My exposure to Yo-Yo Ma was previously limited to an episode of The West Wing, after Josh got shot and was having PTSD, and Donna kept saying "Yo-Yo Ma rocks!" I thought that was dorky of Donna, but I thought it was cool that Yo-Yo Ma was on the show, and I liked the piece that he performed. In other words: limited knowledge.
The Music of Strangers is a documentary that further opened my eyes to Yo-Yo Ma. And you know what? He is one solid dude. Aside from playing the cello like an angel (not all angels play the harp), he also organized a supergroup of classical musicians in a project called the Silk Road Ensemble, the subject of this film. The original Silk Road, as nerds know, was a historic route for goods to leave the East for trade. This Silk Road is more of an exchange between East and West: Ma’s friends, from places like Iran, China, and Japan, bring their traditional instruments to Western-style classical music pieces and create a new sound, as well as a new interpretation of what’s “traditional” and “classic.”