Cello virtuoso Yo-Yo Ma and his Silk Road ensemble won a Grammy for "Sing Me Home," which explores musical connections across Eurasia. The French-born Chinese-American cellist went into awards night with 17 previous wins. His latest Grammy trophy is his first for the Best World Music Album category.

The Silk Road Ensemble brings together musicians from regions on the ancient trade route that connected the Middle East and Asia. Ma's aim had been to find artistic similarities that would promote cross-cultural understanding.

One of the ensemble's founding members Wu Tong is a master of the traditional Chinese instrument called the sheng.

Wu also plays other traditional Chinese wind instruments like the bawu and suona, and sings in the album.

"Sing Me Home" started with deliberately loose guidelines, as skilled artists from the Silk Road chose works that were personally important to them and jammed with other musicians, spontaneously finding their own form of fusion.