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Multiple Grammy Award-winning cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the Silk Road Ensemble, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya have come together in an unforgettable album of world music. A Siliconeer report. (Above): Yo-Yo Ma with other members of the Silk Road 2007 ensemble. [TODD ROSENBERG photos] (Right): Cellist Yo Yo Ma
“New Impossibilities” is a live recording by Sony Classical featuring multiple-Grammy-Award-winning cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the Silk Road Ensemble, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya. The recording is the result of “Silk Road Chicago,” the first city-wide year-long residency spearheaded by the Silk Road Project, an organization founded by Ma to promote innovation and learning through cross-cultural and interdisciplinary partnerships.
The Silk Road Project partnered with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and the Chicago Office of Tourism from June 2006 to June 2007 in a program of exhibitions, concerts, workshops, readings, films, dance performances and educational events. The recording captures some of the concert highlights of “Silk Road Chicago” including “Shristi” by tabla master Sandeep Das.
On April 2007, Ma and the ensemble interpreted tradition-based and/or newly composed works inspired by the historic splendors of the Silk Road. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra joined in. The title “New Impossibilities” refers to Mark Twain’s description in life on the Mississippi and celebrates the bracing energy and wide-open embrace of diversity that has always characterized Chicago and its people.
Yo-Yo Ma was born in 1955 to Chinese parents living in Paris. He began to study the cello with his father at age four and soon came with his family to New York. Later, his principal teacher was Leonard Rose at the Juilliard School. He graduated from Harvard University in 1976. He has received numerous awards, including the Avery Fisher Prize (1978), the Glenn Gould Prize (1999), the National Medal of the Arts (2001), the Dan David Prize (2006) and the Sonning Prize (2006). In 2006, Secretary General Kofi Annan named him a U.N. Peace Ambassador.
Ma’s discography of over 75 albums (including more than 15 Grammy Award winners) reflects his wide-ranging interests.
(Right): Cellist Yo Yo Ma
