Silk Road Ensemble Creative Projects

Silk Road Ensemble members are trained in many different artistic and cultural traditions, but they are all united by their curiosity, their eagerness to learn from others, and their passionate engagement with the world. These gifted performers have long been realizing the vision of the Silk Road Project in their own undertakings.

In 2011, the Project began offering stipends of up to $2,000 to Ensemble members for creative initiatives of their own that involve music or education—collaborative projects about which these artists are passionate, and which have the potential to reach a broad population.

Creative Projects to Date

Mississippi River Music Bassist Jeffrey Beecher traveled with accordion player Michael Ward-Bergeman to Louisiana's Mississippi River Delta to research the Acadian influence on Cajun culture for a new musical work.

Silk Road Comics Storyteller Ben Haggarty teamed up with The Phoenix Comic, a weekly children's story-comic, and U.K.-based emerging illustrators to retell four traditional folk tales from regions along the historical Silk Road in sequential narrative art.

American School in Japan Visit At the American School in Japan, shakuhachi player Kojiro Umezaki, and string players Jonathan Gandelsman, Nicholas Cords, Colin Jacobsen and Eric Jacobsen offered performances, master classes, chamber music coaching and workshops. They also performed at Jifukuji temple as part of tsunami relief efforts.

Harmony and Universality through Music Silk Road Ensemble member Sandeep Das recruited musicians for the HUM Ensemble, for cross-tradition performances in India.

Ghostly Tales For his creative project, Silk Road Ensemble member Yang Wei drew inspiration from an early Qing Dynasty collection of supernatural folk tales.

Discovering a Musical Heartland Pipa player Wu Man visited her home country of China to create a documentary of some of its least-known, yet amazingly rich, folk music traditions.

Lullabies Composer and ney player Siamak Jahangiry documented and translated ancient songs from the Mazandaran province in northern Iran, giving new life to these melodies that have passed down from mother to child over generations.

Global Art, Local Audiences Cellist Mike Block presented an innovative performance series at the Brooklyn Lyceum, with different guest collaborators from wildly different backgrounds each week.