The Silk Road Ensemble Will Perform Free Concert in Celebration of Lincoln Center’s 50th Anniversary

The celebrated Silk Road Ensemble with the incomparable cellist Yo-Yo Ma makes its Lincoln Center debut with three concerts June 5-9. The Ensemble, featuring virtuoso musicians from 11 different countries, will perform in the new and highly-praised Alice Tully Hall with two multicultural programs June 5 and 6 including the New York premiere of Giovanni Sollima’s The Taranta Project. On June 9, in celebration of Lincoln Center’s 50th Anniversary, the Ensemble with Yo-YoMa will perform a special free concert in Damrosch Park, which will be broadcast on PBS on the Emmy Award-winning Live From Lincoln Center.

Currently celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Silk Road Project under Artistic Director Yo-Yo Ma connects the world’s neighborhoods by bringing together artists and audiences from around the globe. The three Lincoln Center performances will feature several works commissioned for the Silk Road Project—Ritmos Anchinos by US composer Gabriela Lena Frank; Sulvasutra by US composer Evan Ziporyn; Empty Mountain, Spirit Rain by Hong Kong composer Angel Lam; Path of Parables by Uzbek composer Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky; and Uzeyir Hajibeyov’s Layla and Majnun, a multimedia chamber arrangement of a beloved Central Asian opera based on a seventh-century Arabian tale of ill-fated love.

Recordings available: Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon, Silk Road Journeys: When Strangers Meet, New Impossibilities, and Traditions and Transformations: Sounds of Silk Road Chicago

Educational programs are an integral component of the Silk Road Project, and it recently launched a two-year program with the New York City Department of Education featuring teacher training, musical instruction, and multidisciplinary lessons from the Along the Silk Road curriculum. Approximately one thousand educators and students from New York City public schools will be invited to a special dress rehearsal of the Silk Road Ensemble with Ma at Lincoln Center. This is part of Campaign for Middle School Success, announced by the NYC in 2008 to improve the academic performance of middle-school students across the city.

Tickets for the two concerts in Alice Tully Hall, priced at $60, $80, and $100, are available at the Alice Tully and Avery Fisher Hall box offices, Broadway at 65th Street, by calling CenterCharge at 212-721-6500, or by visiting Lincoln Center’s website at www.LincolnCenter.org.

For more information about the free concert in Damrosch Park, please visit www.LincolnCenter.org.