concert hall in Lucerne; our hotel was the tan building to the right on the opposite shore of the lake

10/8/2009 11:29:00 AM

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Bucharest is a striking combination of new and old, sometimes in the same building

10/8/2009 11:29:00 AM

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A sleek new hotel built behind a classical facade in downtown Bucharest

10/8/2009 11:28:00 AM

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Kojiro Umezaki and Sandeep Das (right) were among the Ensemble members interviewed for a Romanian classical music station

10/8/2009 11:28:00 AM

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The Romanian Athenaeum, with a poster for the George Enescu Festival

10/8/2009 11:28:00 AM

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The graceful staircase inside Bucharest’s landmark concert hall, the Romanian Athenaeum, which opened in 1888

10/8/2009 11:27:00 AM

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A final bow in Bucharest, the end of the tour

10/8/2009 11:27:00 AM

It’s a wrap!

10/8/2009 11:24:00 AM

Europe – Music Festivals Tour
September 8-20, 2009

For the first time in more than two years, the Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma returned to Europe to perform in music festivals in six cities:

London, England: BBC Proms
Ghent, Belgium: Flanders Festival International
Brussels, Belgium: Palais des Beaux-Arts
Cologne, Germany: Cologne Philharmonic
Lucerne, Switzerland: Lucerne Festival
Bucharest, Romania: George Enescu International Festival

Three different concert programs reflected the diversity of the musicians’ home countries, from China to Iran, from India to the Americas. The European premieres of Giovanni Sollima’s The Taranta Project and Osvaldo Golijov’s Air to Air were musical highlights.

Commissioned in 2008, The Taranta Project premiered in New York City in June 2009. Sicilian composer Sollima’s compositions combine elements of classical, rock and jazz with ethnic musical traditions from Mediterranean lands.

Golijov’s Air to Air reflects similarly diverse influences. Christian and Arab melodies infuse the four movements, as well as indigenous voices from Mexico and protest song from 18th-century Sardinia. Golijov has described Air to Air as “music borne from community.”

Three pieces performed on the tour are featured on the Silk Road Ensemble’s new album Off the Map:

Air to Air by Osvaldo Golijov
Sulvasutra by Evan Ziporyn, a tabla-driven enactment of the creation of the universe
Empty Mountain, Spirit Rain by Angel Lam, a piece in memory of her grandmother, with a soaring shakuhachi above an urban bass groove

Programs also included compositions and arrangements by Silk Road Ensemble members—from Where the Wind Will Take Us, an adaptation by Siamak Aghaei and Colin Jacobson of an ancient Persian lament, to Silent City by kamancheh master Kayhan Kalhor, commemorating the Kurdish village of Hallabja. A Silk Road Suite; Yanzi, a duet between vocalist Wu Tong and cellist Yo-Yo Ma; and Wine Madness, a Chinese piece from the third-century Wei dynasty, rounded out the programs.

Though the travel, rehearsal and performance schedule was fast-paced, the Ensemble was thrilled to present its first concerts in Ghent and Bucharest and to return with this repertoire of new music to some familiar stomping grounds, such as the BBC Proms and the Lucerne Festival.

MEDIA COVERAGE:

Last night of the Proms at Royal Albert Hall: Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble was glorious
September 14, 2009 – The Times (U.K.)

Last of the late night Proms: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble
September 13, 2009 – Londonist

Gig at the end of the earth: The brilliant cellist Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road-inspired Prom has been 10 well-traveled years in the making
August 30, 2009 – The Independent (U.K.)

Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble heads for the Proms
August 22, 2009 – The Times (U.K.)

Participating Artists

Siamak Aghaei, santur
Jeffrey Beecher, contrabass
Nicholas Cords, viola
Sandeep Das, tabla
Jonathan Gandelsman, violin
Joseph Gramley, percussion
Colin Jacobsen, violin
Kayhan Kalhor, kamancheh
Liu Lin, ruan and guitar
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Shane Shanahan, percussion
Kojiro Umezaki, shakuhachi
Wu Man, pipa
Wu Tong, sheng

Guest Artist

Olly Lowe, percussion

Europe – Music Festivals TourSeptember 8-20, 2009

Participating Artists

Guest Artist

Europe – Music Festivals Tour
September 8-20, 2009