In 2002, The New Yorker's Alex Ross attended Yo-Yo Ma's "Silk Road Project" festival, featuring the music and musicians of the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist cultures of Central Asia (including Mongolian "long song" singer Khongorzul Ganbaatar, the Iranian-born Kayhan Kalhor, and the great Azerbaijani singer Alim Qasimov):

"At Carnegie Hall, under the auspices of a Chinese-American musician, werecomposers and performers from Armenia, Azerbaijan, China, Iran, Japan,Korea, Mongolia, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. The European tradition wasrepresented by two Frenchmen (Debussy, Ravel) and a lone Russian(Shostakovich).

"The only German music that was heard in three long eveningswas Beethoven's 'Fur Elise,' courtesy of an errant cell phone."