The Silk Road Project’s second annual on-campus festival kicks off today, with a free concert and film screening that spotlight China’s influence on the arts.

Eight years ago, cellist Yo-Yo Ma ’76 founded the project, which derives its name from the renowned trade route that traversed Asia. Its artistic and educational programs promote diversity and collaboration of cultural styles.

The three-day festival this week, known as the “residency program” at Harvard, is part of the project’s five-year collaboration with the University.

The residency program aims to “engage students in thinking and conversing about the way different cultures and ideas are connected,” said the project’s program director, Isabelle C. Hunter.

The Silk Road Ensemble, an eclectic collection of musicians that includes Ma at the cello, will join the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra in a 7 p.m. “open rehearsal” at Sanders Theatre tonight. The evening will feature music by composers ranging from Mozart to contemporary Chinese-American composer Zhou Long.

Today’s events begin with a free 4 p.m. screening of “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” at Sanders. The 2005 film explores artistic expression during China’s Cultural Revolution, a tumultuous 10-year period starting in 1966 during which thousands of Chinese were executed and millions more displaced.

The manager of the Office for the Arts’ Learning From Performers program, Thomas Lee, said he expects the festival to attract a diverse crowd of students.

“Many students who are not well versed in music and musical performance will be attracted to the residency’s cultural and historical aspects,” Lee wrote in an e-mail.

Tomorrow’s events will be headlined by the rock group China Magpie, known for melding modern and traditional musical styles. The group will take to the stage at Club Passim on Palmer Street, behind the Harvard Coop, at 8 p.m.

In a Dance Jam on Thursday, undergraduate dancers can improvise as Silk Road Ensemble musicians play. The event, open on a first-come, first-served basis, starts at 7 p.m. at the Harvard Dance Center on Garden Street.

The project is generating enthusiasm across campus—along with mounds of work.

The Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra has long been anticipating tonight’s “open rehearsal,” according to Davone J. Tines ’09, the group’s general manager. “Although this is billed simply as an ‘open rehearsal,’ it has required the same if not more preparation than a full HRO concert.”

The orchestra’s president, Chrix E. Finne ’07, added: “Through working with them we all are able to stretch our own limits and learn to be more complete musicians.”