Featured series 
The Music Department’s Louis C. Elson Lecture will be delivered this spring by cellist Yo-Yo Ma. “A Conversation with Yo-Yo Ma: Culture, Connection, and Citizenship in a Time of Change,” features Ma and members of the Silk Road Ensemble in a lecture/presentation beginning at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 22 in John Knowles Paine Concert Hall on the Harvard University campus. The lecture is free and open to the public; no tickets are required. Seating will be available on a first-come, first-seated basis.
Ma draws inspiration from a wide circle of collaborators, creating programs with such wide-ranging artists as Daniel Barenboim and Mark Morris, Michael Tilson Thomas and Wu Tong. In 1998, Mr. Ma established Silkroad, a nonprofit organization that seeks to create meaningful change at the intersections of the arts, education and business. Under his artistic direction, Silkroad develops new music, cultural partnerships, education programs, and cross-disciplinary collaborations.
His most recent release, “Sing Me Home,” recorded with the Silk Road Ensemble, was released in April 2016 as the companion album to documentary film “The Music of Strangers.” Both the film and the CD snared Grammy nominations this year, and the CD won for Best World Music Album at the Grammy ceremony in February.
John Knowles Paine Concert Hall is located at 3 Oxford St. on the Harvard campus; it is a short walk from the Harvard Square Red Line T stop and is wheelchair-accessible. Info at music.fas.harvard | musicdpt@fas.harvard.edu | 617495-2791.
