The Silk Road Ensemble is known for its daring cross-cultural experiments, bringing musicians from different traditions together to jam and see what new sounds emerge from the mix of instruments, styles and cultures. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma launched the ensemble 16 years ago when he invited musicians from countries once linked by the ancient Silk Road to come to the U.S. and, in his own words, “see what might happen when strangers meet.”
The short answer is, a great deal. The international collective has produced six albums and dozens of new compositions and toured the world, but Ma has even greater goals for the cross-cultural ensemble. “What we’re really trying to do as a group, we want to build communicative bridges between cultures,” he said.
The power of music to cross cultures and create empathy is the subject of a new documentary film, “The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble,” coming to Chicago on Friday. The film is directed by Morgan Neville, whose “20 Feet from Stardom” won an Academy Award for best documentary in 2014.
The film follows a handful of musicians who are mainstays of Silk Road as they grapple with eternal questions that artists have always asked: Why is art important? How do you find your voice? And what is the role of culture in this troubled world?
RELATED: MOST READ ENTERTAINMENT NEWS THIS HOUR
“On the political front, people are talking about closing borders or building walls,” Ma said in a recent phone interview, referring to the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe and the Middle East, as well as economic and political issues closer to home. “We feel that part of the antidote to the fear that is gripping so many people, because there is so much change in the air … is through culture, through the strength of a loving community that actually wants to communicate and to strengthen the bonds. I think those are in many ways the most powerful tools to overcome the darkness of fear and paranoia.”
Fear can build when a culture closes itself off. “When we are afraid, we clamp down, we become smaller. And that doesn’t help anybody,” Ma said.
Making a connection with a person from an unfamiliar culture, who might speak a different language, can seem daunting. As Ma says in the film, “Everybody is afraid, but (when) you make a connection to another human being, you can turn fear into joy.”
The movie follows the journey of several Silk Road musicians, from initial fears to the joy of discovering musical fellowship in the international ensemble. Kinan Azmeh is a composer and clarinetist from Syria whose soulful sound mingles with American folk and blues musicians on the ensemble’s most recent album, “Sing Me Home.” In the film, he returns to the Middle East to share that musical fellowship with a group of young refugees living in a camp in Jordan.
Kayhan Kalhor is a musician from Iran who was forced to leave the country during the Iranian Revolution in 1979. He plays the kamancheh, a bowed string instrument that has been part of traditional Persian music for hundreds of years. He is one of the foremost practitioners of an art form that is in danger of dying out, and he wishes to return to Iran to help keep the tradition alive. But the political situation there still prevents him from returning.
Wu Man is a musician from China who plays the pipa, a stringed instrument similar to a lute. Her virtuosity on the traditional Chinese instrument invites comparisons to world-class violinists. In the film, she describes how she was part of the first generation of musicians to return to the conservatory to study music after Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution banned formal music instruction in China.
Neville, who is charged with telling all of these accounts in the film, believes the musicians’ stories are important for Americans to hear because they show, better than any think tank or arts policy group could possibly do, the importance of music and culture, which he feels are often undervalued in this country.
“These issues are so urgent in other parts of the world: Being an artist, cultural revolution, refugees … and in America, these things are often abstractions,” Neville said by phone last week. “I felt it was important to share stories of artists who have paid a real price for being an artist in their own countries. Culture in those countries is a very charged force, and to remind Americans of the fact that culture actually has that power is a good thing, because we discount it here. You know, we think culture is nice, but it is not essential.
“I feel like something that Yo-Yo has been fighting for is the argument that culture does matter, that it deserves a seat at the table with everything else, with politics and religion and economics,” he said.
It is an argument that is made passionately in “The Music of Strangers,” along with the assertion that music really can change the world.
RELATED STORIES:
‘The Neon Demon’ review: Elle Fanning strikes a pose in dull horror flick
‘Free State of Jones’ review: Matthew McConaughey shows his skills in frustrating Civil War drama
‘The Wailing’ review: Deafening evil from South Korean director Na Hong-jin
.galleries:after {
content: ”;
display: block;
background-color: #144A7C;
margin: 16px auto 0;
height: 5px;
width: 100px;
}
.galleries:before {
content: “Entertainment Photos and Video”;
display: block;
font: 700 20px Georgia,serif;
text-align: center;
color: #1e1e1e;
var playlist = ‘chi_ent_movie_trailers’,
layout = ‘autoblurb’,
iu = ‘%2F4011%2Ftrb.chicagotribune%2Fent’;
Watch the latest movie trailers.
