Yo-Yo Ma To Direct World Musicians

World-renowned musician Yo-Yo Ma ’76 will return to Harvard next fall, this time bringing with him musicians from across Asia and the Middle East as part of an initiative called the Silk Road Project.

The multi-year project, announced last Wednesday, is a collaboration between the Silk Road Project, Inc., the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and Harvard College, and draws together influences from territories along the historical silk trading road, which stretched from China to the Mediterranean. Ma will be the artistic director of the program, and will have his first residency at Harvard from Sept. 26 to Oct. 1.

Ma seeks to use the project to bring the universities an interdisciplinary approach to music, he said in a statement.

He added that the project may also result in the composition of a piece to debut in the popular College course Literature and Arts B-51, “First Nights.”

In the statement, he noted his interest in “the migration of ideas among communities,” adding that the Silk Road Project will bring the influences of instruments ranging from the Chinese erhu and Arab oud into Harvard classrooms.

Established in 1998, the Silk Road Project provides resources for a range of artistic and educational programs.

The Silk Road that the project takes its name from refers to an ancient trade route, which flourished around the first century B.C. The Silk Road was an important nexus of cultural exchange—Buddhism was carried into China through travellers on the road, while lutes from Persia were brought to Japan and Chinese gongs to Europe.

Ma said in the statement that the project explores the creativity found in the intersections of different cultures and musical traditions and the potential of future collaboration.

While at Harvard, artists with the Silk Road Project will hold classes, workshops, and public performances on topics ranging from ethnomusicology to art history.

The Silk Road musicians and staff will also develop a curriculum “designed to explore the resources of [Harvard and RISD] and to expand the scope of audience participation beyond the mainstream concert tour format,” according to a press release.

Laurence H.S. Coderre ’07, a joint Music and East Asian Studies concentrator, said she is excited for the contributions Ma will make to the Harvard curriculum and hopes that the Silk Road Project will provide an opportunity to study what she said was a somewhat neglected topic within the Music and East Asian Studies departments at Harvard.

“The music department is lacking someone focused on East Asian Music,” Coderre said.

Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby said in the release that the timing of this project is “most auspicious” as Harvard looks to expand its international programs.

Part of the Harvard College Curricular Review has focused on improving interdisciplinary and international education.

Ma’s first engagement was this week on the RISD campus, and he will first appear at Harvard in the fall.