Boston Conservatory Orchestra with Silkroad Artists

DINUK WIJERATNE: “Canons, Circles” from Tabla Concerto

The origins of the tabla are somewhat obscure, but it is evident that this "king" of the Indian percussion instruments has achieved global popularity for the richness of its timbre and virtuosity of a rhythmically complex repertoire that cannot be separated from the instrument itself. In writing a large-scale work for tabla and symphony orchestra, Dinuk Wijeratne allows each entity to preserve its own aesthetic, and at the same time, set the stage for new discoveries. While steeped in tradition, the tabla lends itself heartily to innovation and has shown its cultural versatility as an increasingly sought-after instrument in contemporary Western contexts. This notion led to “Canon, Circles,” an opening movement that would do the not-so-obvious by placing the tabla first in a decidedly non-Indian context. Here, initiated by a quasi-Baroque canon in four parts, the music quickly turns into an evocation of a genre of electronic music: "Drum-&-Bass," characterised by rapid "breakbeat" rhythms in the percussion. Of course, there are some North-Indian classical musical elements present as well. The whole makes for a rather bizarre stew that reflects globalization.
 

OSVALDO GOLIJOV: K’in Sventa Ch’ul Me’tik Kwadalupe (Ritual for the Holy Mother of Guadalupe)

Osvaldo Golijov was born and raised in Argentina, surrounded by classical music, klezmer, and tango. He describes Air to Air as “music borne from community.” To him, both the music and musicians of the Silkroad Ensemble exemplify this concert. In searching for materials for the group, he returned to four pieces originally written for voice. The third movement of this piece, K’in Sventa Ch’ul Me’tik Kwadalupe (Ritual for the Holy Mother of Guadalupe), is a direct reference to prayers to the Holy Mother of Guadalupe in Chiapas, Mexico, the instruments blending with a recording of actual indigenous voices.  
 

COLIN JACOBSEN/SIAMEK AGHAEI, Traditional Persian: Ascending Bird

Long after a journey that violinist Colin Jacobsen took to Iran in 2005, something that lingered in his memory was hearing a field recording of folk music from the Khorasani region in Eastern Iran; what had emerged from the speakers was unlike anything he had ever heard before. It was as if he had a window to both the ancient world and a surprisingly contemporary one, similar to the feeling one often has when looking at the beguiling sculpture from ancient civilizations. Jacobsen's ears were held to attention by the sound of an incredibly potent and piercing instrument, which was made out of the fused bones of a bird and measured little more than two inches in length. The music also encoded a popular mythical story (with Zoroastrian connections) of a bird attempting to fly to the sun. Failing on the first two attempts, on the third try the bird loses its physical body in the radiant embrace of the sun, a metaphor for spiritual transcendence. What later emerged out of the experience was this of Ascending Bird.
 

KAORU WATANABE: Shinobu

Kaoru Watanabe composed Shinobu as a lullaby for his newborn daughter. As a new father and working musician, Watanabe maintained a semblance of a practice routine by humming gentle improvisations over a 15-beat rhythmic cycle while cradling his daughter for hours on end. Those improvisations became the basis of Shinobu, which has continued to expand and transform as his daughter grows older, mirroring her playful, inquisitive, and increasingly complex personality.
 

MAEVE GILCHRIST/LUKE BENTON: “Peace” from In Pursuit

In movement four of “Peace,” a groundbreaking new work for Celtic harp and symphony orchestra, harpist and composer Maeve Gilchrist and composer and orchestrator Luke Benton draw on elements of Gilchrist's native Scottish music while transforming the ancient instrument into a vehicle for new sounds within a diverse, textural landscape. Inspired by her mother's book (In Pursuit of Kate Corbett by Anne Loughnane, pub. Grosvenor House Publishing), In Pursuit of Kate Corbett is a four-part concerto that follows the incredible tale of Gilchrist's great-great-grandmother, Kate Corbett, who travelled with her family from her prosperous Dublin home across the Atlantic, eventually reaching the alien landscape of Wyoming, where they settled into the challenging life of homesteading. It was a journey full of heartache, loss, and great love. Broken into four movements—“The Voyage,” “New York,” “Wyoming,” and “Peace”—the concerto is intended to evoke the vivid succession of landscapes and colors that such a journey must have involved with its new experiences, sounds, sights, and smells.

The fourth movement, “Peace,” focuses in on the contemplative last chapter of her life, when Corbett, by then a widow of 57, makes the crossing one more time in order to enter the monastic life as a Cistercian nun at a convent in England. Stillness, breath, and a sense of quiet wonder are celebrated in this amalgamation of the old and new. Fragments of Te Deum plainchant are embedded in the undulating strings and the harp sits in the center of this narrative, an iconic symbol of Ireland, at times ringing out like a bell and at others, floating far above and seemingly independent of the orchestra.

