How is the Conference of the Birds connected to the Silk Road ?

Many people have asked us wether the Conference of the Birds has something to do with the 'World Music' genre or with traditional music from the old silk road. Others understood this idea as a sort of 'Global Village' or 'One World magazin' in classical music. Actually it is much more simple. Observing the many ongoing conflicts and wars along the line (road) we symbolically drew on the Digital Silk Road (SRCB) our idea was simply, to use the great potential of digital media including the newest available technologies from NASA, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Youtube ect. to involve as many people as possible to 'at least be able to leave a piece of silk' (classical music) virtually because also we would love to perform in these countries as an orchestra, the political situation in many countries along the SRCB is so complicated that even basic humanistic ideas on the level of basic human qualities seam to have lost their faith when it comes to remember that music is beyond borders and languages. The fact that the Conference of the Birds is not only visited by visitors from Cities in Europe or in one of the many countries along the New Silk Road but actually from people from all parts of the world shows that the Internet transformed these limitations already hopefully forever and needs to be fully applied also in the field of classical music. In times like these the Conference of the Birds is more like a symbol that we can still imagine classical music and the great humanistic ideas within the Master pieces of great composers as a kind of seed that can be spread through an idea like the Conference of the Birds in places of war and conflict because the Internet supports us to reach out to audiences even there as far as already 6.000.000 people have observed this idea and 182.000 have actively visited the Conference of the Birds even in Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan ect . It is fascinating to see that the Conference of the Birds is getting it's own sound and character and what we already can say is

that this sound will be completely different from the music we associate first when we hear the word 'Silk Road'.

This is the great chance of our time, to discover old idea's in a new light remaining open to the many old treasures which for sure will be open soon in a peaceful world. CALLIAS FOUNDATION