Wu Man is a Chinese pipa player and composer. Trained in Pudong-style pipa performance at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, she is known for playing in a broad range of musical styles and introducing the pipa and its Chinese heritage into Western genres. She has performed and recorded extensively with Kronos Quartet and Silk Road Ensemble, and has premiered works by Philip Glass, Lou Harrison, Terry Riley, Bright Sheng, Tan Dun, Zhao Jiping, and Zhou Long, among many others. She has recorded and appeared on over 40 albums, five of which have been nominated for Grammy Awards. In 2013, she was named Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America, becoming the first performer of a non-Western instrument to receive this award. She also received The United States Artists Award in 2008.
Michael Gordon is an American composer and co-founder of the Bang on a Can music collective and festival. He grew up in Nicaragua.
Silkroad, formerly the Silk Road Project, Inc., is a not-for-profit organization, initiated by the cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 1998, promoting collaboration among artists and institutions, promoting multicultural artistic exchange, and studying the ebb and flow of ideas. The project was first inspired by the cultural traditions of the historical Eurasian Silk Road trade routes and now encompasses a number of artistic, cultural and educational programs focused on connecting people and ideas from around the world. It has been described as an "arts and educational organization that connects musicians, composers, artists and audiences around the world" and "an initiative to promote multicultural artistic collaboration."
Joel Fan is an American pianist and Steinway Artist "who has won praise for his technical expertise, lyrical playing, and outstanding interpretation". The New York Times has described Joel Fan as an "impressive pianist" with a "probing intellect and vivid imagination." "Fan has a flourishing international career as a performing and recording artist, notable for his fluency in the standard repertoire and contemporary works." Consistently acclaimed for his recitals and appearances with orchestras, Mr. Fan scored two consecutive Billboard Top 10 Debuts with his solo CDs World Keys and West of the Sun, while Dances for Piano and Orchestra earned a Grammy nomination.
Cristina Pato Lorenzo is a Galician bagpiper, pianist and composer. She is a member of the Silk Road Ensemble led by Yo-Yo Ma and an educational adviser to the Silk Road Project. In 2017 she was collaborating with Harvard University as one of its Blodgett Distinguished Artists in Residence. Cristina Pato is a member of the Artist Committee of Americans for the Arts and a regular collaborator of the Turnaround Arts educational program of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.
Kevin Matthew Puts is an American composer, best known for his opera The Hours and for winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for his first opera Silent Night and a Grammy Award in 2023 for his concerto Contact.
Ma Xiaohui is an erhu player and composer from Shanghai, People's Republic of China. She is one of China's few first-class traditional artists embracing an international career. Critics have referred to her as "an artist who speaks with the world through Erhu" and "a musician who plays with heart."
Gabriela Lena Frank is an American pianist and composer of contemporary classical music.
Lynn Chang, born 1953, is a Chinese-American violinist known for his work as both a soloist and a chamber musician.
Zhou Yi is a Chinese pipa player.
Christopher Adler is a musician, composer and music professor at University of San Diego. A virtuoso player of the khaen, a reed instrument native to Laos and Thailand, he has been composing works for the khaen both as a solo instrument and in combination with western instruments since 1996. His works for solo piano include the three-part Bear Woman Dances, commissioned to accompany a dance depicting a Korean creation myth and largely based the Korean musical system nongak. Four of his compositions have been broadcast internationally on WGBH's Art of the States series. His composition for sheng, viola and percussion, Music for a Royal Palace, was commissioned by Carnegie Hall for Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project. An homage to Thailand's Bang Pa-In Palace, the work incorporates traditional Thai melody and embellishments. It was performed at Zankel Hall in 2006 and recorded at the Tanglewood Music Center that same year. His Serpent of Five Tongues for sheng and guanzi premiered at the 2011 MATA Festival.
Stephanie Ann Chase is an American classical violinist.
The China National Traditional Orchestra (CNTO) is a 110-piece orchestra of traditional Chinese musical instruments with an accompanying folk choir. Founded in Beijing, China in 1960, the orchestra is a state-level (national) performing arts institution directly administered and endorsed by China's Ministry of Culture (MOC). Its mission is to promote and advance China's musical heritage. CNTO is part of a cultural exchange program called Image China and the orchestra is managed by the China Arts and Entertainment Group (CAEG).
Joseph Gramley is an American multi-percussionist, teacher and composer, and a founding member of the Silk Road Ensemble. As a solo performer he each year commissions and premieres new works from such emerging composers as Kojiro Umezaki and Justin Messina. His first solo recording, American Deconstruction, featuring performances of five milestone works in multi-percussion's modern repertoire, appeared in 2000 and was reissued in 2006. His second CD, Global Percussion, was released in 2005.
Dima Orsho is a Syrian-American mezzosoprano singer and composer. She studied first at the Damascus Higher Institute for Music and later at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Since 2003, she has been a member of the Syrian Hewar ensemble, alongside Kinan Azmeh, Issam Rafea and others. In July 2022, Orsho sang and played the role of the prisoner Fatma in the premiere of Bushra El-Turk's multi-media opera Woman at Point Zero at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in France.
Rossen Milanov is a Bulgarian conductor. He is Music Director of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra & New Jersey's Symphony in C. He is also Principal Conductor of Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias, in Spain and the former Music Director of Bulgaria's New Symphony Orchestra. He is the Music Director of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.
Zou Hang is a Chinese composer born in Hunan province. He studied traditional music at an early age from his father, Professor Zou Shuliang. He began to study composition in 1990, and was admitted to the Central Conservatory of Music, where he studied under the composer Ye Xiaogang. In 2001, he obtained his master's degree and became a faculty member of the conservatory.
Eric Jacobsen is an American conductor and cellist. He is currently a member of The Knights, and the Silk Road Project, and is the Music Director of the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Principal Conductor of the Greater Bridgeport Symphony, and when was an artistic partner of the Northwest Sinfonietta from 2015-2018
Praised as the "Piano Poet", Cheng Wai (鄭慧) is a pianist and Steinway Artist from Hong Kong. She is a winner of the Hong Kong Young Music Performer Award of the International Year of Youth and voted as one of the Top Ten Outstanding Young Persons by the Junior Chamber International Hong Kong in 2009.
Estelí Gomez is a multiple Grammy Award winning musician from Watsonville, California.
