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Yo-Yo Ma welcoming the audience to the free performance showcasing the work of the students and teachers in the Silk road Connect program

6/20/2011 9:43:00 AM

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Instrumental in pulling together the show, Tony Award-winning actor and clown Bill Irwin played the innkeeper of our caravanserai, a businessman who learns the value of sharing

6/20/2011 9:43:00 AM

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Inimitable vocalist Bobby McFerrin, jazz trumpeter Marcus Printup and guest harpist Riza Hequibal-Printup with members of the Caravanserai band, including Kayhan Kalhor (front right)

6/20/2011 9:43:00 AM

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Charles "Lil Buck" Riley (of YouTube fame) performs his amazing Memphis-style jookin' dance to Saint-Saens' "The Swan"

6/20/2011 9:43:00 AM

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Students from PS 161 in Harlem performing a fire dance as part of their performance during "Night of the Caravanserai: Tales of Wonder"

6/20/2011 9:57:00 AM

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Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri reading a myth about the origins of eclipses

6/20/2011 9:43:00 AM

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Students from Frederick Douglass Academy III in the Bronx enacting their own original myth of the creation of indigo, a dye that throughout history has linked cultures across the world

6/20/2011 9:43:00 AM

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Teachers and families of our Silk Road Connect students in their front-row seats for the performance

6/20/2011 9:43:00 AM

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Yo-Yo Ma and Bill Irwin exchanging a running joke about the cello

6/20/2011 9:43:00 AM

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Students from MS 584 in Brooklyn in a performance combining hip hop and Indian dance

6/20/2011 10:00:00 AM

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Students from PS 161 presenting a narrative about traveling along the Silk Road in search of goods and safety, and learning to communicate

6/20/2011 10:00:00 AM

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Opera singer Emalie Savoy, a Lindemann Young Artist at the Metropolitan Opera, performing "Song to the Moon" from the Dvořák opera "Rusalka"

6/20/2011 9:43:00 AM

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An electric moment: a student from MS 584 takes the spotlight with Lil Buck

6/20/2011 9:43:00 AM

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Enacting the myth of indigo called for some wonderful storm animation from Frederick Douglass Academy III

6/20/2011 9:43:00 AM

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Proud parents and teachers at the SummerStage performance

6/20/2011 9:43:00 AM

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Marcus Printing leading the Caravanserai band into the "Tales of Wonder" finale

6/20/2011 9:43:00 AM

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The SummerStage stage during dress rehearsal in the afternoon, while visual artist Kevork Mourad practices live painting projected on the stage screen

6/20/2011 9:43:00 AM

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Yo-Yo Ma, Bobby McFerrin and the Caravanserai band, made up of members of the Silk Road Ensemble and the chamber orchestra The Knights, in dress rehearsal with music director Mike Block

6/20/2011 9:43:00 AM

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Yo-Yo Ma greeting students from JHS 185 in Queens as they arrive for dress rehearsal at SummerStage

6/20/2011 10:00:00 AM

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Students from PS 161 excited to be at SummerStage

6/20/2011 10:00:00 AM

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PS 161 students rehearsing their fire dance on the SummerStage mainstage for the first time

6/20/2011 10:00:00 AM

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Students from JHS 185 cheering student performers from another school during dress rehearsal

6/20/2011 10:00:00 AM

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PS161 students rehearsing with Bill Irwin in their school in Harlem the week prior to the concert at SummerStage

6/20/2011 10:00:00 AM

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Bill Irwin miming during a rehearsal at JHS 185 in Queens, with "Night at the Caravanserai: Tales of Wonder" music director Mike Block in the background

6/20/2011 9:43:00 AM

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"Night at the Caravansera: Tales of Wonder" director Damian Woetzel with students at PS 161

6/20/2011 9:43:00 AM

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Lil Buck with Yo-Yo Ma in rehearsal at JHS 185

6/20/2011 9:43:00 AM

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Shanir Blumenkranz with the gimbri (or sinter), a three-string, skin-covered bass lute, which he played in the encore, "Ethiopian Song," in New Haven

6/20/2011 9:43:00 AM

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Dress rehearsal on the New Haven Green with umbrellas and squeegees to keep the stage dry

6/20/2011 9:43:00 AM

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Some members of our wonderful audience at the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven, who stayed for the outdoor concert despite the showers

6/20/2011 9:43:00 AM

United States – New York Area Concerts
June 4-11, 2011

Our series of New York area performances began on June 4 with a concert by the Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. The group kicked it off with a new collaborative piece, "Vojo," by Galician gaita player Cristina Pato and Japanese shakuhachi player Kojiro Umezaki. Afterward, the Ensemble shifted gears for two very different free public performances.

