If the performance was taking place in Dar esSalaam, it would inevitably be compared to a Bongo Flava concert that woulddraw all top executives in the city plus their assistants to match up a crowdof 3000 diplomats and UN employees who attended the world renowned cellistYo-Yo- Ma’s concert.
The concert was held to commemorate the annual UnitedNations Day.
The audience was enchanted enthusiastically andresponded with a roaring ovation after each number as musicians from threedifferent continents performed.
Compositionswere performed from Turkish, Lebanese, Armenian, Egyptian, Indian, Chinese andArgentine from composers who make up the group.
With more than twenty performing artists on stageand fifteen composers, the music was filled with many different instrumentalsounds coupled with layers of different guitars and drums that created uniquemusic.
The General Assembly Hall that has a capacity of3000 people was full. A large section of the audience included diplomats andambassadors to the UN who spend most of their time disagreeing and pointingfingers at each other over some of the world’s worst problems such as airpollution and wars.
It was therefore significant that the compositionof the orchestra included musicians from countries that are not too friendly witheach other such as Israel, Iran and Lebanon exemplifies the power of music tocreate peaceful feeling.
Theyhad all put their differences aside to attend the performance by one of thegreatest artist Yo Yo Ma who was designated by the Secretary General to be aUnited Nations Messenger of Peace and the Artistic Director of the project.
The performers on the stage created a special kindof musical magic that transcends classical, world, or other genres and is trulyof this world as a reflection of their best desires, hopes, and dreams; theysung about peace and unity.
The ancient instruments from differentcultures worked together to create unique and harmonious music to make it soundinternational and represent all people to represent the idealism of the UN.
For the rest of the time, the audiencequietly shook its head, enjoying how the performance reaffirms the ensemble’sambassadorial role of encouraging creative, cross-cultural exchanges.
It was easy to tell how the crowd wasenchanted and emotional as they breathed quietly.
Yo-Yo- Ma’s work has won 16 Grammyaward and has a big dream of investigating music as a means of communicationand a vehicle for immigration of ideas. He is the Havard graduate and startedstudying cello at the age of four.
The UN’s Secretary General Ban Ki-moon delivereda speech to the audience before the concert started as is customary. Mr Bansaid he could not think of a better way to express the rich “tapestry of ourUnited Nations than to draw on the heritages of the Silk Road countries, fromMediterranean to the Pacific.”
TheSilk Road, which takes its name from the ancient trade route from the ancientEast Asia to the Mediterranean Silk Road trading route, consists of leadingperformers from 11countries.
Yo-Yo- Ma launched his new holiday recording, Songs of Joy & Peace two weeks, has a specialplace in his heart for the UN due to his peace making activities that he isinvolved with the UN. His album has garnered unprecedented Billboard chartpositions in the US since it came out.
Oneof their truck in the album is “Layla and Majnun,” by Uzeyir Hajibeyov ofAzerbaijan. It’s a sort of Middle Eastern counterpart to “Romeo and Juliet.”
Thesong is one of those in the album to the number 1 positions on Billboard's Top Classical Crossover Albumsand Top Overall Classical Albums charts.
The 53-year-old Yo-Yo Ma described therecording at its launch in mid October as a musical house party with a widevariety of top artists jamming with Ma for the other guests.
At the press briefing that took placehours before the concert, Yo-Yo-Ma said the Silk Project was formed 1n 1998 toexplore the cultural links from Mediterranean to the Pacific. “These links fromthe ancient times to the present from pieces of a puzzle that combine to reveala coherent picture of our world today and help us understand who we are, ourplace in the world, and why we do what we do,’ he said.
Yo-YoMa hasmade a name for himself not only in the world of music, but also in the worldof education as a proponent of cultural-based learning. With his expanding touritinerary for 2009, Ma will continue his work with a series of performanceswith the Silk Road Ensemble in the U.S.
The Silk Road Project is anot-for-profit artistic, cultural and educational organization with vision ofconnecting the world neighborhoods by bringing together artists and audiencesaround the world. Through his music, hehas been promoting the idealism of peace promotion through education and teachchildren ancient musical instruments from different countries.
