Creativity at the Silk Road Project begins with play

In past months, as Kayhan Kalhor’s new piece was readied for its “First Nights” premiere and the Chicago residency plans continued to spring forth, the Project has been developing some playful thoughts.  I wanted to share a few of these ideas with you as a report from the field.

During a November Asian tour, Wu Tong, Andy Russ and I visited the recently restored Garden of the Palace of Established Happiness in Beijing, thanks to arrangements made by Silk Road Project board member Daniel Ng.  The garden was a favorite of the Manchurian Emperor Qianlong, whom you may recognize as the traveler in the Ensemble’s work Journey to the South. He loved poetry and painting, and his collection included four scrolls known as “All Four Beauties Complete.”  While just one of these scrolls remains in Beijing (the others are in Washington, London, and Tokyo), there is thought of electronically reuniting them in the Palace Garden as the focus of a musical narrative.

With Silk Road Ensemble musicians from many countries that are part of centuries of overlaid history, there has been broad discussion of ways to visually present information about these deep cultures.  In January, Rhode Island School of Design President and Silk Road Project board member Roger Mandle and his wife, Gayle, hosted the first in a series of mapping sessions that I hope will produce a cutting edge, cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural communication tool.

Also in January, I sat in on a development session for the Ensemble’s collaborative work, Sound of the Brush, a multimedia composition focusing on the relationship between written language and music.  The piece – which features musicians Bassam Saba (oud and ney), Johnny Gandelsman (violin), Ko Umezaki (shakuhachi), and Shane Shanahan (percussion), along with calligraphy artists Kevork Mourad and RISD Professor Ming Ren – was performed to intrigued audiences of all ages at the RISD Museum.

Creativity at the Silk Road Project begins with play – generating ideas to explore, combining and investigating concepts, drawing from our shared experiences, as well as those of others who have gone before.  In just seven years, from the deep well of inspiration found in collaboration, the Ensemble musicians, board members, and staff have worked together to realize many of these creative, playful thoughts.

Yo-Yo Ma
Artistic Director