Celebrated Silk Road Ensemble To Bring Cultures into Dialog in Concerts in FL, NJ, MA & RI Oct 2012

PRLog (Press Release) - Sep. 5, 2012 - Between October 3 and October 9, 2012, the acclaimed Silk Road Ensemble will perform at the New World Center in Miami, Florida; McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey; The Zeiterion Performing Arts Center in New Bedford, Massachusetts; and Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island. NPR Music applauded this “serious all-star ensemble” for its “fabulous energy” at globalFEST in New York earlier this year. Now the Grammy-nominated international group will bring its signature cross-cultural music to concert halls and universities across the eastern United States.

Virtuoso musicians from India, Japan, Israel, Spain, Iran, the U.S. and China will perform, including Kayhan Kalhor, master of the kamancheh; Wu Man, called by the Los Angeles Times “the artist most responsible for bringing the pipa to the Western World”; and Sandeep Das, considered one of the leading tabla players today.

Concert programs will include “!Chayraq!: Rough Guide to a Modern Day Tawantinsuyu” by Gabriela Lena Frank, who draws on her Peruvian and Chinese heritage and the music of Latin American festivals, and “Turceasca,” a joyous, rhythmic audience favorite by Romanian composer Sapo Perapaskero.

Also on the program are pieces brought to the Ensemble by its performers, including Kayhan Kalhor’s “Gallop of a Thousand Horses,” based on folk melodies of the nomadic Turkmen people; “Atashgah,” written by violinist Colin Jacobsen after visiting an ancient fire temple near the city of Esfahan, Iran; and a suite of short pieces from American composer John Zorn’s Book of Angels, an experiment in Jewish musical styles, arranged by Ensemble musicians from the United States, Israel and Galicia.

In addition to its four concerts, the Silk Road Ensemble will spend three days at Princeton University as part of a series of residencies this fall. Silk Road Project Artistic Director Yo-Yo Ma will also take up his cello to join the Silk Road Ensemble for concerts and residencies at the University of North Carolina, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, and the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point between September 27 and October 18, 2012. For more information, see http://silkroadproject.org/schedule.

Hyosung Corp. is Lead Sponsor of the Silk Road Project 2011-2014. Rolex is the Exclusive Partner of the Silk Road Project 2011-2012.

October 3–9, 2012 Silk Road Ensemble Concerts

Miami, FL: Wednesday, October 3, 7:30 p.m.
New World Center
Presenter media contact: Amy Kawa, amy.kawa@nws.edu, (305) 428-6742

Princeton, NJ:   Friday, October 5, 8 p.m.
McCarter Theatre Center
Presenter media contact: Dan Bauer, dbauer@mccarter.org, (609) 258-6524

New Bedford, MA: Sunday, October 7, 7 p.m.
Zeiterion Performing Arts Center
Presenter media contact: Jason Kenney, jkenney@zeiterion.org, (508) 997-5664 x 12

Smithfield, RI: Tuesday, October 9, 7 p.m.
Bryant University
Presenter media contact: Tracie Sweeney, tsweeney@bryant.edu, (401) 232-6183

Silk Road Ensemble Members on Tour

Jeffrey Beecher, contrabass
Mike Block, cello
Nicholas Cords, viola
Sandeep Das, tabla
Haruka Fujii, percussion
Jonathan Gandelsman, violin
Colin Jacobsen, violin
Kayhan Kalhor, kamancheh
Cristina Pato, gaita (Miami, Princeton, Smithfield)
Shane Shanahan, percussion
Kojiro Umezaki, shakuhachi
Wu Man, pipa
Wu Tong, sheng, bawu

The Silk Road Ensemble

Hailed as “one of the 21st century’s great ensembles” by the Vancouver Sun, the Silk Road Ensemble draws together distinguished performers and composers from more than 20 countries in Asia, Europe and the Americas. Since the Ensemble formed under the artistic direction of Yo-Yo Ma in 2000, the group’s innovative artists have eagerly explored contemporary musical crossroads. The Seattle Times praised the result as “a cornucopia of musical ideas…featuring instrumental and vocal artists of almost unimaginable virtuosity.” The Boston Globe has called the group “a kind of roving musical laboratory without walls.” The description is apt: the Ensemble’s approach is experimental and democratic, founded on collaboration and risk taking, on continual learning and sharing among a kaleidoscope of cultures and art forms.

Members explore one another’s traditions, celebrating the multiplicity of approaches to music from around the world. They also develop new repertoire that responds to the multicultural reality of our global society. As the Los Angeles Times has said, “The Silk Road Ensemble vision of international cooperation is not what we read in our daily news reports. Theirs is the better world available if we, like these extraordinary musicians, agree to make it one.” The Silk Road Ensemble has performed to critical acclaim throughout Asia, Europe and North America and has recorded five albums. The Ensemble’s most recent recording, Off the Map, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album in 2011.

The Silk Road Project

The Silk Road Project is an internationally minded performing arts nonprofit with cultural and educational missions to promote innovation and learning through the arts. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma founded the Project in 1998 with a vision of connecting the world’s neighborhoods by bringing together artists and audiences around the globe. The Project takes inspiration from the historical Silk Road trading routes, using the Silk Road as a modern metaphor for sharing and learning across cultures, art forms and disciplines.

Under the artistic direction of Mr. Ma and the leadership of CEO and Executive Director Laura Freid, the Silk Road Project acts as an imagination platform, encouraging dialogue among artists and musicians, educators and entrepreneurs. The Project presents performances by the acclaimed Silk Road Ensemble, holds cross-cultural exchanges and residencies, leads workshops for students, and partners with prominent cultural institutions to create educational programs and materials. Silk Road Connect, the Project’s multidisciplinary arts-integrated approach to education, works with students and teachers to inspire passion-driven learning. Developing new music is a central undertaking of the Silk Road Project, which has been involved in commissioning and performing more than 70 new musical and multimedia works from composers and arrangers around the world.

Additional Media Resources

For more information on the Silk Road Ensemble, visit the Silk Road Project at http://silkroadproject.org or Opus 3 Artists at http://opus3artists.com.

Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/11967673/1