Silk Road

For centuries, the Silk Road connected China and Europe. Daniel Schnyder, a multitalented musician who moves between jazz, classical, and non-European music traditions, undertakes a sonic journey along this important trade route. Accompanying him is the Worlds Beyond Orchestra, which brings together outstanding prizewinners from the Swiss Youth Music Competition and other European youth competitions and provides them with practical access to foreign musical worlds. They will encounter the pipa, the most important plucked string instrument in classical Chinese music, and the oud, the Arabic lute with a distinctive, rather dark sound. Non-Western percussion instruments will also be explored, as will the ney, the Arabic bamboo flute that uses quarter tones and glissandos, in combination with the sound of the classical string orchestra. This sonic journey will moreover be enhanced by a multimedia projection of miniatures and ornaments from various cultures of the East that move to the rhythm of music.