Inspired by the exchange of ideas and traditions along the ancient Silk Road, Chinese American cellist Yo-Yo Ma established the Silk Road Ensemble in 1998 to explore how the arts can advance global understanding. So far, the ensemble has gathered musicians from over 20 countries and created more than 80 music pieces. 

In February, Yo-Yo Ma and his Silk Road Ensemble won their first-ever Grammy Award. Their 6th album, "Sing Me Home," won a Grammy for Best World Music Album.

This album is an exploration of the musical connections across Eurasia. Besides the original members, the ensemble invited musicians from India, central Asia and Africa to participate. These artists chose works that were personally important to them, and jammed with other musicians, spontaneously finding their own form of fusion.

"What I learned from my experience with the Silk Road Ensemble is to respect each other and understand our own culture from others' perspectives," says Wu Tong, a master of the sheng, a Chinese wind instrument.

Yo-Yo Ma set up the Silk Road Ensemble to bring together musicians from the historic route that connected the Middle East and Asia, hoping to exchange musical ideas while maintaining their own cultural heritage. It now has seven albums under its belt.

According to Ma, its guiding concept is that every tradition around the world is the result of successful innovation.

"It became clearer to me after the project started. It’s that every tradition that we know is actually the result of successful invention, or this, or that. I would prefer to think that we are on the path of always evolving something. And so creation, innovation, trying to see from different perspectives, from different altitudes,” founder of the Silk Road Ensemble Yo-Yo Ma explains.

Ma started to play cello at the age of 4, and has won an impressive 18 Grammy awards. 

As one of the most celebrated cellists of the modern era, his biggest goal is to bridge the gap between different nations and cultures with the help of music. 

"I always find it more interesting when you have actually a collection of people with different thoughts coming together to drive something. I always feel more secure that directions that we take have more dimensionality to it," said Ma.

The ensemble has performed and taken part in learning programs in more than 30 countries throughout Asia, Europe and North America.