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 UNITED STATES
Residency at Rhode Island School of Design
Providence, Rhode Island
April 4-10, 2008
The Silk Road Ensemble’s residency at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) began in February 2008 and continues throughout the spring semester. Five Ensemble members visited the Folktales in the Digital Age class in February and continue to develop collaborative projects with RISD students online.
Students in the Folktales in the Digital Age class are retelling ancient stories through contemporary media for a modern audience. On April 9, students rehearsed their final projects, performance pieces based on traditional tales introduced at the beginning of the semester by Ensemble storyteller Ben Haggarty. Performances involving the students and Ensemble artists will take place in May 2008.
Five additional Silk Road Ensemble members joined the original group for the April residency, which featured two public storytelling concerts at the RISD Auditorium.
Participating Silk Road Ensemble Artists
Mike Block, cello
Nicholas Cords, viola
Jonathan Gandelsman, violin
Joseph Gramley, percussion
Ben Haggarty, storyteller
Hu Jianbing, sheng
Shane Shanahan, percussion
Kojiro Umezaki, shakuhachi
Yang Wei, pipa
Michi Wiancko, violin
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Silk Road Ensemble members Kojiro Umezaki, Yang Wei, Ben Haggarty, Shane Shanahan and Mike Block continue as artists in residence at RISD throughout the spring 2008 semester.
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Two family storytelling concerts involved a larger group, including Michi Wiancko (left) in her first performances with the Silk Road Ensemble.
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Storyteller Ben Haggarty told tales about love and loss and what remains, some interspersed between musical pieces, some accompanied by the Ensemble.
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Three groups of students in the Folktales in the Digital Age group presented concepts for their final projects to the Ensemble members.
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Students worked with a scale model of the RISD Auditorium stage, where they will perform with the Ensemble in May 2008.
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One group will present a story using shadow puppets; for the demonstration, they created miniature puppets and projected images onto screens made of Mylar, linen and sandblasted Plexiglas.
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A second group created life-size cutouts to assist the narrator in telling the tale of a fisherman and his encounters with magical beings.
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A third group displayed models of costumes and scenery and rehearsed “The Onion Children,” a story about two sisters who overcome an affliction through music.
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All photos © David O’Connor 2007 |
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