The Silk Road is one of the most significant achievements in the history of civilizations. Along the great Silk Road, not only did commercial caravans circulate, but also the cultures of the people, spiritual values, and religious ideas. Silk has been one of the focal points shaping the relationship between the peoples of the East and West. Through silk, technological, economic, artistic, and cultural communication has occurred across distant geographical areas, transforming a path into a transmission of knowledge, cultural exchange, and customs. It has also shaped us, making us more aware of our multicultural past, in which Islam played a significant role with fundamental contributions, notably the introduction of the silk industry to the European continent.

Recreating this musical journey along the Silk Road is an exciting task that can only be undertaken with the humility that such greatness and musical diversity promote. Over 7,000 kilometers of cultures, music, and traditions, from the Chinese capital of Xi’an in the Far East to the Mediterranean and Valencia, the city of the Silk Exchange. The journey of cultural diversity, which becomes a history of the musical tradition of humanity, begins in the land of silk, Serinda, extending to the Far East, Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. From the Chinese city on the edge of the Taklamakan Desert, we delve into the Indian culture through the Karakorum, then open the doors to the Persian Empire in the Middle East, between the border of India and Constantinople, until Italy, retracing the journey from West to East with Marco Polo through the great silk cities in the 13th century. Then, North Africa. The last link in this journey is found in the westernmost part of the Silk Road, the city of Valencia and its Art of Velluters, which, dragging the oriental tradition towards the Mediterranean, collects influences from the diverse music of the Mare Nostrum.

The complexity of mutual influences between these civilizations becomes its richness, a value that provides our era with a unique framework to promote dialogue between East and West and the acceptance of plural identities, a fundamental idea to facilitate communication and the exchange of experiences between peoples. This is a musical journey through the territories of the Silk Road, beyond borders. A unique experience to share that common heritage, rescuing the past to be brought into the present, through music as a universal language for all of us.