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Yo-Yo Ma and colleague Cristin Bagnall discuss the alarming statistics about graduate rates from public schools that spurred the Silk Road Project to develop Silk Road Connect

11/2/2009 4:26:00 PM

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Silk Road Connect fellow Naomi Zeichner shares her experience in pilot program schools as part of a panel of Silk Road Project staff and Silk Road Connect program implementers

11/2/2009 4:25:00 PM

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Silk Road Connect Coordinator Nathan Alexander talks with Harvard students about his facilitation with pilot program fellows, teachers and school administrators in New York City

11/2/2009 4:25:00 PM

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Steven Seidel, director of Harvard Project Zero and the Arts in Education Program at HGSE, speaks with Silk Road Connect fellow Johnny Quinn Alston following the presentation

11/2/2009 4:25:00 PM

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At a "Creating a Life with Music" workshop, the student quartet described the Mozart piece they played as “merry”; Yo-Yo Ma asks them to point to specific passages

11/2/2009 4:24:00 PM

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The oboe quartet (Yuga Cohler, oboe; Keir GoGwilt, violin; Charlotte Austin, viola; and Alan Toda-Ambaras, cello) and Yo-Yo Ma can’t repress smiles as they sing through the score

11/2/2009 4:24:00 PM

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After singing their parts, the quartet stands and plays with abandon; one audience member said the performance “went from wedding to wedding night!”

11/2/2009 4:24:00 PM

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A jazz duo—pianist Malcolm Campbell and saxophonist Kazemde George—performed during the second half of the workshop

11/2/2009 4:23:00 PM

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The Creating a Life With Music Workshop ended with an all play—an improvisatory drum circle led by Silk Road Ensemble percussionist Joseph Gramley

11/2/2009 4:23:00 PM

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Samples of excellent student work from K-12 schools in the Expeditionary Learning Schools network, which Ron Berger, National Director of Program, shared in a roundtable presentation

11/2/2009 4:22:00 PM

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After his presentation about student work, Ron Berger (right), talks with Steve Seidel and graduate students

11/2/2009 4:23:00 PM

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Harvard Graduate School of Education students and Silk Road Project attendees look at student work samples to select their favorites

10/27/2009 12:58:00 PM

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Roundtable participants take turns presenting student work and discuss how quality manifests in these samples and what conditions in schools and classrooms are necessary for a culture of quality

11/2/2009 4:22:00 PM

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Professor Hisa Kuriyama discusses how his Harvard undergraduate class, “Asia in the Making of the Modern World,” taught with Professor Parimal Patil, makes use of creative video responses

11/2/2009 4:21:00 PM

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On the final morning of the residency, members of the Silk Road Ensemble and Yo-Yo Ma perform and offer their thinking on the role of teaching artists in the classroom

11/2/2009 4:20:00 PM

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Silk Road Ensemble violist Nicholas Cords (rear) and percussionist Shane Shanahan (front) talk with Harvard Graduate School of Education students after their roundtable discussion

11/2/2009 4:20:00 PM

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Silk Road Ensemble violinist Colin Jacobsen and a student talk; dancer Damian Woetzel (rear) was invited by the Silk Road Project to be a teaching artist in New York City public schools

11/2/2009 4:20:00 PM

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Harvard’s Memorial Church, where the final concert took place, through the autumn foliage across Harvard Yard

11/2/2009 4:19:00 PM

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Silk Road Ensemble violinist Colin Jacobsen and Harvard student musicians Foster Wang (violin) and Chris Chang (viola) in rehearsal

11/2/2009 4:19:00 PM

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Silk Road Ensemble violinist Jonathan Gandelsman reviews a score with Harvard sophomore violinist Hillary Lee Ditmars

11/2/2009 4:18:00 PM

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A view from the balcony of Memorial Church while the rehearsal was being filmed

11/2/2009 4:18:00 PM

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Yo-Yo Ma and cellist Alan Toda-Ambaras (Harvard/New England Conservatory dual program) share a moment of levity

11/2/2009 4:17:00 PM

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Contrabassist Nate Martin from Boston University’s College of Fine Arts speaks with Silk Road Ensemble shakuhachi player Kojiro Umezaki in rehearsal

11/2/2009 4:16:00 PM

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Pianist Charlie Albright (Harvard/New England Conservatory dual program) joins Yo-Yo Ma in a Debussy sonata in the concert, their third performance together

10/30/2009 5:17:00 PM

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The Ensemble and students receive a standing ovation for performances that Dean of the Faculty of Education Kathleen McCartney called one of the most exciting concerts she ever attended

10/30/2009 5:17:00 PM

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Yo-Yo Ma receives the Thelma E. Goldberg Arts in Education Award on behalf of the Silk Road Project from Steven Seidel and Dean McCartney

10/30/2009 5:17:00 PM

Massachusetts, U.S. – Harvard University Residency
October 20-22, 2009

The Silk Road Project’s fifth annual residency at Harvard University drew on the experience of educational experts to explore ways to support, in the words of Yo-Yo Ma, “learning that is driven by passion as opposed to learning simply to meet requirements.”

As a living example, several of Harvard’s own undergraduates demonstrated their passion for music by gamely taking part in a performance workshop and playing in the final concert with members of the Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma.

On the first evening, Yo-Yo Ma led a “Creating a Life with Music” workshop that explored aspects of performing beyond playing a piece perfectly: physicality, confidence, communication with the audience, and not least, fun. Silk Road Ensemble members Joseph Gramley, Nicholas Cords and Kojiro Umezaki were on hand to speak from their experience as professional musicians. Two very different student groups took part—an oboe quartet and a jazz duo—but the evening ended after a lively discussion in an unfamiliar situation: with everyone together on stage, drums in hand.

Roundtable sessions with Harvard Graduate School of Education faculty and students led to fascinating discussions about quality student work, the Silk Road Project’s ongoing educational program Silk Road Connect, some of Harvard’s innovative cross-disciplinary coursework, and the role of teaching artists in public schools.

The final evening’s concert featured works by Debussy and Ravel and a Silk Road Suite, in which students doubled the violin, viola and cello parts, each taking their own solo. Professor Homi Bhabha read a pantoum by Beaudelaire, and the evening nearly ended early with an irrepressibly standing ovation before the final movement of The Taranta Project, which featured Silk Road Ensemble percussionist’s extraordinary body percussion.

Dean Kathleen McCartney awarded Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Project the inaugural Harvard Graduate School of Education Thelma E. Goldberg Arts in Education Award for advancing the integration of the arts in education.

The Harvard Graduate School of Education presented this residency with support from the Harvard Office for the Arts. The Silk Road Projects artists-in-residence programs at Harvard are designed to encourage multicultural and multidisciplinary artistic and intellectual collaborations, exploring the connections among art and music and academic study.

MEDIA COVERAGE:

Reaching the end of the Silk Road
October 30, 2009 – Harvard Crimson

Silk Road Project residency emphasizes education and music
October 23, 2009 – Harvard Crimson

Harvard residency press release

Participating Artists

Nicholas Cords, viola
Jonathan Gandelsman, violin
Joseph Gramley, percussion
Colin Jacobsen, violin
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Shane Shanahan, percussion
Kojiro Umezaki, shakuhachi

Massachusetts, U.S. – Harvard University ResidencyOctober 20-22, 2009

Participating Artists

Massachusetts, U.S. – Harvard University Residency
October 20-22, 2009