![Members of the Silkroad Ensemble in a portrait taken at a preview of Phoenix Rising in Nov. 2021. Front row, from left: Wu Man, Haruka Fujii, Karen Ouzounian, Rhiannon Giddens and Maeve Gilchrist. Back row, from left: Sandeep Das, Mario Gotoh, Reylon Yount, Kaoru Watanabe and Joseph Gramley.](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/07/26/3-silkroad-ensemble-by-adam-gurczak--77ca5afb4980e6de8cf07ab4a0ff70f56e085c5c.jpg?s=600)
A couple of years ago, musician and vocalist Rhiannon Giddens replaced famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma as the artistic director of the Silkroad Ensemble, a shifting collective made up of dozens of musicians from around the world focused on playing music as eclectic as its membership.
"We all speak different languages ... [and] even if we both speak English, we speak a different cultural language, right? So you're always constantly trying to find, 'What is the common ground between you and me?' Silkroad is doing that [with] music."
Giddens spoke to Morning Edition's Rachel Martin about her work with the collective and the post-pandemic relaunch they're undertaking with the new program Phoenix Rising.
To hear the full conversation, use the audio player at the top of the page.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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