Courtesy photo.
West Coast premiere of an original work featuring new music by Rhiannon Giddens, Wu Man, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Suzanne Kite and more
SUMMARY
- Thu, Nov 9 | 8:00 p.m. | The Granada Theatre
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- This performance is the West Coast Premiere of American Railroad
- The Silkroad Ensemble, founded in 1998 by Yo-Yo Ma, is a touring ensemble comprised of world-class musicians from all over the globe and a social impact organization working to make positive change across borders through the arts
- Rhiannon Giddens is the second Artistic Director of Silkroad, following Yo-Yo Ma. Giddens won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Music for Omar and was music director of the 2023 Ojai Music Festival. She is a founding member of Carolina Chocolate Drops and Our Native Daughters and was a 2017 MacArthur Fellow
- Come back for more Rhiannon Giddens when she returns to UCSB Arts & Lectures with her band for You’re the One on April 23, 2024
- American Railroad is part of the California Festival, a statewide music initiative showcasing compelling and forward-looking voices in performances of works written in the past five years
- $100 / $75 / $50 / $35 / $19 UCSB students (Current student ID required) (A Granada facility fee will be added to each ticket price)
- Tickets & Info: Arts & Lectures box office online www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu or call (805) 893-3535; or the Granada Theatre box office at www.granadasb.org or call (805) 899-2222
“Silkroad has people from all over, and that’s what makes it such a great group to represent the American story, because that’s what the American story is. We are world music.”– Rhiannon Giddens
SANTA BARBARA – UCSB Arts & Lectures presents American Railroad by Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens on Thursday, November 9 at 8:00 p.m. at The Granada Theatre. Under the leadership of 2023 Pulitzer Prize-winner Rhiannon Giddens, the genre-defying Silkroad Ensemble embarks on a new initiative that amplifies the untold stories of African American, Chinese, Indigenous, Irish and other communities in the creation of North America’s railroads. Chinese traditional music on the suona and pipa is contrasted with the fiddle and banjo of Black musical traditions, and their Indigenous and Celtic counterparts. These cultural intersections reveal a thread of commonality despite their varied origins, and remind us of the intricately rich American story.
Rhiannon Giddens, banjo, voice
Shawn Conley, bass
Pura Fé Crescioni, lap steel guitar, voice
Haruka Fujii, percussion
Sandeep Das, tablas
Karen Ouzounian, cello
Mazz Swift, violin, voice
Niwel Tsumbu, guitar
Francesco Turrisi, frame drums, accordion
Kaoru Watanabe, percussion
Michi Wiancko, violin
Wu Man, pipa
Yazhi Guo, suona, Chinese percussion
“St. James Infirmary Blues” Silkroad Ensemble and Rhiannon Giddens
ABOUT AMERICAN RAILROAD
Silkroad’s newest initiative, American Railroad, illuminates the impact of African American, Chinese, Indigenous, Irish and other immigrant communities on the creation of the U.S. Transcontinental Railroad and connecting railways in North America. Exploring the dissemination of cultures across the United States, the railroad was to North America what the Silk Road was to China, the Far East and Europe.
These and other immigrant populations played a fundamental role in one of America’s most important technological and economic achievements of the 19th century – and shaped its cultural identity – yet their contributions have all too often been erased from history. This project will amplify untold stories to paint a richer, more accurate picture of the origins of the American Empire which profoundly reverberate today, and the formation of our multifaceted American identities. As acknowledged in The New York Times, Silkroad’s newest undertaking challenges modern perceptions of American identity by highlighting stories untold and voices unheard.
The program features new, original music written by Ensemble members and outside composers. Cécile McLorin Salvant, Suzanne Kite, and Silkroad artist Wu Man will debut three new commissions on this landmark tour, along with re-envisioned arrangements by Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens and Silkroad ensemble members Haruka Fujii and Maeve Gilchrist.
Two of the American Railroad tour commissions come from artists new to Silkroad. Grammy Award-winning vocalist and composer Cécile McLorin Salvant’s work is inspired by stories shared with and collected by Silkroad artists. Oglala Lakota artist, composer and academic Suzanne Kite has created a graphic score in the Lakota written language based on dreams from members of the Silkroad Ensemble. Silkroad artist and pipa virtuoso Wu Man has also created a new work for the initiative, arranged by Chinese composer Haihui Zhang.
