All in good time...

One evening in January 2006, while Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble were performing at the Cultural Center in Chicago, I heard Yang Wei perform a beautiful solo on his pipa. Afterward, I told several people how much I loved his solo playing.

Later that night, Cristin Bagnall, Yo-Yo Ma's general manager, asked me to follow her across the room to where Yang Wei stood. She introduced me to Yang Wei by saying, "Yang Wei, meet Ed Sweeney. He plays banjo." She looked at me and said, "Ed, this is Yang Wei. You two should talk!" Then she walked away. There are times when one doesn't need a lot of words.

Yang Wei and I spent the rest of the evening talking to each other about his interest in music, my interest in music.  It was immediately apparent that we both wanted to share our passion about music.

The next time I saw Yang Wei – in April 2007 at the Art Institute of Chicago – he handed me his pipa and encouraged me to try it. To be honest, playing the pipa didn’t make much intuitive sense to me at the time, but it sure was fun. 

When I learned that Yang Wei would be coming to Rhode Island three times in 2008 for a Silk Road Project residency at RISD, we both realized we’d have an opportunity to explore one another’s music.

The first trip – in February – Yang Wei came to the house for dinner and an evening of music-making. It was like our instruments were meant to be heard together, and we decided to find a way to perform in front of people.

I called Dennis at Wakefield Music to ask if he would host a concert with us. I wasn't sure exactly what we would be playing, I told Dennis, but we’d perform for an hour.  Dennis agreed.

In April, Yang Wei and I had one night of rehearsal, and in May we spent five nights pulling together a program in time for our May 18 “premiere” at Wakefield Music.

Our concert drew a larger-than-expected crowd that, for me, included many old friends.

The pictures you see hear were taken during the concert by Marian Goldsmith. As you can see, I had the best seat in the house for watching Yang Wei play pipa.

 We hope to do more performing and some recording in the fall.

To learn more about Wei, go to his website, pipasensation.com, or to silkroadproject.org. To learn more about Sweeney, call (401) 497-4675 or send e-mail to oldharbor@verizon.net.