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Kinan Azmeh: "When I was a little kid, I was the young clarinetist from Damascus." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

At the Grand Central Terminal multi-sensory Interactive Experience inside Vanderbilt Hall for Morgan Neville's The Music Of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma And The Silk Road Ensemble, Kinan Azmeh spoke with me on his work at refugee centres, being the "young clarinetist from Damascus", storytelling, and what home means to him.

Last year, Kinan was unable to perform at Lotus Club with Cristina Pato, Kojiro Umezaki, Colin Jacobsen, Shane Shanahan, Joseph Gramley, Evan Ziporyn, Johnny Gandelsman, Sandeep Das, Abigail Washburn, Logan Coale, Nicholas Cords, and Yo-Yo Ma because he was premiering the film at a refugee camp in Jordan. I brought up Gianfranco Rosi's Oscar nominated Fire At Sea (Fuocoammare) on the Lampedusa refugee crisis during our conversation.

A Music Of Strangers multi-sensory Interactive Experience with Anne-Katrin Titze Photo: Anne-Katrin...

Cristina Pato: "Silk Road is a collective of musicians from all around the world." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Cristina Pato is featured in Morgan Neville's glorious The Music Of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma And The Silk Road Ensemble, along with Kinan Azmeh, Kayhan Kalhor, Wu Man, and Yo-Yo Ma himself. I first met Cristina at a performance hosted by Richard Gere, Barbara Kopple, and Darlene Love inside New York's Lotus Club last year following the premiere of the film, when she performed with fellow musicians Kojiro Umezaki, Colin Jacobsen, Shane Shanahan, Joseph Gramley, Evan Ziporyn, Johnny Gandelsman, Sandeep Das, Abigail Washburn, Logan Coale, Nicholas Cords with Yo-Yo Ma.

The Music Of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma And The Silk Road Ensemble at Grand Central Terminal Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Yesterday morning, we met up again, this time inside Grand Central Terminal's Vanderbilt Hall, where a Music Of Strangers multi-sensory Interactive Experience was taking place.

This soul-refreshing documentary celebrates difference as a beautiful thing vital to making great art, and for making a better world for everyone. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Oh my god, I so needed this movie right now. And you do too: it is a wonderful respite in our divided times. Let veteran music documentarian Morgan Neville — he made the amazing 20 Feet from Stardom — introduce you to the Silk Road Ensemble. They are a sort of supergroup of musicians from countries along that ancient trading route who play traditional instruments — from different traditions, mind — in modern arrangements to produce gorgeous, lush music unlike anything you’ve ever heard before. (You get a lot of it in the film, and then you will want to instantly buy all their albums, because you Will. Need. More.)

You...

The Orchard's Paul Davidson, Morgan Neville, Yo-Yo Ma and Sony's Dennis Kooker Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Introducing Gay Talese, the author of The Voyeur's Motel (to be adapted for the screen by Krysty Wilson-Cairns, directed by Sam Mendes and produced by Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks) and Morgan Neville, the Oscar-winning director of 20 Feet From Stardom, at Lotos Club, created a Music Of Strangers conversation that lead to Alexander Payne's producer Jim Burke (Downsizing, The Descendants and Election) for A Beautiful Game, the Marx Brothers, Best Of Enemies, Keith Richards: Under the Influence and Joan Didion in Shotgun Freeway: Drives Through Lost L.A.

Gay Talese on The Music Of Strangers: "This is a major international film!" Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Darlene Love, Richard Gere and Barbara Kopple hosted the after party where Cristina Pato, Kojiro Umezaki, Colin Jacobsen, Shane Shanahan, Joseph Gramley, Evan Ziporyn, Johnny Gandelsman, Sandeep Das, Abigail Washburn, Logan Coale,...

While the musician Yo-Yo Ma has become a relatively household name, being seen in people’s homes on television since the Kennedy Administration, the talented men and women that are members of his beloved Silk Road Ensemble haven’t quite seen the same pop culture transcendence. An oft-rotating lineup of people ranging from vocalists to visual artists, the Silk Road Ensemble draws from over 50 men and women from all walks of life. Less concerned with their race, religion, sexual orientation, language or any other superficial descriptor that’s seen as a boundary in today’s cultural landscape than each respective person’s ability to communicate clearly and passionately through their art, this ensemble is a moving distillation of the true power of art.

After premiering at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, The Music of Strangers from director Morgan Neville went on to have a special screening at this year’s Berlinale,...

Paul Davidson, Morgan Neville, Caitrin Rogers, Cristina Pato, Dianne Weyermann, Dennis Kooker and Yo-Yo Ma Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Morgan Neville's 20 Feet From Stardom star Darlene Love, Richard Gere and Barbara Kopple hosted an invited Cinema 1 screening of The Music Of Strangers, followed by a performance from the Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma at Lotos Club. The director of Keith Richards: Under the Influence and together with Robert Gordon, the Gore Vidal and William F Buckley Jr Best Of Enemies documentary, gave me some insight on what Keith and Yo-Yo have in common. Yo-Yo shares a moment he loves with Cristina Pato in The Music Of Strangers and confirms his fondness of Ts Eliot.

Morgan Neville with Yo-Yo Ma: 'Yo-Yo is just trying to change the world' Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze Gaby Hoffmann, Alan Alda, Gay Talese, Heidi Ewing, producer Caitrin Rogers, Silkroad's Laura Freid, along with musicians Kojiro Umezaki,...

Washington — Former Guns N' Roses drummer Matt Sorum joined cellist Yo-Yo Ma on Capitol Hill to urge lawmakers Tuesday to increase funding for the arts in a year of deep federal budget cuts.

The rocker and classical musician played a jam session briefly together for a gathering of legislators and arts advocates from across the country who planned to visit congressional offices. They performed with bagpiper Cristina Pato and dancing star Lil Buck.

Sorum said his mother was a music teacher and that his high school classes in orchestra, jazz and marching band were critical in launching his career in music and in business. More recently he has started a charity to support arts education in Los Angeles.

This weekend, Guns N' Roses is being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Sorum said he was excited to visit Washington first to press Congress for funding.