HARRIS THEATER PRESENTS

PERFORMING ARTISTS

Rhiannon Giddens, banjo, viola, voice

Shawn Conley, bass

Sandeep Das, tabla

Haruka Fujii, marimba, percussion

Karen Ouzounian, cello

Mazz Swift, violin, voice

Niwel Tsumbu, guitar, voice

Francesco Turrisi, accordion

Kaoru Watanabe, Japanese flutes and percussion

Mauro Durante*, tamburello, violin, voice

Mehdi Nassouli*, guembri, voice

*guest artist

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Sanctuary: The Power of Resonance and Ritual explores humanity’s enduring impulse to turn to music in moments of upheaval, grief, and transformation. Across cultures and throughout history, communal sound-making has served as a refuge and a way to process loss, forge connection, and restore balance in times of uncertainty. In Sanctuary, Silkroad invites audiences into this shared space, examining how ritual, trance, and resonance function not only as musical practices, but as deeply human responses to the challenges of living together in an unsettled world.

Drawing from a vast range of global traditions, including Southern Italian tarantella, Moroccan Gnawa, Indian classical music, Japanese farmers’ song, and American folk practices, the program highlights music’s ability to create presence, grounding, and collective meaning. Rather than presenting these traditions in isolation, Sanctuary weaves them into an ongoing dialogue, revealing unexpected connections across geography and history. The result is an evocative experience in which listeners are invited to participate as witnesses and partners in the act of listening itself.

At the heart of Sanctuary is a deeply collaborative creative process rooted in improvisation and shared musical storytelling. Each artist brings their own cultural lineage and lived musical language into the room, offering it as both a personal expression and a communal invitation. Through attentive listening and trust, the ensemble allows one another to “sit” within these traditions, learning, responding, and building new music together in real time, while honoring the integrity of each voice.

This program also marks the first appearance of guest artists Mehdi Nassouli and Mauro Durante, whose musical lineages bring powerful expressions of trance and communal rhythm into conversation with Silkroad’s core ensemble. Through spontaneous collaboration, layered grooves, and moments of quiet reflection, the musicians explore how repetition, pulse, and resonance can open pathways to healing and shared understanding.

At once intimate and expansive, Sanctuary: The Power of Resonance and Ritual is not a retreat from the world in a time of unrest, but a response to it, offering music as a space of refuge, renewal, and connection. In a time when division and dissonance often dominate, Silkroad reminds us of music’s capacity to hold complexity, honor tradition, and create moments of collective stillness and joy.    

ABOUT SILKROAD ENSEMBLE

Founded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 1998, Silkroad is a global organization that uses collaborative music and art to spark cross-cultural understanding and creative exchange. The Silkroad Ensemble brings together master musicians from around the world, representing diverse traditions and artistic practices. Their work breaks down cultural boundaries and demonstrates how shared artistic creation can foster empathy, connection, and social change. Silkroad’s music reflects its mission to build a more hopeful, inclusive world through the power of artistic collaboration.

Over more than two decades, Silkroad has built bridges across cultures, created new music through collective improvisation and deep listening, and engaged audiences worldwide in experiences that celebrate cultural diversity and human connection.

ABOUT RHIANNON GIDDENS

banjo, voice

Rhiannon Giddens has made a singular, iconic career out of stretching her brand of folk music, with its miles-deep historical roots and contemporary sensibilities, into just about every field imaginable. A two-time Grammy Award–winning singer and multi-instrumentalist, MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient, Pulitzer Prize winner, and composer of opera, ballet, and film, Giddens has centered her work around the mission of lifting up people whose contributions to American musical history have previously been overlooked or erased, and advocating for a more accurate understanding of the country’s musical origins through art.

A founding member of the landmark Black string band Carolina Chocolate Drops and the all-female banjo supergroup Our Native Daughters, Giddens is as much a curator as a creator. She is the current Artistic Director of the Yo-Yo Ma–founded Silkroad Ensemble, hosts a TV show on PBS, My Music with Rhiannon Giddens, and has hosted two podcasts (Aria Code from New York City’s NPR affiliate station WQXR, which ran for three seasons, and American Railroad from Silkroad). Giddens has published two children's books and written and performed music for the soundtrack of Red Dead Redemption II, one of the best-selling video games of all time. She appeared as a recurring cast member on ABC’s hit drama Nashville and as a music history expert on Ken Burns’s Country Music series on PBS. In 2025, she launched her own music festival in Durham, North Carolina, called Biscuits & Banjos, to celebrate Black culture outside the mainstream.

As Pitchfork once said, “few artists are so fearless and so ravenous in their exploration” — a journey that has led to NPR naming her one of its 25 Most Influential Women Musicians of the 21st Century and to American Songwriter calling her “one of the most important musical minds currently walking the planet.”

Her most recent album, a collaboration with Justin Robinson, is What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow (April 2025).

ARTIST HEADSHOTS

Shawn Conley

bass

Sandeep Das

tabla

Haruka Fujii

marimba, percussion

Karen Ouzounian

cello

Mazz Swift

violin, voice

Niwel Tsumbu

guitar, voice

Francesco Turrisi

frame drums, accordion

Kaoru Watanabe

Japanese flutes and percussion

Mauro Durante

tamburello, violin, voice

Mehdi Nassouli

guembri, voice

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Support the Harris Theater

With your generous contribution, you can play a key role in our mission to be Chicago's primary residence for music and dance, connecting diverse audiences with outstanding artists from across the city, the nation, and the world.

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Land Acknowledgement

The Harris Theater for Music and Dance resides on the traditional homelands of the Council of the Three Fires: the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi Nations. Many other tribes such as the Miami, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac, and Fox have also called this area home. The region has long been a center for Indigenous people to gather, trade, and maintain kinship ties. Today, one of the largest urban American Indian communities in the United States resides in Chicago, and members of this community continue to contribute to the life and culture of this city.

To learn more about the practice of land acknowledgement and the importance of honoring native land, visit usdac.us. The Chicagoland region is home to over 65,000 American Indians and the country’s oldest urban-based Native membership community center, American Indian Center Chicago (AIC). Visit aicchicago.org to learn more about AIC’s mission to foster physical and spiritual health in the community, an active connection with traditional values and practices, stronger families with multigenerational bonds, and a rising generation of educated, articulate, and visionary youth.

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Photo Credits: Harris Theater Exterior by Hedrich Blessing. Harris Theater Nevelson Reflection by Kyle Flubacker. Sanctuary Group by Adam Gurczak, Almanak Creative. Silkroad Performance by Kyle Flubacker. Rhiannon Giddens Headshot by Ebru Yildiz. Sanctuary Headshots by Adam Gurczak, Almanak Creative. Harris Theater donors by Kyle Flubacker.

The Harris Theater for Music and Dance acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council.