From the late fourth through the fourteenth centuries, the central Asian trade routes, later collectively known as the Silk Road, were China's main link with its western neighbors. On the northwestern limit of the empire, Dunhuang was an important oasis and military outpost on the Silk Road. Near Dunhuang, on the edge of the Gobi Desert, hundreds of cave temples were carved into a cliff face and decorated with Buddhist wall paintings and sculptures that today bear witness to the intense religious, commercial, artistic, and cultural exchange along these trade routes.

Master musicians and scholarperformers from the University of California, presented an aural journey through the cultures that came together to shape the Dunhuang caves and which are illustrated in the caves' wall paintings. Musical traditions from China, India, the Middle East, and Central Asia brought the Silk Road vibrantly to life.

Music of the Arab World and Turkey:
Improvisations and variations of a Sufi musical theme plus an instrumental composition by A.J. Racy "Sama'i Mahur."

A.J. Racy, Arab buzuq (plucked lute) and nay (reed flute)
Münir Beken, Turkish 'ud (pluked lute)
Souhail Kaspar, tar (Arab frame drum)

Presented on May 20, 2016 at the Getty Center as part of the concert East and West of Dunhuang: Music Carried by the Wind.

The concert was presented in collaboration with the World Music Center at UCLA and the UCLA Confucius Institute to compliment the exhibition Cave Temples of Dunhuang: Buddhist Art on China's Silk Road. http://bit.ly/1M6gFul