Two millennia ago, Inner Asian nomads – the “northern barbarians” of ancient Chinese texts – brought a short-necked pear-shaped lute from Central Asia to the frontiers of China. A millennium later, musicians from Persia and Central Asia travelled the Silk Road to the courts of the Tang emperors to create a cosmopolitan musical culture in the heart of China. In this new programme, pipa virtuoso Wu Man joins Tajik musicians Abduvali Abdurashidov and Sirojiddin Juraev to explore and revitalize the long dormant connections between Chinese and Central Asian music, performing a mixture of instrumental pieces featuring pipa, dutar, tanbur, and sato (bowed tanbur).