THE MUSIC OF STRANGERS: Yo-Yo Ma & the Silk Road Ensemble
By John Bennison, Mountain Shadow Director
[This film was Mountain Shadow's selection for July, 2016]
Through the dramatic stories of an ensemble of characters, this new documentary film drives home the challenge for us to rethink how different cultures, with their unique traditional music lore, get preserved, honored and shared; to either evolve and interact, or clash. Any film intended to celebrate the universal thread of music, with the diversity of its expression in different cultural traditions, all sounds lovely. In point of fact, the Silk Road Ensemble’s throbbing rhythms and the joyful expressions so clearly expressed by its members, sounds powerfully persuasive. But we live in a world filled with more than harmonious musical notes. In focusing on the lives of several members of this ensemble, we are confronted with the unavoidable intersection of happy musicians colliding withever-present political intrigue and international conflict. Click on the picture above to read the full review and commentary.
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