In August 2018, Yo-Yo Ma began a two-year journey to perform solo cello(大提琴) in 36 locations around the world. The project is motivated not only by his six-decade relationship with Bach’s music, but also by Bach’s ability to speak to our shared humanity at a time when our civil conversation is so often focused on culture division.

Bach’s 300-hundred-year-old music is one extraordinary example of how culture connects us and can help us to imagine and build a better future. For Ma, culture includes not just the arts, but everything that helps us to understand our environment, each other, and ourselves, from music and literature to science and food. The Bach Project explores and celebrates all the ways that culture makes us stronger as individuals, as communities, as a society, and as a planet.

“Bach’s music has been my constant musical companions. For almost six decades, they have given me support, comfort, and joy during times of stress, celebration, and loss. What power does this music possess that even today, after three hundred years? Does it continue to help us navigate through troubled times?” Ma said in a conference. He is more convinced than ever of the Bach’s music has the ability to create shared meaning that extends far beyond the here and now. “Over the years,” writes Ma, “I came to believe that, in creating these works, Bach played the part of a musician-scientist, expressing precise observations about nature and human nature.”

In the next few years, Ma will play cello across six continents, in familiar and unlikely locations. Accompanying each performance will be events that seek to put culture in action by bringing people and organizations together to address present social issues.

Gong Linna, renowned Chinese musician and the founder of Chinese New Art Music, put her music teaching methods into practice for the first time at the Tracing Roots practice concert and music festival of the Affiliated High School of Peking University on May 23.

Gong Linna, renowned Chinese musician and the founder of Chinese New Art Music, put her music teaching methods into practice for the first time at the Tracing Roots practice concert and music festival of the Affiliated High School of Peking University on May 23.

The first song of the concert, Search High and Low, is an allusion (暗指) to the classical poem Li Sao, “The road ahead will be long. I shall search high and low. ” “It’s arranged to be sung by all performers, indicating that we should all search high and low for our roots,”says Gong.

To explore the education and the popularization of Chinese music, in 2017, Gong established a research and development team, which includes ethnomusicologist (民族音乐学家) , Du Yaxiong，and music historian, Zhao Zhongming, to reflect on her music teaching methods and summarize the vocal skills of Chinese music.

Gong believed that the popularization of Chinese music should rely on primary and secondary schools rather than music academies. The children’s passion for music and their outstanding performance amazed Gong,“When singing, they are completely lost in the music. Music brings light and richness to one’s world. So, learning to sing is never about passing examinations, but about enjoying the music.”

Lu Yueming, instructor of the school’s art center, said,“The children worked really hard and kept Gong’s instructions in mind. Seeing their performance, I know that they truly fell in love with traditional Chinese music.”

“Seeing the children perform my pieces, I realized I should write more songs for them,”said Lao Luo, Gong’s husband proudly. “It’s a great encouragement for me to see how much they like the songs, and they really need content related to Chinese culture.“ With an international vision, Gong will continue to write songs based on Chinese folk music or ancient poems.

Gong said children should learn about the beauty of Chinese music. Only when you know about your own sounds, can you have cultural confidence.

A young musician carrying a violin case in Paraguay makes her way to rehearsal(彩排)．What's inside the case, however, is no ordinary violin. It's made from a salad bowl, a CD, and large pieces of wood.

The violinist, Ada Rios, 13, is a member of the Orchestra of Instruments Recycled from Cateura, a group of teen musicians whose instruments are made from the trash near their village. Cateura, just outside Paraguay's capital, Asuncion, is a poor area built on a very large landfill (垃圾填埋地)．Cateura is home to 2, 500 families, with 20 teens in the orchestra. They play everything from the classical works of Beethoven to Beatles' songs.

Now the orchestra is attracting world－wide attention.The musicians are being filmed for a documentary, Land－fill Harmonic.The film will show how people in Cateura turn trash into instruments, and the effect that being part of an orchestra can have on kids.

In Paraguay, nearly 35 percent of the population lives in poverty (贫穷)．In Cateura, a real musical instrument costs more than a house, says Favio Chavez, the orchestra's founder. About 1, 500 tons of waste are left at the landfill each day, and the people there earn a living searching through the garbage for things they can recycle and sell.

Chavez started teaching music in Cateura five years ago as a way to keep kids out of trouble. When he needed more instruments, he asked the landfill workers if they could build some from the trash. First, the men repaired a broken drum. Next, they built a guitar . The orchestra took_off_from there.

The group has already performed in Brazil and Colombia.The teens will travel to Arizona this year to play at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix. Ada says music has already changed her life.“When I listen to the sound of a violin, I feel excited, ”she says.