Silkroad Up Close: Kinan Azmeh, Maeve Gilchrist, and Kaoru Watanabe

Yo-Yo Ma founded Silkroad in 1998 with the aim of bringing together musicians from the lands of the Silk Road to co-create a new artistic idiom: a musical language founded in difference, a metaphor for the benefits of a more connected world.  

Today, the collective is under the leadership of Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens, and continues to create music that engages difference, sparking radical cultural collaboration and passion-driven learning.

Traversing the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, Silkroad presents a brand-new trio that seamlessly blends three disparate narratives of language and sound. Three internationally acclaimed, genre-bending artists who each have been credited with reshaping the landscape of their respective instruments through their unique improvisational styles and compositional voices: composer and instrumentalist Kaoru Watanabe, clarinetist Kinan Azmeh, and harper and composer Maeve Gilchrist. 

Through this unique collaboration, hear three very different voices in conversation with one another as they find the sweet spots of stylistic intersection, dramatic contrast, and virtuosity, forging an entirely new aesthetic that feels as organic as can be.

Event Sponsors: Gina Browning & Joe Illick