With a mission to, “create music that engages difference, sparking radical cultural collaboration and passion-driven learning for a more hopeful and inclusive world,” the Silkroad Ensemble’s newest initiative, American Railroad, meets this challenge. Nashville proved to be one of only ten audiences fortunate to experience this project live – other performances taking place in Illinois, Michigan, Arkansas, South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, and New York during November 2024.

Conceived in 1998 by Yo-Yo Ma with the intention of creating a new musical language founded in difference, a worldwide collection of artists was assembled representing dozens of nationalities and artistic approaches, the result of which was an exchange of ideas, traditions, and innovations across cultural boarders and throughout music genres. Under Rhiannon Giddens, the current artistic director of the Grammy award-winning group, the Silkroad Ensemble continues to record, tour, create new music, engage with social impact initiatives, and commit to educational partnerships.

After the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, a trip from coast to coast that used to take months was shortened to just under a week, allowing for the transport of goods and ideas across the continent in ways previously inconceivable. Profit-seeking corporations and the American government financed it, but the people who actually built it and who were most affected by it are the focus of this program of music—Indigenous and African Americans as well Irish, Chinese, Japanese, and other immigrant laborers whose contributions have been largely erased from history. Silkroad’s American Railroad seeks to right these past wrongs by highlighting untold stories and amplifying unheard voices from these communities, painting a more accurate picture of the global diasporic origin of the American Empire.

A program of original works, identified with an accompanying asterisk in the listing below, and repurposed selections was presented in two equally timed sets split by an intermission.

Artists not performing a selection would take residency in a row of chairs either stage left or stage right that flanked the performance space that was anchored center stage. Screen projections helped introduce the project’s creation, as well as prime each selection through text and photographs. The musicians contracted to help curate this project were quick to gracefully enter and exit as the program required, each wearing a wardrobe indicative of their culture. The American Railroad project enlists the following artistic forces:

• Rhiannon Giddens – voice, banjo, fiddle
• Balla Kouyaté – balafon
• Edward Pérez – bass
• Francesco Turrisi – frame drums, accordion
• Kaoru Watanabe – Japanese flutes, Japanese percussion
• Layale Chaker – violin
• Maeve Gilchrist – Celtic harp
• Mario Gotoh — viola
• Mike Block – cello
• Pura Fé – voice, lap-steel guitar
• Sandeep Das – tabla
• Shane Shanahan – percussion
• Yazhi Guo – suona, Chinese percussion

The performance was humbling and healing, at times hypnotic, always honest, honorable, and it certainly left one feeling hopeful – all of the H words! Pura Fé began the concert with some improvisatory gestures on the conch, noticeably similar to the whistle of a train. Whistles and sounds reminiscent of a chugging locomotive appeared throughout the performance, presumably, at times, mere coincidences, while at other times very much premeditated.

Experiencing instruments from the cultures that also supplied the workforce of laborers who have mostly been erased from the story of the Transcontinental Railroad was such a powerful display of harmony. In particular, two selections had an added poignancy given the location and time in which this performance occurred. First, the string consort dedicated a performance of the Silkroad Ensemble’s arrangement of the traditional song, Swannanoa Strings, to those affected by Hurricane Helene. Even though the damaged areas in Tennessee are a few hours east of the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, the energy in Laura Turner Concert Hall shifted with this dedication. Closing out the concert was Michael Abels’ new work, A Win For You, composed specifically for this project. Abels and Giddens have previously worked together, co-writing the Pulitzer-prize winning opera, Omar. Their partnership remains strong here. With residue from the 2024 Presidential Election still rather pulpable, a line from the chorus of this piece pierced the audience’s soul, offering, “A win for you should be a win for me, too.”

In addition to this tour, the project is highlighted in a miniseries, My Music with Rhiannon Giddnes, available on PBS (https://www.pbs.org/show/my-music-rhiannon-giddens/). Half-hour episodes can be streamed that introduce participating artists, highlight artistis’ music and culture, and discuss individual contributions to both the American Railroad projectand the Silkroad Ensemble. Additionally, an album of the American Railroad project is to be released by Nonesuch Records on November 15 (https://silkroadensemble.lnk.to/americanrailroad).

While leaving the concert, I overheard other patrons suggesting that the American Railroad project was politically charged. I’m not sure that I agree, unless broadening focus to include all participating parties involved in a happening is either political or charged. The result of offering a more complete perspective is a capitalist story with less polished protagonists. History often has a dirty filter, and, while less convenient for those not wanting to acknowledge such stains, having the courage to give voice to those who have been silenced does not constitute a woke agenda. Tag that on your #fyp!

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Dennis Hawkins

Hawkins has facilitated performances on the podium as a conductor, in ensembles as a trumpet player, in lecture-based courses as an instructor, and administratively as a certified nonprofit professional.

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