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Thursday, March 19 and
Friday, March 20, 2009, both at 8 PM
Roy Thomson Hall
Limited Seats available for March 19;
Tickets still available for March 20
Tickets: $149.50 to $49.50
RTH Box Office 416 872 4255 for both concerts
Online at www.roythomson.com or www.tso.ca
Visit the RTH Box Office in person at 60 Simcoe Street, Toronto
Toronto, ON – World-famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma and
The
Silk Road Ensemble, a multi-cultural collective of
international musicians, will perform two different programs at
Roy Thomson Hall on Thursday, March 19 and Friday, March 20,
both at 8:00 pm. Each performance will feature ancestral and
newly commissioned works, and take listeners on an intriguing
musical journey inspired by the rich heritage of the legendary
Silk Road.
The Silk Road Project, the brainchild of Yo-Yo Ma, has been
called the most fascinating phenomenon of today’s world music
scene. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, this
visionary venture continues to study, absorb and illuminate the
many cross-cultural influences that flourished along the Silk
Road, a series of trade routes that crisscrossed Eurasia for
almost two thousand years. "The Silk Road Project was formed to
explore connections from ancient times to the present," says Mr.
Ma. "These links form pieces of a puzzle that combine to reveal
a coherent picture of who we are, what our place is in the
world, and why we do what we do." Since its inception, the
project has connected musicians, composers, artists and
audiences in 20 countries throughout Asia, Europe and North
America; has released four CDs; and added more than 60
commissioned works to its repertoire from artists representing
countries including Armenia, Azerbaijan, China, India, Iran,
Italy, Lebanon, Mongolia, South Korea, Tajikistan, Turkey, the
United States and Uzbekistan. The current six-city North
American tour is part of a two-year journey with performances
and educational initiatives spanning three continents.
Yo-Yo Ma, the project’s founder and Artistic Director, also
enjoys a multi-faceted career as soloist, chamber musician and
educator. He has earned 16 Grammy Awards, can be heard on more
than 75 albums, has been named Musical America’s 2009
Musician of the Year, and is a United Nations Messenger of
Peace.
The musicians of the Silk Road Ensemble, including Yo-Yo
Ma, are a distinguished group of virtuoso artists from North
America, Europe, Central Asia, and the Near and Far East who
perform on a wide variety of traditional and modern instruments
and enjoy international careers that encompass and often
intermingle Western and Eastern classical, folk and popular
music. Some of the Silk Road instruments are shakuhachi
(bamboo flute), tar (lute), kamancheh (small
fiddle), tabla (drums), pipa (lute) and sheng
(mouth organ). Toronto Symphony Orchestra Principal Double Bass
Jeffrey Beecher is a member of the Silk Road Ensemble, touring
frequently with the group when he is not on stage with the TSO.
The two performances are co-presented by the Toronto
Symphony Orchestra and Roy Thomson Hall
The March 19 performance is sponsored by Enbridge Gas
Distribution; the March 20 performance is sponsored by Lexus.
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