The Silk Road Ensemble

Representing a global array of cultures, Silkroad musicians co-create art, performance and ideas. The Silk Road Ensemble has been called “vibrant and virtuosic” by the Wall Street Journal, “one of the 21st century’s great ensembles” by the Vancouver Sun, and a “roving musical laboratory without walls” by the Boston Globe.
Made up of performers and composers from more than 20 countries, the Silk Road Ensemble was formed under the artistic direction of Yo-Yo Ma in 2000. Since then, audiences and critics in over 30 countries throughout Asia, Europe, and North America have embraced these artists passionate about cross-cultural understanding and innovation.
The Silk Road Ensemble’s music is contemporary and ancient, familiar and foreign, traditional and innovative, drawing on traditions from around the world to create a new musical language that reflects our 21st-century global society. In every performance and recording, they hope to lead a listener from a well-known place to somewhere new. Whether their pieces are created individually or collaboratively, written or improvised, invented or passed on, music making with this group is a joyous process.