In This Story
Culminating its fourth consecutive year as a Mason Artist-in-Residence, Grammy Award-winning Silkroad ensemble led March events on George Mason University’s campus and out in the community in conjunction with its performance of Sanctuary: The Power of Resonance and Ritual on March 22 at the Center for the Arts.
Sanctuary explores across how in cultures—from Morocco to India to Ireland—the communal act of music-making has been linked to trance, release, and connection, providing soothing and solace in times of conflict, uncertainty, and change. The residency events helped demonstrate how these traditions can help us rebuild community through shared musical experience, seeking to uplift and offering joy, hope, and a renewed sense of belonging through collective listening and presence.
Silkroad member Sandeep Das, tabla, and Silkroad guest artist Mauro Durante, tamburello, violin, vocals, visited George Mason Dewberry School of Music Professor Greg Robinson’s “Music History in Society III” course, discussing their musical history and practices, teaching the students some rhythms, and participating in a Q&A.
Silkroad members Maeve Gilchrist, harp; Haruka Fujii, percussion; and Shawn Conley, bass also led a workshop with composition students of teacher Matt Carlin at Fairfax Academy for Communications and the Arts, part of the Fairfax County Public Schools. The Silkroad artists talked with students about their backgrounds and cultural practices, and helped workshop a student composition, layering the group’s improvisations on top of his work, and ending with a Q&A.
George Mason University School of Art Professor Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz’s Figure Drawing class also attended an open rehearsal of the full Silkroad Ensemble, during which the students sketched the musicians.
At the Stacy C. Sherwood Community Center on March 23, co-presented with the City of Fairfax, ensemble members led a participatory Silkroad Resonance Circle (Community Jam). At the free event, Silkroad members invited members of the public of all levels to bring instruments or sing along, and many took the opportunity to participate improvisatorily. Instruments in the room ranged from guitars, recorders, and various percussion instruments—including cajon, maracas, and djembe—to melodica, tuba, and banjo.
Silkroad Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens opened the event by leading the audience in contra dancing, noting that that was how she had first become interested in playing the banjo.
Attendees then learned songs aurally from the musicians and played along to Moroccan beats from Mehdi Nassouli, on guembri and frame drum, an Italian tune with Francesco Turrisi on accordion, and an Armenian ballad with Karen Ouzounian on cello.
Violinist and vocalist Mazz Swift explained and demonstrated their method of “conduction” (conducted improvisation) with the audience, cueing different sections of the room to improvise on instruments or vocally when given a downbeat. As Swift brought in different sections gradually, to ultimately fill the room with communal sound, Jasmine Queen, an elementary-school aged guitarist who had been playing along, summed up for the group: “It’s like a bowl and you’re mixing it all together.”
Giddens then taught the group aurally the chorus of an African American spiritual “I know I’ve been changed,” and led a sing-along.
Giddens closed the event, singing an acknowledgment of “Our beloved community” and noting to the Silkroad ensemble—which also included members Shawn Conley, bass and Niwel Tsumbu, guitar—“Our part is done,” then gesturing to the audience, “The rest is up to you,” inviting participants to carry the musical goodwill, the embracing of difference, the beautiful collision of cultures, out into the world, to pay it forward to others.
