A 2016 Thanksgiving offering from Yo YO Ma
Dear Friends, In this week of reflection and giving thanks, I would like to share with you one of the most moving experiences I’ve had this year. This past summer, I had the great fortune to visit the Mogao cave temples in Dunhuang, for centuries a thriving religious and cultural crossroads on the historic Silk Road. These art-filled grottoes are carved from a cliffside in the Gobi desert oasis, and they reflect ideas and influences from as far away as India and Persia. The hundreds of highly decorated chambers and sanctuaries of the Mogao caves bear witness to a time of cultural, political, and economic interchange, and recall a city that was a vibrant meeting place for traders, artists, and scholars. The murals and sculptures owe their existence to people who followed some of the best human instincts: openness to the unknown and an inclination to meet, connect, and create. Then or now, these values reflect a world guided by curiosity, empathy, trust, and a commitment to the results of unexpected collaboration. It’s no coincidence that, just weeks earlier, my colleagues in the Silk Road Ensemble spent several days collaborating at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, sharing their own interpretations of the Cave Temple exhibition with a new audience. When we created Silkroad 18 years ago, we wanted the organization to represent the same ideas embodied in the caves – to foster artistic endeavors that reflect universal human values and impact society. Over the past few years, we have been building programs that train musicians, students, and educators in the same ideas, and we hope each of them will go on to seed exploration, creativity, and empathy around the world. This is a mission that gives me great joy. I smile when I consider a society shaped by the type of radical cultural collaboration that filled the caves at Dunhuang, and that audiences tell us they hear when the Silk Road Ensemble performs. It is a world in which the practice of empathy could lead to a more harmonious future. I invite you to take a few minutes to see some of the results of this collaboration, and to help us envision what might come next. Happy Thanksgiving! Yo-Yo Ma
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AuthorMembers of the North Carolina Cello Society Archives
November 2020
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