Yo-Yo Ma
Sept. 11 and its aftermath could have derailed Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road tour.
The cellist had spent five years developing an ambitious project joining composers and performers from Asia, Europe and North America. The $10 million roadshow was scheduled to tour for two years with stops on three continents.
The tour was set to bring its band of musicians to Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on the day U.S. planes began bombing Afghanistan. Instead, it scrapped October's performances in Central Asia but has kept traveling through the United States, Europe and Japan. It stops in Berkeley for the next 10 days for a series of mostly sold-out shows.
Silk Road officials never realized fears "that America might respond through xenophobia'' to the tour, said Ted Levin, the Dartmouth professor who took a leave to be the project's executive director. "On the contrary. If anything positive came out of 9/11, it has been the realization that our future security depends on knowing our neighbors.
``As Yo-Yo says, `After 9/11, we can't afford not to know what our neighbors are doing.' ''
Before the tour began in Germany in August, Ma explained his dream that the musicians would explore each other's languages and legacies, much like the traders along the ancient silk routes. The question Ma kept asking: ``What happens when strangers meet?''
The answer came in a project that joins artists from Azerbaijan, Turkey, Iran, Armenia and Mongolia with musical counterparts from the United States and Europe.
For example, the opening shows in Berkeley include a Mark Morris dance, ``Kolam,'' which was commissioned for the project.
``I've been watching Indian dance for 20 years,'' Morris said. ``And it's no surprise I'm a big, big fan of classical tabla master Zakir Hussain. So when Ma asked me to start thinking about a Silk Road project, I knew I wanted to work with Indian sources.''
The dance is set to music is by Hussain and pianist Ethan Iverson; they'll be joined by Ma and bassist Ben Street.
Raucous horse fiddle
All the Berkeley performances are sold out except the dance matinee on Saturday. But space is available at several free educational events, including a lecture-demonstration with Ma and members of the ensemble, at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Hertz Hall at UC-Berkeley.
Levin also will participate in many of the free events. The ethnomusicologist has a collection of stories about his musical travels in Central Asia, some told in his book ``The Hundred Thousand Fools of God.'' Last week, however, the Silk Road director's anecdotes concerned tour logistics.
``The morning of Sept. 11, I was getting ready to wire money to Kazakhstan for a charter jet to fly us around Central Asia to perform the following month,'' he said. Instead, Levin frantically worked the phones talking to Ma, who was stranded after a concert and making his way back East on a bus from Texas, and to a representatives of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, in Paris. The Aga Khan Trust, which supports education, culture and agriculture reforms in Central Asia, is one of the Silk Road Project's biggest financial backers.
Bridging two worlds
Instead, trust officials suggested focusing on U.S. cities with significant communities of Ismailians, Shiite Muslims whose spiritual leader is the Aga Khan, Levin said.
``They come from the States, Africa, Central Asia; there are large congregations in Dallas, Atlanta, Vancouver, Toronto, Chicago -- as well as New York and Washington.
``So in those cities, we made a special point not only to play in big halls but to reach out and do workshops for Ismaili youth, which was very exciting with the teenagers,'' Levin said.
In November the ensemble also went to Aleppo, Syria, to perform at the ceremony for the Aga Khan Architecture Prize.
``The warmth of hospitality we felt in Syria was very meaningful,'' Levin said. ``Since Sept. 11, we've found even more warmth than before; people have understood the relevance of our work.''
Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project
Music: Silk Road Ensemble, 8 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 3 p.m. April 28
Where: Zellerbach and Hertz halls, University of California-Berkeley
Tickets: $34-$68; (510) 642-9988; most sold out
For more Silk Road On the Web: www.calperfs.berkeley.edu, silkroadproject.org