Led by Giddens, this multi-year landmark project will feature commissions of new music, artist residencies in schools and communities, a new album, a documentary series, several nationwide tours, visual art installations, curriculum development, a theatrical production and more.
ABOUT SILKROAD ENSEMBLE
Yo-Yo Ma conceived Silkroad in 1998 as a reminder that even as rapid globalization resulted in division, it brought extraordinary possibilities for working together. Seeking to understand this dynamic, he recognized the historical Silk Road as a model for cultural collaboration – for the exchange of ideas, tradition and innovation across borders. In a groundbreaking experiment, he brought 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.
This initial gathering of artists was rooted in a simple question: “What happens when strangers meet?” And thus Silkroad was born, as both a touring ensemble of world-class musicians from all over the globe, and a social impact organization working to make a positive change across borders through the arts.
Today, under the leadership of Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens, Silkroad creates music that engages difference, sparking cultural collaboration and high quality arts education to help build a more hopeful and inclusive world.
For more information, please visit Silkroad.org.
ABOUT RHIANNON GIDDENS
Rhiannon Giddens has made a singular, iconic career out of stretching her brand of folk music, with its miles-deep historical roots and contemporary sensibilities, into just about every field imaginable. A two-time Grammy Award-winning singer and instrumentalist, 2017 MacArthur Fellowship recipient and composer of opera, ballet and film, Giddens has centered her work around lifting up people whose contributions to American musical history have previously been overlooked or erased, and advocating for a more accurate understanding of the country’s musical origins through art.
Giddens also is exploring other mediums and creative possibilities just as actively as she has American musical history. Omar, the opera she wrote with film composer Michael Abels (Get Out, Us, Nope), received the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Music; with her partner Francesco Turrisi she wrote and performed the music for the ballet Black Lucy and the Bard, which was recorded for PBS’ Great Performances; and she has appeared on the ABC hit drama Nashville as well as Ken Burns’ Country Music series on PBS.
Giddens has published children’s books and written and performed music for the soundtrack of Red Dead Redemption II, one of the best selling video games of all time. She sang for the Obamas at the White House; is a three-time NPR Tiny Desk Concert alum; and hosts her own show on PBS, My Music with Rhiannon Giddens, as well as the Aria Codepodcast.
As Pitchfork once said, “few artists are so fearless and so ravenous in their exploration” – a journey that has led to NPR naming her one of its 25 Most Influential Women Musicians of the 21st Century and to American Songwriter calling her “one of the most important musical minds currently walking the planet.”
Her third solo studio album, You’re The One, was released on August 18, 2023 on Nonesuch Records. Join Giddens and her band for a concert featuring music from You’re the Oneand other solo projects when she returns to UCSB Arts & Lectures with her band on April 23, 2024.
ABOUT UCSB ARTS & LECTURES
Founded in 1959, UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L) is the largest and most influential arts and lectures organization between Los Angeles and San Francisco. A&L annually presents more than a hundred public events, from critically acclaimed concerts and dance performances by world-renowned artists to talks by groundbreaking authors and film series at UCSB and Santa Barbara-area venues. With a mission to “educate, entertain and inspire,” A&L also oversees an outreach program that brings visiting artists and speakers into local classrooms and other venues for master classes, open rehearsals, discussions and more, serving K-12 students, college students and the general public.
American Railroad by Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures in association with UCSB Department of Music and UCSB Global Engagement as part of International Education Week.
Major sponsor: Jody & John Arnhold
Supporting sponsors: Mary Becker and Barbara Stupay
Special Thanks: Santa Barbara Independent, KCRW, KUSC, KCSB
Part of the California Festival, a statewide music initiative showcasing the most compelling and forward-looking voices in performances of new works written in the past five years.
Tickets are $100 Gold Circle / $100 / $75 / $50 / $35 / $19 UCSB students (Current student ID required) (A Granada facility fee will be added to each ticket price)
For tickets or more information, call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535 or purchase online at www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu, or call the Granada Theatre box office (805) 899-2222 or online at granadasb.org
UCSB Arts & Lectures gratefully acknowledges our Community Partners the Natalie Orfalea Foundation & Lou Buglioli for their generous support of the 2023-2024 season.