The Aga Khan Trust for Culture has launched the Music Initiative in Central Asia, a multi-year programme designed to preserve and promote traditional music at the heart of the Silk Road: in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and other parts of the region. The Music Initiative provides financial resources and technical assistance for the restoration and performance of classical masterpieces of Central Asian music, and supports recordings, research, conferences, publications and concerts of traditional music. As part of the Music Initiative, Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble will perform in a series of concerts and conduct master classes, featuring the performance of specially written pieces by outstanding composers from the Silk Road region. “For many years, I have felt that traditional music played such a critical role in the cultures of Central Asia that it deserved attention and assistance,” His Highness the Aga Khan has remarked. “The need became all the more apparent after the countries of the region achieved independence and began the process of redefining themselves. When Jim Wolfensohn [president of the World Bank] introduced me to Yo-Yo Ma, I realised that here was someone whose work the Aga Khan Trust for Culture could support, and also use as a springboard for its own Music Initiative in the region.”