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The Silk Road Ensemble: globalFEST 2012

By Anastasia Tsioulcas
Published January 10, 2012 at 9:53 AM EST
The Silk Road Ensemble performs during globalFEST at New York City's Webster Hall on Jan. 8.
Ryan Muir for NPR
The Silk Road Ensemble performs during globalFEST at New York City's Webster Hall on Jan. 8.

Cross-cultural dialogue never sounded as good as this 14-member group, founded by superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Blending music from points near and far, this is a serious all-star ensemble, which — even without its founder's presence — brings fabulous energy to all of its outings.

Four of The Silk Road Ensemble's core Western classical-oriented members also play as Brooklyn Rider — a longtime NPR Music staff favorite — while other master musicians in this adventurous band include the Galician gaita (bagpipe) dazzler Cristina Pato and pipa virtuoso (and Tiny Desk Concert veteran) Wu Man. When they all played out together in full force, their pure joy and unyielding virtuosity provided one of the evening's highest high points.

Set List

  • "Caronte"

  • Tabla improvisation

  • "Ascending Bird"

  • "Taranta Project (Movements 1, 2, 4, 3)"

  • "Rionji"

  • "Yanzi (Swallow Song)"

  • "Turceasca"

    • Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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    Anastasia Tsioulcas
    Anastasia Tsioulcas is a reporter on NPR's Arts desk. She is intensely interested in the arts at the intersection of culture, politics, economics and identity, and primarily reports on music. Recently, she has extensively covered gender issues and #MeToo in the music industry, including backstage tumult and alleged secret deals in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against megastar singer Plácido Domingo; gender inequity issues at the Grammy Awards and the myriad accusations of sexual misconduct against singer R. Kelly.
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