American Railroad: Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens

As a social-impact organization and home to a Grammy Award-winning musical
ensemble, Silkroad works to inspire collaboration in innovative ways that add more equity and justice into the world through the power of the arts. Today, under the leadership of Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens, Silkroad reaches new heights through a commitment to new music, a re-sparked mission towards cultural collaboration, and a reinvigorated focus to high-quality arts education that both reflects its mission and the times in which we live.

Silkroad Ensemble’s newest initiative, American Railroad, illuminates the impact of African American, Chinese, Irish, and other immigrant laborers who built the Transcontinental Railroad, and the indigenous communities who were displaced by it. Exploring the dissemination of cultures across the United States, the railroad was to North America what the Silk Road was to China, the Far East, and Europe.

These and other immigrant populations played a fundamental role in one of America’s most important technological and economic achievements of the 19th century – and shaped its cultural identity – yet their contributions have all too often been erased from history. This performance will amplify untold stories to paint a richer, more accurate picture of the origins of the American Empire which profoundly reverberate today, and the formation of our multifaceted American identities.

Led by artistic director Rhiannon Giddens, each stop on the American Railroad tour will contextualize — or rather re-contextualize — the railroad through music. Chinese traditional music on the suona and pipa are contrasted with the fiddle and banjo of Black musical traditions, or their Indigenous and Celtic counterparts. These cultural intersections reveal a thread of commonality despite their varied origins, and remind us of the intricately rich American story.

As highlighted in the New York Times, Silkroad’s newest undertaking challenges modern perceptions of the American identity by highlighting stories untold and voices unheard. The program features new, original music written by Ensemble members and outside composers.