FACULTY On the Road With Yo-Yo Ma

Music PROFESSOR AND ETHNO musicologist Ted Levin has taken a three-year leave from Dartmouth to serve as executive director of the Silk Road Project, a musical and cultural out reach program founded by world renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Bringing together Eastern and Western musicians for a traveling international festival, the Silk Road Project debuts at Dartmouth with a residency by Ma and the Silk Road artists next January. The festival then travels to 14 cities in Asia, Europe and North America to perform traditional Western and Eastern works plus three cello concertos commissioned for Ma. Silk Road musicians will also participate in the Salzburg Festival of 2001 and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival of 2002.

One of the goals of the project, says Levin, is to make Westerners more aware of the influence of Eastern cultural traditions. "The food we eat, the clothes we wear, our furniture, wallpaper, carpets and musical instruments have all been profoundly influenced by the East," he says. But the cultural exchange runs both ways. Levin is particulary interested in performances scheduled in the Silk Road lands. "I'd like to use what I learn along the way to nourish the circulation of musical life in these countries," he says.

The cellist and Levin

Contributors: Amy DiLuna '00, Jon Douglas '92, Stephanie Edwards '00, MichaelGlenzer '01, Julie Low '92 and Casey Noga '00