Road Music

How can the arts advance global awareness? That was the question Silk Road Ensemble set out to answer when cellist Yo-Yo Ma founded the group. This year, their journey brought them to the Mission Campus for a two-part residency—including workshops with students, as special guests of the New Music Festival, and a blowout concert in May. “Exploring Home” was the theme of a February concert, with instruments from the caravan route of the historic and conceptual Silk Road—from Japanese flute to Indian tabla—and a set that included “Going Home” from Dvorák’s New World Symphony. The idea of home had a special resonance for the ensemble that night; member Kinan Azmeh, a Syrian-born clarinetist, was prevented from returning to his U.S. home by the travel ban put into effect late January.