BY SYLVIE WOODS, LEAD WRITER (NSW)
Ever checked out the tags on Netflix to find your next show to binge-watch? Maybe it was tagged under nature documentary, or martial arts (there are 8,985 of those, in case you’ve ever wondered).
You can also find what you’re after in a Sydney Opera House gig by simply checking out those event tags: heart-warming and nostalgic (that’ll lead you to the John Butler Trio and Missy Higgins); bold and moving (it’s Puccini’s La Bohème, for you).
But what if you want to hear something uplifting and inspiring? Something to raise your spirits with acclaimed performers from across the world?
You’ll be directed to a one-night-only performance of the Silkroad Ensemble on March 9, of course.
The SOH event is a stop on the journey of Silkroad’s national tour. So who are these uplifting and inspiring people, and where do they come from?
The Silkroad Ensemble is unique in that it’s ever-evolving: at any one time, the collective is made up of as many as 59 instrumentalists, composers, visual artists, and other creatives. It was founded in 1998 by renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma; the idea being to unite diverse musical and cultural practices and, in so doing, innovate and educate.
Inspired by the intersecting of cultural traditions on the ancient Chinese trading route known as the Silk Road, the collective’s culturally eclectic musical influences have resulted in two decades of defining performances.
Mario Gotoh is a member of this iconic ensemble. A Grammy award-winning performer, Mario specialises in violin and viola and has been heard by thousands through television and radio broadcasts, at the world’s greatest venues (think Carnegie Hall and the Met), and with orchestras and festivals.
At one of these festivals – the Youth Music Culture Guangzhou event in 2018 – Mario received from Yo-Yo Ma an invitation to teach. And now, she visits Australia with Silkroad – but brings the world along with her.
“If we’re playing, for example, music inspired by […] a Chinese tune, it’s something new – because maybe we’re adding a Galician bagpipe or Western string instruments. We’re able to cross-pollinate,” Mario explains.
Indeed, destined for the Australian stages this March is a program that ranges from traditional Vietnamese, Chinese, and Kazakh music to Finnish folk song, jugalbandi, and popular jazz.
Such a breadth of cultural influence might seem chaotic when you place it inside a concert season that also features Missy Higgins and Puccini. But Silkroad isn’t restricted by a streamlining of genre when live in concert, and Mario views the collective’s distinctive, all-encompassing style as a “celebration of culture”.
“The program is created in the same way flavours are put together in a menu: it’s about balance,” she tells us.
Mario says an “arc” ties the East, West, and South America: “It’s a musical journey, geographically.”
“I think it’s very exciting to bring together musicians from different backgrounds with different training. When we come together, we reach a new place, and that’s uplifting.”
Reaching a new and uplifting place as an ensemble, Silkroad has found popular success in its seven albums, including the music for Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s The Vietnam War, an 18-hour documentary series. The group has secured two Grammy awards, and international tours have been received with rapturous critical acclaim.
There’s no doubt its Australian tour will be equally well received.
Silkroad Collective performs on March 9 at the Sydney Opera House. Other stops on its Australian tour include March 3 at the Perth Festival, March 7 at QPAC, and March 10-11 at WOMADelaide.
CutCommon partnered up with the Silkroad Ensemble to bring you this story about music and culture! Stay tuned for more coverage of the Australian arts scene and beyond.
