Andrea Xu, a psychology senior, founded the organization in 2012.

Xu began playing the liuqin as a child in China. The liuqin is a traditional four-stringed mandolin that has a similar sound to an acoustic guitar.

Xu, who brought her liuqin over from Shanghai as an international student in 2010, used to play solo for faculty members on campus. When they suggested she start an orchestra of her own, she jumped to the challenge.

Xu’s goal is to bring Chinese culture here and change how traditional music is seen in America.

The group’s name comes from the Chinese route that helped transport goods such as silk, seasoning and tea while linking the Western and Eastern worlds together.

“I picked the name to be a bridge between (the) east and west, China and the United States,” she said. “I’m trying to make a difference by bringing my own culture here.”

She said the group started with only 11 members. A little more than a year later, the team has 40 members and continues to grow.

Advertising sophomore Nan Jin was among the 11 people who started the group.

When she first arrived at MSU, Jin said she was often stressed out from schoolwork and classes. To relax, she would play the erhu, a two-stringed fiddle. When she heard about the Silk Road Chinese Orchestra, she immediately joined.

Other than the erhu and the liuqin, the group’s instruments are composed of the guzheng, a plucked string instrument, the dizi, a bamboo flute and the pipa, an instrument similar to a lute.

Unlike the American musical scale, the orchestra reads notes on a number scale from one to seven. Each note, or number, represents a different pitch.

These seven pitches and instruments, with the help of the artists in the orchestra, can produce songs that have a Chinese flavor.

To celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year this week, the group will be performing from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Feb. 1 at Meridian Mall.