First, on June 7, several hundred of our sixth-grade Silk Road Connect students and their teachers took the stage with the Silk Road Ensemble, Yo-Yo Ma, The Knights chamber orchestra and some very special guests in Central Park for "Night at the Caravanserai: Tales of Wonder." A sudden heat wave sent temperatures soaring above 90 degrees, but students patiently rehearsed for hours at the SummerStage Mainstage, supporting the other schools as they practiced, before sharing the spotlight that evening, when thousands came to watch their free performance launching the SummerStage season.

Actor Bill Irwin played the Innkeeper of our caravanserai, an imaginary inn along the Silk Road where travelers gathered for a Festival of the Stars and learned some lessons along the way about the value of communication and sharing. This evening featured music, art, dance, songs and stories of exploration and learning, and we are so proud of the students and teachers who showcased their work in this performance:

Edward Bleeker JHS 185 (Queens)
Frederick Douglass Academy III (The Bronx)
Granville T. Woods MS 584 (Brooklyn)
PS/MS 161 Pedro Albizu Campos School (Harlem)

A remarkable lineup of guest artists lent their own star power to the celebration, which was directed by Damian Woetzel, former ballet star and director of the Vail International Dance Festival, with music direction by our own cellist and Lead Silk Road Connect Teaching Artist Mike Block:

Memphis-style 'jookin dancer Charles "Lil Buck" Riley
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri
Grammy Award-winning vocalist Bobby McFerrin
Jazz trumpeter Marcus Printup
Harpist Riza Hequibal-Printup
Soprano Emalie Savoy

A review and photo slideshow in the New York Times captured some of the excitement and educational impact of the event:

"The riotous mash-up of a finale—'End of Day' with 'Taps,' 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' and 'I Gotta Feeling'—harked back to Mr. Woetzel's comment at the outset about 'the joy of learning through the arts.'"

- New York Times

After the heat in Central Park, the cold, stormy weather just four days later in New Haven came as a surprise. Nevertheless, the Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma performed a free 90-minute program on the New Haven Green for an umbrella-wielding audience of around 8,000 who braved the intermittent rain showers. That afternoon, our artistic director Yo-Yo Ma and CEO & executive director Laura Freid gave a presentation about the kinds of historical cultural exchange that inspired the Silk Road Project, and in the evening we had a fantastic audience for the concert to kick off this year's International Festival of Arts & Ideas.

"Night at the Caravanserai: Tales of Wonder" was made possible by Hyosung, Lead Sponsor of the Silk Road Project; Rolex, Exclusive Partner of the Silk Road Project; the National Endowment for the Arts; MetLife Foundation, Official 2011 Tour Sponsor of the Silk Road Project; Pershing Square Foundation; NYC Department of Education; Ford Foundation; Carnegie Corporation; New York Community Trust; Union Square Fund; and Con Edison of New York.

Silk Road Ensemble Artists

Mike Block, cello
Shanir Blumenkranz, contrabass
Nicholas Cords, viola
Sandeep Das, tabla
Hadi Eldebek, oud
Haruka Fujii, percussion
Jonathan Gandelsman, violin
Joseph Gramley, percussion
Colin Jacobsen, violin
Eric Jacobsen, cello
Kayhan Kalhor, kamancheh
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Max Mandel, viola
Kevork Mourad, visual artist
Cristina Pato, gaita
Shane Shanahan, percussion
Mark Suter, percussion
Kojiro Umezaki, shakuhachi

United States – New York Area ConcertsJune 4-11, 2011

Silk Road Ensemble Artists

United States – New York Area Concerts
June 4-11, 2011