The Silkroad Ensemble’s latest flagship program with Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens is Sanctuary: The Power of Resonance and Ritual. In this program, Giddens and the ensemble explore how to experience music to better understand the world, find comfort, process loss in a changing environment, and rebuild community based on humanity. Historically, when people have found themselves in a time of conflict or stress, they have always turned to music.

The idea of trance, something that can bring a deep peace that is hard to find in modern society, is profoundly tied to the communal music-making traditions found in many different cultures, from Morocco to India to Ireland, and is a way to build a stronger human connection amidst all the noise. In Sanctuary: The Power of Resonance and Ritual, the musicians will delve deeply into one another’s music and traditions, such as Sicilian tarantella with Mauro Durante and Francesco Turrisi, Moroccan gnawa with Mehdi Nassouli, Indian classical music with Sandeep Das, American old-time with Giddens on banjo, and more, and invite audiences to join them as partners and participants in the performance, instead of solely as passive bystanders.