Under the leadership of 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner, multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens, the Grammy-winning Silkroad Ensemble illuminates the impact of under-recognized voices in America’s expansion west. The project explores the creation of the Transcontinental Railroad through the contributions of African American, Chinese, Irish, Indigenous, and other communities, their cultures, and their music. Chinese traditional instruments like the guzheng, pipa, erhu, and qinqin are contrasted with the fiddle, bones, tambo, and banjo of Black musical traditions, and their Indigenous and Celtic counterparts. New compositions and commissions weave these disparate traditions together to tell a new version of the American story.
Join us for a pre-performance panel at 6:30pm, and a post-performance community conversation.
An Illuminations: “Individual & Community” event.