The Silk Road Ensemble pose for a picture with their Grammy award for Best World Music Album on February 12. Photo: IC

Music has the ability to build bridges between countries and cultures. Currently there is no better representative of this than the Silk Road Ensemble.

In February, the ensemble's sixth album Sing Me Home won the Grammy Award for Best World Music Album. It was their second Grammy Award after winning the Best Classical Crossover Album Award in 2010.

On February 28, after giving a performance at Vanderbilt Hall in New York along with fellow ensemble members Cristina Pato from Spain and Shane Shanahan and John Hadfield from the US, Chinese folk musician Wu Tong, one of the ensemble's founding members, sat down with the Global Times to share his experiences and opinions on how music can connect people from different nations.

'Mutual respect'



The Silk Road Ensemble was first founded by Chinese American cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Like its namesake - the Silk Road was an ancient network of trade routes that connected Asia and Europe and is now a symbol of cross-nation communication - the ensemble is a family for dozens of musicians from around the globe: Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh, Indian tabla virtuosos Sandeep Das, Japanese multi-percussionist Haruka Fujii and several more.

Speaking of collaborating with artists and musicians from very different backgrounds, Wu emphasized the importance of "mutual respect."

"Today's Silk Road Ensemble is like a big family, a family that crosses over the globe… It is a multicultural platform through which we can learn about ourselves while learning from others," Wu said. He noted that respect was important to fostering creativity when different musicians perform on the same stage.

Taking the example of traditional Chinese instrument sheng and the Indian instrument tabla, Wu explained that these two instruments are not related to each other in any way, "but if you want to establish communication, to be friends… with mutual trust and respect… you can create a possibility in an instant."

Wu Tong Photo: Zhang Bin

From rock to folk



During the interview, Wu was dressed in a white shirt and black suit modeled after a traditional Chinese Changshan shirt. It was difficult to imagine that he was once the vocalist for the Chinese rock band Lunhui - one of the most popular rock bands in China in the 1990s - for more than a decade. 

Wu's former experiences in rock'n'roll did not impede him later turning to Chinese folk tunes. In fact, according to him his experiences provided him a different perspective.

"I learned pop and rock'n'roll music [when I was young], while with the Silk Road Ensemble I am learning the music of different nations," Wu said. "When I look back at Chinese folk music I see it much more clearly now." 

Born to a Manchu ethnic minority family of musicians who have been making and playing the sheng for more than a century, Wu explained that he had a terrible experience learning the instrument when he was young.

"My father, who was also my teacher, forced me to learn to play it. If I didn't, he would hit me," Wu said, giggling. Later, after he became a professional musician, he was grateful for his father's decision.

"Traditional music to me is very much like the bond between my father and I," Wu said. "I feel like it is a blood relationship that is very emotional."

A living tradition



Wu stated that for him folk music should remain "alive," which, according to him, means that folk musicians should keep an open mind and be willing to learn from other types of music. In his opinion, by learning the music of other nations, one will often find some traditions that have been lost in their own music.

Taking the sheng for example, Wu said that most of the sheng music pieces in China today tend to be lively and quick tunes played for weddings or funerals. However, more than 2,000 years ago sheng music consisted of very slow, serious and elegant tunes.

During the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the sheng made its way to Japan, where today traces of the old slow style can be found in Japanese classical Gagaku music.

Having toured the world for more than a decade, Wu said he feels he has figured out how to make Chinese folk music interesting to foreign audiences.

"On one hand, its uniqueness interests people, while on the other hand, as you learn their language and music... you learn to present the beauty of Chinese music in their way, so that they feel it is familiar," Wu told the Global Times. "Though, this takes time and experience to master." 

In addition to performing for audiences around the globe in order to weaken barriers between different peoples and cultures, the Silk Road Ensemble also holds educational activities and carries out cultural projects. For example, in January the ensemble co-organized Youth Music Culture Guangdong, a festival in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province.

"We will have one every January over the next five years," Wu said.