The Music of Strangers

“To change the world, you have to make a little noise,” reads the trailer for the recently released documentary The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble.  Directed by Morgan Neville, this movie documents the musical collaboration of world renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. 

Starting in 1998, Yo-Yo Ma began searching for musicians from the region of the ancient Silk Road; Persia, India, China and Mongolia. Ma was a child prodigy and can’t remember not playing the cello so he feels it isn't something he chose.  Even in his sixth decade he is still looking for how he fits into the world, looking for meaning.  He says in the film, “The clearest reason for music and culture is it gives us meaning.”  

Yo-Yo Ma has taken part in a large number of cross cultural collaborations throughout his illustrious career.  And so creating the Silk Road Ensemble was a natural part of his search for how music can contribute to global understanding.  One of his collaborations with a street dancer “L’il Buck” Riley dancing to Saint-Saens’ The Swan that is shown in the film, can be viewed on you tube.

Yo-Yo Ma

The Music of Strangers beautifully tells the story of some of the primary members of the Silk Road Ensemble and how they create together, layering and expanding their themes like a piece of music itself.  The footage of the group performing is intriguing.  Traditional music is combined in a non-traditional way that is rich in complexity, beauty and diversity.  It is of course like nothing you’ve ever heard.  You can get a quick taste of it during the movie trailer. 

Wu Man, Kinan Azmeh, Kayhan Kalhor and Cristina Pato are the  artists featured in the film along with Yo-Yo Ma.  Wu Man is originally from China.  She plays the pipa, a lute-like Chinese instrument with a 2000 year-old history.  She is a  virtuoso soloist, educator and composer who like Yo-Yo Ma was a child prodigy.  She has taken part in collaborations that span artistic disciplines and are evident in her multiple recordings.

Wu Man on the right

Kinan Azmeh is a clarinet player originally from Syria.  He has appeared
worldwide as a soloist, composer and improviser.  The movie shows him
visiting a Syrian refugee camp to teach music to children.




Kayhan Kalhor from Iran is an internationaly acclaimed virtuoso on the
kamancheh, a bowed four string instrument.  He has made Persian music popular in the West through his many collaborations.

Kayhan Kalhor front left

Cristina Pato is a Galician bagpiper, pianist and educator from Spain.  She performs jazz, Galician popular music and classical music worldwide. Together with many other musicians, they model “new forms of cultural exchange” in their performances, workshops and residencies.

Yo-Yo Ma says that these musicians started as strangers.  He speaks of the fear of working with strangers that eventually turned into joy.  A musician from China says, “None of us speaks perfect Persian, perfect Chinese, perfect English but we all speak perfect musical language.”

The Silk Road Ensemble

 “We started as a group of musicians getting together and seeing what might happen when strangers meet,” says Ma. “Now, when I’m with them, I feel a huge amount of creativity and trust. I am supported, inspired and energized by the work they do. It’s a pleasure to have seen them grow into mature artists and contributing cultural citizens. They are all people who care about their communities. Some are professors and some run festivals. They have all created fulfilling and meaningful lives for themselves in sometimes trying circumstances and I feel like I’m a fuller human being for the experience of knowing and working with them.”