March 30, 2004

THE SILK ROAD PROJECT ANNOUNCES SCHEDULE FOR UPCOMING YO-YO MA AND THE SILK ROAD ENSEMBLE CONCERT TOUR

Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble To Perform April 6-12 In Boston, Chicago, New York, Washington, & Philadelphia

NEW YORK, March 30, 2005 - The Silk Road Project announced today the schedule for a five-city U.S. concert tour by Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Founder and Artistic Director of the Silk Road Project, and musicians from the Silk Road Ensemble will travel to Boston, Chicago, New York, Washington, and Philadelphia, performing traditional and contemporary works, including new repertoire featured on the upcoming Sony Classical CD Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon. The concert tour is one of the Silk Road Project's ongoing initiatives to create awareness of the rich and diverse cultural traditions in the lands along the ancient Silk Road.

The concert tour begins on April 6 with a performance at Symphony Hall in Boston, followed by concerts at Orchestra Hall in Chicago on April 8, Carnegie Hall on April 10 and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. on April 11. The tour will conclude with a performance at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia on April 12.

"It is always exhilarating to tour with the Silk Road Ensemble," said Yo-Yo Ma. "It's a mixture of a steep learning curve and fun—part summer camp, part graduate school."

The 2005 Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble concert tour will feature works by composers that exemplify the complex relationship between innovation and tradition, including pieces by Kayhan Kalhor (Iran), Franghiz Ali-Zadeh (Azerbaijan), Zhao Jiping and Zhao Lin (China). Also included in the concerts will be a Turkish folk melody arranged by composer Osvaldo Golijov and further adapted by Lev "Ljova" Zhurbin, and a work based on Indian percussion cycles written by Indian tabla virtuoso Sandeep Das.

The Silk Road Project derived its name from the trade routes that, for centuries, crisscrossed Eurasia. Travel along the historic Silk Road resulted in a complex web of interconnections between cultures that resulted in new technological and scientific inventions as well as artistic exchange. During the course of the Silk Road Project, composers from Armenia, Azerbaijan, China, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan have been commissioned to create music that evokes this intersection of cultures. These works are sampled on the project's first recording, Silk Road Journeys: When Strangers Meet (Sony Classical, 2001) and the new recording, Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon (Sony Classical, 2005).

Ford Motor Company is continuing as a Global Corporate Partner to the Silk Road Project, as part of its long-standing tradition of arts education support.

About the Silk Road Project

Founded in 1998 by Cellist and Artistic Director Yo-Yo Ma and led by CEO and Executive Director, Laura Freid, the Silk Road Project strives to bring new ideas, talent, and energy into the world of classical music, while nurturing artistic creativity that draws on the diverse and distinguished sources of cultural heritage around the world. Since its founding, the Silk Road Project has produced three CDs, published one book, commissioned 20 new chamber works, created an education kit entitled Silk Road Encounters, co-produced a major cultural festival with the Smithsonian Institution, and presented concerts worldwide. The Silk Road Project promotes collaboration and a sense of community among musicians, audiences, and institutions who share a fascination with the trans-cultural artistic imagination symbolized by the legendary Silk Road.

About Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon

Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon will be released on April 5, 2005, featuring 15 new works that encompass the full scope of the Silk Road Project. The music for Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon was recorded in the fall of 2004. To develop the repertoire, Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble returned to the grounds of the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts, where they held their first musical workshops in 2000.

For more information on the Silk Road Project please visit www.silkroadproject.org.

Ford Motor Company and the Silk Road Project

Ford Motor Company is proud to continue its partnership with the Silk Road Project and Yo-Yo Ma on this extraordinary initiative. Over the course of 2,500 years, the Silk Road fostered the exchange of customs, religious beliefs, and skills that led to significant advances in medicine, craftsmanship, technology, and the arts. Since the launch of the Silk Road Project in 2001, Ford has been a committed partner in the Project's efforts to be a catalyst for cross-cultural fertilization and transformation. Ford is very pleased to continue this partnership to bring the Project to new audiences and to help create new and meaningful cultural encounters.

Forged by tradesmen and travelers alike, the Silk Road is a powerful testament to the rich experiences gained from exploring new ideas and journeying through unfamiliar terrain. To extend this tradition of innovation and exchange, Ford has been a key partner in the creation of Silk Road Encounters, a comprehensive educational program combining primary source materials and multimedia tools for schools and families across the world to further enhance a greater understanding of the rich and dynamic history of the Silk Road.