Sounds from globalFEST

Nearing 10 p.m. on January 8, the Silk Road Ensemble took the stage in the Grand Ballroom at New York City's landmark Webster Hall. The crowd pressed close—the atmosphere in the nightclub resembled a rock show far more than a classical concert.

The occasion, globalFEST 2012, had gathered 12 groups of artists before a sold-out audience of world music devotees and performing arts presenters. Unlike many of the groups at globalFEST, which represented a single musical tradition or a single region, the 14 musicians in the Silk Road Ensemble that evening arrived from six countries and played instruments as diverse as the Galician gaita, the Indian tabla, the Chinese pipa and sheng, and the Japanese shakuhachi. 

The Ensemble's program drew on many traditions, but the focus of the performance was the meeting of cultures—for this group, a joyous encounter, indeed. We are pleased to be able to share the entire concert with you, courtesy of an audio recording made by NPR Music.

Set List
Caronte — Cristina Pato
Tabla solo — Indian traditional, performed by Sandeep Das
Ascending Bird — Persian traditional, arr. Colin Jacobsen/Siamak Aghaei
Taranta Project — Giovanni Sollima
Rionji — Joseph Gramley
Yanzi (Swallow Song) — Kazakh/Chinese traditional, arr. Zhao Lin
Turceasca — Sapo Perapaskero, arr. Lev Zhurbin and Osvaldo Golijov

In reviews of globalFEST, the New York Times called the Silk Road Ensemble's performance "insistently eclectic...a virtuosic pastiche," and NPR Music's "All Songs Considered" program dubbed it "a joyously rollicking cross-cultural collaboration."

WNYC Soundcheck—In Studio: The Silk Road Ensemble

Several members of the Ensemble—Sandeep Das, Joseph Gramley, Cristina Pato, Shane Shanahan and Kojiro Umezaki—also appeared on WNYC's "Soundcheck" radio program before the show. The recording of the live show, above, includes instrument demonstrations and a discussion about the Silk Road Ensemble's democratic approach to developing and performing music.