QATAR. Doha. Inauguration of the Museum of Islamic Art. 2008. Cellist Yo Yo MA and musicians from the Silk Road Project perform at the opening ceremonies. Guest Azerbaijani mugham vocalist Alim Qasimov and his daughter Fargana Qasimova are in the foreground.
The Silk Road Project is a non-profit organisation initiated by Ma to promote collaboration among artists and institutions promoting multi-cultural artistic exchange and studying the ebb and flow of ideas among different cultures along the historic Silk Road. The project is an umbrella organisation for a number of artistic, cultural and educational programmes.
Ma, the foremost cellist of his generation, has long been fascinated by cross-cultural exchanges both past and present. His worldwide concert tours over the past 25 years have enabled him to perceive not only the uniqueness of each country or region he has visited, but also the commonalities and the ancient echoes of interconnectedness between them. Nothing in history so exemplifies these intercultural bonds as the Silk Road: as Ma has called it, the World Wide Web of its day.