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55-663: In July 2020, Rhiannon Giddens took over from Yo-Yo Ma as Artistic Director. In 2009, Silkroad began an educational pilot program for middle-school students in New York City public schools. The Silk Road Connect program focuses on passion-driven education through arts integration and is being developed with help from education experts at the Harvard Graduate School of Education . In July 2012, Silkroad and Harvard Graduate School of Education presented "The Arts and Passion-Driven Learning," an arts education institute that modeled

110-689: A "postmodern string band", Sankofa Strings. During that same time period, Giddens was also a regular caller at local contra dances and featured in a Celtic music band called Gaelwynd. Later in 2005, after both Gaelwynd and Sankofa Strings had released CD albums, Giddens and Flemons teamed up with other musicians and expanded the Sankofa Strings sound into what was to become the Grammy winning Carolina Chocolate Drops . In 2007, Giddens contributed fiddle, banjo, "flat-footin'" dancing and additional vocals to Talitha MacKenzie 's album Indian Summer . Performing as

165-682: A North American concert tour by the Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma in March 2009, which featured the North American premiere of Layla and Majnun , a chamber arrangement for the Silk Road Ensemble of a traditional Azerbaijani opera. The organization has published a book, Along the Silk Road , and commissioned more than 70 new chamber music compositions. Silkroad has also created educational materials entitled "Silk Road Encounters" and has partnered with

220-589: A black teen from rural Bladenboro, North Carolina . On November 27, 2015, to coincide with the Black Friday Record Store Day event, Giddens released Factory Girl (EP) on Nonesuch Records, which contained music culled from the same T Bone Burnett–produced sessions that yielded Tomorrow Is My Turn . A digital version of Factory Girl was made available December 11, 2015. The sessions for the album and EP took place in Los Angeles and Nashville , with

275-702: A cappella track "We Rise" to the LP We Are Not For Sale: Songs of Protest by the NC Music Love Army – a collective of activist musicians from North Carolina founded by Jon Lindsay and Caitlin Cary . Giddens' protest song joins contributions from many other Carolina musical luminaries on the Lindsay-produced compilation (11/26/13 via Redeye Distribution ), which was created to support the NC NAACP and

330-546: A cover of " St. James Infirmary Blues " with Tom Jones . In January 2016, she was selected to take part in Transatlantic Sessions . This collaboration between American and Celtic musicians is a coveted honor. The ensemble performed as part of Celtic Connections in Glasgow, and a short UK/Irish tour. Her performances on the tour included the stirring tribute to David Bowie "It Ain't Easy". On October 8, 2016, Rhiannon

385-712: A daughter born in 2009 and a son born in 2013. They had separated as of 2018. Giddens currently lives in Limerick , Ireland. In 2019, Giddens began a relationship with her Italian musical partner Francesco Turrisi . They released albums together in May 2019 and April 2021. See Nashville discography Seasons Five and Six for songs performed by Hallie Jordan (played by Rhiannon Giddens) Duduk The duduk ( / d uː ˈ d uː k / doo- DOOK ; Armenian : դուդուկ IPA: [duˈduk] ) or tsiranapogh ( Armenian : ծիրանափող , meaning "apricot-made wind instrument"),

440-713: A multi-generational group of players assembled by Burnett. Musicians on Factory Girl include Burnett; fiddle player Gabe Witcher and double bassist Paul Kowert of Punch Brothers ; percussionist Jack Ashford of Motown's renowned Funk Brothers ; drummer Jay Bellerose ; guitarist Colin Linden ; veteran Nashville session bassist Dennis Crouch; and Giddens's Carolina Chocolate Drops touring band-mates, multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins and beat-boxer Adam Matta . Rhiannon appeared on Jools Holland's Hootenanny on December 31, 2015, shown on BBC Two . She performed songs from her 2015 album Tomorrow Is My Turn , including "Waterboy" and

495-453: A social worker and gospel singer who is a significant character in Juliette's storyline. Giddens appeared in 11 episodes and performed several songs that have been made available following each episode. Giddens is featured in the 2024 documentary Cover Your Ears produced by Prairie Coast Films and directed by Sean Patrick Shaul , discussing music censorship. Giddens is featured in

550-436: A soprano, Giddens and mezzo-soprano Cheryse McLeod Lewis formed a duo called Eleganza to release a CD in 2009. Because I Knew You... consists of classical, religious, theater, and movie music. Giddens and Lewis were middle school classmates who reconnected after college while working in the same office. The friends started singing together in 2003, but did not begin recording until 2008. As of November 12, 2013, Giddens became

605-626: Is a double reed woodwind instrument made of apricot wood originating from Armenia . Variations of the Armenian duduk appear throughout the Caucasus , the Balkans, and the Middle East, including Bulgaria , Azerbaijan , Georgia , Kurdistan , Turkey , and Iran . Duduk, Balaban , and Mey are almost identical, except for historical and geographical differences. It is commonly played in pairs: while