Sandeep Das, Tabla

A prolific international artist regarded as India’s top tabla maestro, Sandeep Das is one of the leading tabla virtuosos in the world. Das is one of the unique Indian classical musicians who has collaborated and performed with and composed for major symphony orchestras, string quartets, and jazz musicians with regularly featured concerts at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Hollywood Bowl, Royal Albert Hall, and the Concertgebouw, to name a few. He has performed at notable events, such as the 150-year celebration of the UNO at the General Assembly Hall in New York City, the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics in Shanghai, the opening ceremony of the first Asia Expo in Kunming, China, and the World Economic Forum. He has also performed for visiting dignitaries including the Queen of England, the Queen of Thailand, the pope, and many other heads of state. His collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silkroad Ensemble for “Sing Me Home” won the 2017 Grammy Award for Best World Music album. He has had two previous Grammy nominations in 2005 and 2009.

Das has composed several pieces combining both percussion and melody. His recent composition “King Ashoka” premiered at University of California, Santa Barbara by Yo-Yo Ma and the Silkroad Ensemble and also toured in Asia. His piece “Tarang” was chosen as the theme music for Blind Sight, a documentary about the first Mount Everest climb by six blind climbers; “Mohini” was the theme music for the Japanese TV channel NHK’s 10-episode documentary on the Silkroad Ensemble; and “Srishti,” a percussive, rich composition, has been performed worldwide. Read Das’s full bio.

Maeve Gilchrist, Celtic Harp

Described by one critic as “a phenomenal harp player who can make her instrument ring with unparalleled purity,” Maeve Gilchrist has taken the Celtic harp to new levels of performance. Born and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland, and currently based in Brooklyn, New York, Gilchrist‘s innovative approach to her instrument stretches its harmonic limits and improvisational possibilities. She is as at home as a soloist with an internationally renowned orchestra as she is playing with a traditional Irish folk group or using electronic augmentation in a more contemporary, improvisatory setting.

Gilchrist tours internationally as a band leader, in addition to maintaining collaborations with various artists, including a duo project with percussive dancer Nic Gareiss, an electronics-based project with Viktor Krauss, and as a member of Edges of Light, a multidisciplinary group featuring the piper David Power, dancer Colin Dunne, and fiddler Tola Custy. Gilchrist has appeared at major music events, including the Celtic Connections in Glasgow, the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, the World Harp Congress in Amsterdam, and the opening of the Scottish parliament. She has performed with such luminaries as Esperanza Spalding, Tony Trishka, Ambrose Akinmusire, Solas, and Darol Anger. Read Gilchrist’s full bio.

Kaoru Watanabe, Japanese Shinobue Flutes, Taiko Drums

Kaoru Watanabe is a Brooklyn-based composer and musician specializing in Japanese percussion and shinobue flutes. He has spent decades artfully blending the sounds of Japanese instruments with those from around the world, collaborating with such artists as National Living Treasure Bando Tamasaburo, Jason Moran, So Percussion, Adam Rudolph, Kenny Endo, Stefon Harris, Kiyohiko Semba, Alicia Hall Moran, Tamango, calligrapher Kakinuma Koji, visual artist Simone Leigh, and film director Martin Scorsese. He was also featured as a guest artist on Yo-Yo Ma's Grammy Award–winning album, Sing Me Home.

After graduating from Manhattan School of Music with a B.A. in jazz flute and saxophone, Watanabe moved to Japan and joined the world-renowned taiko performing arts ensemble Kodo, and was the first non-Japanese artist to become a member. He spent close to a decade performing with Kodo, as well as artistically directing their world music festival Earth Celebration, for which he curated works with esteemed guests Zakir Hussain, Giovanni Hidalgo, Carlos Nunez, Yosuke Yamashita, and more. Read Watanabe’s full bio.

Listen to Silkroad

Yo-Yo Ma conceived Silkroad in 1998 as a reminder that even as rapid globalization resulted in division, it brought extraordinary possibilities for working together. Seeking to understand this dynamic, he began to learn about the historical Silk Road, recognizing in it a model for productive cultural collaboration, for the exchange of ideas and tradition alongside commerce and innovation. And in a radical experiment, he brought together musicians from the lands of the Silk Road to cocreate a new artistic idiom, a musical language founded in difference, a metaphor for the benefits of a more connected world.

Today, these Grammy Award-winning artists seek and practice radical cultural collaboration in many forms, creating and presenting new music, teacher and musician training workshops, and residency programs in schools, museums, and communities.

Silkroad has recorded seven albums. Sing Me Home, which won the 2016 Grammy for Best World Music Album was developed and recorded alongside the documentary feature The Music of Strangers, from Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville.

Learn more about Silkroad and explore their esteemed artists.