A Journey through Pain and Healing: the Silkroad Fall '18 Residency
By Meaghan Lanctot '21
ATB Ambassador
Starting their second year of a three-year residency at Holy Cross, Silkroad made waves with their newly expanded version of Home Within. The piece, a gripping and fantastical tale chronicling the plights of the Syrian people from civil war at home to starting new lives as refugees around the world, was created and composed by Syrian Silkroad members Kinan Azmeh and Kevork Mourad.
Mourad spellbound the audience with his digitalized real-time paintings to the mournful melodies of Azmeh's clarinet. Fellow ensemble members Mazz Swift (violin) and Shane Shanahan (percussion) accompanied the two for the piece's first expanded performance, invoking an atmosphere of loss and hope for the future of the country. Home Within correlates with ATB's theme for the year: the ways in which the arts might help us heal.
Hadi Eldebek (oud) and Danny Mekonnen (saxophone) rounded out the group for the evening, performing two other compositions in addition to Home Within. They roused the audience with their arrangements of "Zavebe," a piece from John Zorn's Book of Angels, and "Musicawi Silt," composed by Girma Beyene. "Zavebe" is a musical exploration of Zorn's journey in learning about his Jewish roots, while "Musicawi Silt" remembers the 1970s jazz and funk scenes in Ethiopia. The group also performed a last minute addition to the night's festivities: "16 Hits or Misses #5," an emotionally charged piece composed by Swift in honor of Aiyana Jones, a young victim of police brutality.
Silkroad also spent their residency by visiting classrooms, participating in workshops, and engaging with Worcester-area high school students through Holy Cross' Festival of the Arts. This year marks the second ever Festival, bringing over 200 high school students from local public and private schools to explore and participate in the arts. Silkroad gave another performance of "Zavebe" and "Musicawi Silt" to the delight of the students and their teachers. The students concluded the day by performing the Nigerian children's song "Funga Alafia" using drumming, vocal, and painting techniques learned throughout the day.
Silkroad is a Grammy-award winning ensemble initiated by famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma to bring talented musicians from different cultures together. Members are established, independent artists who create their own solo works. They come together in Silkroad to collaborate and perform pieces that speak to the hearts of those that listen to them. The group has recorded seven albums together and share their music in venues around the world.
Silkroad will also be coming back next semester (Spring 2019) to continue their residency through more performance, classroom visits, and workshops for the Holy Cross community. They will also be reading "Falling Out of Time," a new piece composed by Holy Cross' Loyola Professor of Music Osvaldo Golijov.