Although there were no concrete plans then to make a film out of "Memoirs of a Geisha," the cellist recalls Williams was already thinking of a way to illustrate the project musically.

"Early on he was thinking somehow in the recesses of his mind that `Hey, maybe we should do that,' and I know he was interested in the possibility of setting the book to music,'' Ma said.

Williams' vision came true when the bestselling novel about the geisha culture in Japan became a film. And when Williams needed someone to perform the film's sumptuous music, Ma, who has worked with Williams on previous film scores, was one of the first on board, along with friend Itzhak Perlman.

"I think it's pretty rare to have the opportunity to work with so many people that I admire in one project," Ma said.

The movie, in limited release so far, will hit theaters nationwide Friday. The score for the film, which stars Zhang Ziyi, Ken Watanabe and Michelle Yeoh, was recently nominated for a Golden Globe and is available in stores as a soundtrack. Williams' sweeping compositions utilize Japanese instruments for an overall sound that complements the era it was made for.

``He made a score that in some ways is very spare, which fits with the period that is represented in the film, which is actually a unique period in Japanese history because it was a period of transition,'' said Ma. ``Hence, you have all these instruments in transition as well.''

Still, despite the Japanese influence, Ma said the soundtrack is unmistakably a Williams score, which he describes as "always just right on the dot."

The "Geisha" score is the second Ma project this year with an Eastern accent. Earlier, he released his second album with his Silk Road Ensemble featuring musicians from countries ranging from China to Iran.