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660-606: Is a musical collective and a part of Silkroad. The ensemble is not a fixed group of musicians, but rather a loose collective of as many as 59 musicians, composers, arrangers, visual artists and storytellers from Eurasian cultures. The Ensemble has regularly commissioned new works from across a broad musical spectrum, including works by Zhao Jiping and Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky, and is known for its series of interdisciplinary festivals and residencies presented in North America, Europe, and Asia. They have performed in many locations along

715-917: Is a 1995 alumna of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics , and a 2000 graduate of Oberlin Conservatory at Oberlin College , where she studied opera. In 2005, Giddens, who at that time was spending time participating in Scottish traditional music competitions (specializing in the Gaelic lilting tradition, also known as mouth music), attended the Black Banjo Then and Now Gathering, in Boone, North Carolina . There she met Dom Flemons and Súle Greg Wilson. The three started playing together professionally as

770-685: Is a very similar instrument played in northwestern Bulgaria. This is a blocked-end flute known as a kaval , resembling the Serbian frula , or kavalče in a part of Macedonia, and as duduk in northwest Bulgaria. Made of maple or other wood, it comes in two sizes: 700–780 millimetres (28–31 in) and 240–400 millimetres (9.4–15.7 in) (duduce). The blocked end is flat. The sound of the duduk has become known to wider audiences through its use in popular film soundtracks. Starting with Peter Gabriel 's score for Martin Scorsese 's The Last Temptation of Christ ,

825-683: The BBC Radio 2 Blues Show while its regular host Cerys Matthews was on her holidays. Giddens earned an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for her lasting impact on the UNCG community and work in music. She sang "Calling me Home" by Alice Gerrard at a virtual commencement after accepting the degree in December 2020. In 2023, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music from Princeton University. In 2023, Giddens joined

880-577: The Cambridge Folk Festival by inviting Peggy Seeger , Kaia Kater , Birds of Chicago , Amythyst Kiah, and Yola Carter to perform at the event. Giddens recorded vocals for Silo Songs , an audio installation created by composer Brad Wells for Hancock Shaker Village . She contributed a song, "Mountain Hymn", to the popular video game Red Dead Redemption 2 which was released in October 2018. The song

935-573: The Moral Monday movement. In early 2014, Giddens recorded for Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes alongside Elvis Costello , Marcus Mumford , Taylor Goldsmith and Jim James . The album was produced by T Bone Burnett and is a compilation of partial, unreleased lyrics written by Bob Dylan . In February 2015, Giddens released her debut solo album, Tomorrow Is My Turn , on Nonesuch Records . Also produced by Burnett,

990-647: The country , blues , and old-time music band the Carolina Chocolate Drops , where she was the lead singer, fiddle player, and banjo player. Giddens is a native of Greensboro, North Carolina . In addition to her work with the Grammy -winning Chocolate Drops, Giddens has released five solo albums: Tomorrow Is My Turn (2015) and Freedom Highway (2017), 2019 and 2021's There Is No Other and They're Calling Me Home (both collaborations with Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi ), and You're

1045-556: The 2020 Spoleto Festival USA , Rhiannon Giddens was commissioned to create an opera based on the Arabic language autobiography of Omar Ibn Said , a highly literate and cultured Torodbe (Muslim cleric) from the Fula people of modern Senegal , who was enslaved in an intertribal war against the Imamate of Futa Toro and brought aboard a slave ship to Charleston, South Carolina in 1807. Giddens wrote

1100-710: The 2022 documentary Black Fiddlers next to Justin Robinson. Produced by Heritage Film Project and directed by Eduardo Montes-Bradley . In the film Giddens shares her memories of Joe Thomson and Odell Thomson. Rhiannon Giddens has announced that she will have four children's books published by Candlewick Press . The first two books, scheduled for release in Fall 2022, are based on the lyrics of her songs "Build A House" and "We Could Fly" with illustrations by Monica Mikai and Briana Mukodiri Uchendu respectively. Giddens married Irish traditional musician Michael Laffan in 2007. They have

1155-671: The Armenian duduk and its music as a Masterpiece of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2005 and inscribed it in 2008. Duduk music has been used in a number of films, most notably in The Russia House and Gladiator . There have been two published lines of thinking on the origins of the word. Both the Russian book Musical Instruments Encyclopedia (Музыкальные инструменты. Энциклопедия) and American book Musical Instruments, A Comprehensive Dictionary give an ultimate origin of

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1210-528: The Map was nominated in the Best Classical Crossover Album category at the 53rd Grammy Awards in 2011. In addition to Ma, performing members of the ensemble include: Silk Road Ensemble composers and arrangers include: Silk Road Chicago was a citywide celebration, from June 2006 to June 2007, with special events, performances, and exhibitions that explored cross-cultural discovery and celebrated

1265-501: The Middle Ages, and is "actually the only truly Armenian instrument that's survived through history, and as such is a symbol of Armenian national identity ... The most important quality of the duduk is its ability to express the language dialectic and mood of the Armenian language, which is often the most challenging quality to a duduk player." While "duduk" most commonly refers to the double reed instrument described on this page, there

