Music Worcester presents Silkroad Ensemble featuring Grammy Award-Winning musician and vocalist Rhiannon Giddens at Indian Ranch in Webster, MA on Wednesday, July 27, 2022. Tickets are on sale now at www.indianranch.com. This is the Silkroad Ensemble’s debut tour with Grammy Award-winning musician and vocalist Rhiannon Giddens since her appointment as Artistic Director in July 2020. Giddens will lead the Silkroad Ensemble in their latest collaboration, Phoenix Rising.
A musical rebirth and celebration, Phoenix Rising takes a cross-section of Silkroad’s award-winning compositions and arrangements and re-imagines them for today. Keeping an eye on the past, members of the Silkroad Ensemble and Giddens have also collaborated on new works that coalesce her unique worldview with the Ensemble’s collective experience during the pandemic. As such, Phoenix Rising unveils three major new commissions by Silkroad artists Sandeep Das, Maeve Gilchrist, and Kaoru Watanabe. The program also includes new arrangements by Rhiannon Giddens, Colin Jacobsen, Edward Pérez, and Mazz Swift.
Rhiannon Giddens has pursued a lifelong quest to shine light on under-recognized voices, genres, and musical traditions. A MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient, Giddens co-founded the Grammy Award-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, and she has been nominated for six additional Grammys for her work as a soloist and collaborator. As a performer, composer, and cross-cultural connector, she has helped to change the understanding of both American and world music. Giddens has performed with the Silkroad Ensemble numerous times, but her appearances with them this season will be her first since succeeding Yo-Yo Ma as Artistic Director. Along with Silkroad’s artists, Giddens has shaped a program that will serve to connect the ever-evolving organization and its Ensemble.
With 11 Grammy Award nominations between them, Giddens and the Silkroad Ensemble will undertake new arrangements of certain songs long-associated with the group to feature their new Artistic Director, but have also commissioned new works.
“Music Worcester has been so fortunate to welcome the Silkroad Ensemble before, and some of its current and former members individually over the years. As we think about what and whom we should be presenting coming out of the pandemic years, we could not be more excited to be bringing the Ensemble back this summer with its new director, Rhiannon Giddens,” said Adrien Finlay, Music Worcester Executive Director, “The Phoenix Rising program will certainly allow us to revel in the extraordinary cross-cultural musicianship of the group and look forward with hope to a return to live performing arts here in Central MA.”
Indian Ranch offers music lovers a chance to see some of the greatest performers steps from Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg. Nestled between pine trees, the amphitheater offers the ability to see the stage from anywhere in the audience.
Tickets for Phoenix Rising: Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 are available online at www.indianranch.com, by calling 1-800-514-ETIX (3849) or at the Indian Ranch Box Office. All events are rain or shine. No refunds. Indian Ranch is located at 200 Gore Road in Webster, MA outside of Worcester and less than an hour’s drive from Boston, Providence, Hartford and Springfield. For more information, visit www.indianranch.com.
About Music Worcester:
Music Worcester, Inc., originally known as the Worcester County Music Association, for years ran the Worcester Music Festival. Current programs reflect the merger in the mid-1990s of the Festival with International Artists Series and the MA Jazz Festival. Great performances by world-renowned orchestras and guest soloists, chamber music, ballet, world music and dance, jazz and choral masterworks are hallmarks of Music Worcester’s annual operations. Multiple educational programs currently serve youth and families of greater Worcester: masterclasses by visiting artists, Tickets to Opportunity, Festival Singers, in-schools residencies, and the Young Artist Competitions. Integral to Music Worcester’s annual operations, The Worcester Chorus has been part of the organization since the very first concert season in 1858.
