Classical Music: Silk Road is a path of discovery for Yo-Yo Ma

Yo-Yo Ma was happy to talk about his upcoming appearance with the Silk Road Ensemble -- even if the phone call interrupted his brief vacation in Antigua.

Ma was fresh off his appearance at the inaugural of Barack Obama, where his performance with Itzhak Perlman, Anthony McGill and Gabriela Montero was recorded ahead of time because of fears that bitter cold might harm the instruments. Ma and his mates weathered criticism for "string synching" the nationally televised performance, but in press reports he refused to apologize, saying "a broken string was not an option."

Of course, we have no such worries here in Minnesota, where Ma will play Monday and Tuesday at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis.

"I feel that I grew up in the Twin Cities because I got some of my first chances there, with the Shubert Club, and at Sommerfest, to try things out," Ma said. "Just wonderful memories and deep respect for the community."

With the demands on his schedule and his deepening commitment to his family, Ma still resolves to make time for the Silk Road Ensemble. He founded the eclectic group in 1998 with the mission of exploring music and traditions from the famous trade routes across Asia. In Minneapolis, they will play work influenced by Balinese gamelan and ancient Sanskrit texts, as well as an opera first performed in Azerbaijan in 1908, based on a classic Arabian love story.

"The music is a collection of different things," said Nicholas Cords, a violist who grew up in White Bear Lake and plays with the ensemble, whose members come from around the globe to record and tour. "We commission a lot of composers, or members of the group will bring in traditional works and we re-imagine it."

Such was the case with "Layla and Majnum," often compared to "Romeo and Juliet" and considered a national epic in Azerbaijan. Alim Qasimov, a famous singer from the Central Asian country, brought the work to Ma and said he would like to sing it with the ensemble. What followed were months of workshops in which the group listened to Qasimov sing the opera.

"It took three years of gestation to the point where we can bring it out," Ma said. "It gets in your bones and you are so moved by it."

Diverse styles, abilities

The 60 members of the ensemble take differing approaches to music. Ma recalled his first meeting with tabla player Sandeep Das. After rehearsing a 25-minute Persian work, Das asked if they could work on it again. Ma, with an eye on the clock, worried they wouldn't have enough time before a performance so he suggested picking it up from measure 157.

"And he looks at me and says, 'I'd like to, but I don't read music," Ma recalled. "He has this mind that can do something that very few of us can do, but he doesn't read music. So we try to get to the point where we can write down, for people like me who read music, what those who improvise and don't need music can do."

That sounds something like a jazz session, or a jam.

Cords, who lives in New York and teaches at Princeton University in New Jersey, said that Ma's eagerness to continue learning and share within the group is what impresses him most.

"He's a great cellist, but he would think of it as an ensemble of equals," Cords said. "It's hard to learn from someone if you only idolize him. It's a group of fabulous and dynamic performers and in that regard, Yo-Yo is as much along for the ride as he is steering."