The Music of Strangers Page #5

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Just you realize that...

considering what I'm

doing for the culture

and for the country, you know,

I shouldn't be treated that way.

This is what I don't deserve.

You know, I miss my wife.

It doesn't really matter

where the base is...

as long as we try to see

each other, you know,

as-as... as much as we can.

Zohreh.

We have a tendency not

to be appreciative

of beautiful things

that surround us.

But if you realize what

you have in this life

and how precious is the

breaths that you take,

the water that you drink,

the music in your life...

and your loved ones around you,

it's just enormous

wealth and happiness

that doesn't have...

to have anything

else to complete it.

It's just complete by itself.

What's the purpose?

Everything I've learned

about performing,

about music,

about what happens

between the notes...

that's about making sure

that culture matters.

I don't think Yo-Yo sees

himself as a cellist.

I think he sees himself

as someone who wants

to change the world,

and he happens to have a cello

with him half the time.

And he wants us to be

collaborators with scientists

and be collaborators with

historians and educators.

I would love it

to be contagious.

It's nice just to see that

it's a new way of thinking,

also about music, about what

people can do together.

Cultural identity,

it actually shapes your

decisions all the time,

and you can take that

as a good challenge

or a bad one.

Being part of this experiment

did make me understand

what it means to keep

your identity alive.

I have dreams about having

some sort of role in...

in the arts in Galicia

in the future.

And for that, I... I started the

festival, Galician Connection.

This is a festival where I put

together international artists

with Galician

traditional artists.

When you learn something

from another culture,

you will grow more if you're

giving back to your own culture.

Just imagine, if we don't have

Silk Road musicians

moving around,

Chinese music scene

or Western music

scene are different.

To me, the world is round.

There's no east or west.

It's just a globe.

As a four-year-old,

what I wanted to do in

life was to understand.

As T.S. Eliot said,

"We shall never cease

from exploration...

"and the end of all

of our exploring...

"will be to arrive

where we started...

and know the place

for the first time."

I don't think that the Silk Road

Project was his trying to go home.

I think it was his trying to

go away, away from music,

away from a single repertoire.

And I think through

that process,

he found himself at home again.

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