Silk Road Ensemble Artists

Ben Haggarty
storyteller (b. 1958, United Kingdom)

"The most challenging task facing a Storyteller, today, is making the stories of the past have valid meaning now. There are no scripts in storytelling. Each telling of a traditional tale is a unique improvised event. It is an interpretive art in which the tellers are simultaneously the authors, directors and performers of their words. My job is to try, in the dynamic moment of performance, to engage directly with all the potent energies existing between audience, story and storyteller—in this way ‘a happening’ may occur, something immediate, magical and memorable."

Since 1981, Ben Haggarty has been one of the prime forces behind the revival of the art of professional storytelling in Britain. He is internationally respected for his tellings of traditional tales for both adults and children, and for his knowledge and understanding of stories and of diverse storytelling traditions. Equipped with a repertoire of over 300 carefully researched traditional narratives, he can explore many themes evoking many moods. He tells his stories with glee.  He directed Britain's first-ever storytelling festival in 1985 and is responsible for programming the storytellers for the annual Beyond the Border International Storytelling Festival, Britain's premier storytelling festival, attracting more than 2,000 people each year. He is the artistic coordinator of the legendary Crick Crack Club - an international collective of outstanding storytellers. He has been a programming consultant for presenting organizations such as The Royal National Theatre, The Royal Festival Hall and The Barbican Centre, and has been featured on many television and radio programs.

Ben Haggarty is an advisor and storyteller for the Silk Road Project family concert series.