1320-563: The Nashville Ballet announced that Rhiannon Giddens has been commissioned to write the music for Lucy Negro, Redux , a new dance choreographed by artistic director, Paul Vasterling. Based on the book of the same name by Caroline Randall Williams , its premise is that Shakespeare's Dark Lady was of African descent. The ballet premiered in February 2019. Then, in March 2018, Giddens fulfilled a previously announced engagement as guest curator for

1375-674: The One (2023). She appears in the Smithsonian Folkways collection documenting Mike Seeger 's final trip through Appalachia in 2009, Just Around The Bend: Survival and Revival in Southern Banjo Styles – Mike Seeger's Last Documentary (2019). In 2014, she participated in the T Bone Burnett -produced project titled The New Basement Tapes along with several other musicians, which set a series of recently discovered Bob Dylan lyrics to newly composed music. The resulting album, Lost on

1430-625: The River: The New Basement Tapes , was a top-40 Billboard album. In 2023, the opera Omar , co-written by Giddens and Michael Abels , won the Pulitzer Prize for Music . Giddens is of multiracial ancestry. Her father, David Giddens, is European-American . Her mother, Deborah Jamieson, is a descendant of African Americans and Native American tribes including the Lumbee , Occaneechi , and Seminole . Giddens does not claim any specific tribal affiliation. David and Deborah met as college students in

1485-566: The Silk Road Connect arts integration approach. The program has continued each year since. In celebration of its 10th anniversary, Silkroad presented performances and programs by the Silk Road Ensemble in North America, Asia and Europe from 2008 to 2010. Its anniversary season began with the Silk Road Ensemble's performance with Yo-Yo Ma of the United Nations Day Concert in October 2008. Tenth-anniversary activities also included

1540-469: The Silk Road Ensemble is a documentary film about Silkroad directed by Morgan Neville . The film was released in U.S. theaters starting in June 2016. The Orchard has acquired all worldwide rights to the film with the exception of U.S. domestic television rights, which HBO has acquired. Reviews of the documentary included: Rotten Tomatoes 85%; Washington Post 3/4; and, 7/10 IMDb . The Silk Road Ensemble

1595-762: The Silk Road Ensemble has also been involved in short-term residencies at Museum Rietberg in Zurich, Switzerland; The Art Institute of Chicago ; University of California, Santa Barbara ; Rubin Museum of Art in New York City; Nara National Museum in Nara, Japan; the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts; and the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto. The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and

1650-648: The Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) to produce Along the Silk Road , a curriculum for students in grades six-10, and The Road to Beijing , a documentary made available with related lessons about Beijing in advance of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games . Silkroad is affiliated with Harvard University ; the organization moved its offices to the Harvard campus in Boston, Massachusetts, in July 2010 at

1705-474: The album includes songs made famous by Patsy Cline , Odetta , Dolly Parton , and Nina Simone , among others. The Wall Street Journal said the album "confirms the arrival of a significant talent whose voice and distinctive approach communicate the simmering emotion at the core of the songs." Additionally, the Los Angeles Times called the album "a collection that should solidify her status as one of

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1760-525: The artistic legacy of the historic Silk Road. Silk Road Chicago was a partnership among Silkroad, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and the Chicago Office of Tourism, Chicago Symphony Orchestra , and The Art Institute of Chicago . Rhiannon Giddens Rhiannon Giddens (born February 21, 1977) is an American musician known for her eclectic folk music . She is a founding member of

1815-507: The bright new lights in pop music." In July 2015, she had a big stage at world music folk and dance festival at TFF Rudolstadt in Germany. Her performance was also broadcast live by the German national public radio Deutschlandfunk . Rhiannon appears on Jon Lindsay 's single "Ballad of Lennon Lacy" ( Redeye Distribution , August 21). The song tackles the mysterious hanging death of Lennon Lacy ,

1870-599: The city of Greensboro, North Carolina . Giddens' parents separated soon after her birth, when Deborah came out as a lesbian. Rhiannon and her sister Lalenja grew up in Greensboro and nearby rural Gibsonville . Lalenja Harrington is a director for Beyond Academics, a four-year certificate program supporting students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro . A singer and songwriter herself, Harrington occasionally collaborates with her sister on musical projects. Giddens

1925-596: The duduk's archaic and mournful sound has been employed in a variety of genres to depict such moods. Djivan Gasparyan played the duduk in Gladiator , Syriana , and Blood Diamond , among others. It was also used extensively in Battlestar Galactica . In the TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender , its computer-altered sound was given to the fictitious Tsungi horn , most notably played by Iroh and often being featured in

1980-517: The duduk's use as early as 1200 BC, though Western scholars suggest it is 1,500 years old. Variants of the duduk can be found in Armenia and the Caucasus . The history of the Armenian duduk music is dated to the reign of the Armenian king Tigran the Great , who reigned from 95 to 55 B.C. According to ethnomusicologist Dr. Jonathan McCollum , the instrument is depicted in numerous Armenian manuscripts of

2035-426: The early development of jazz during the post WWI era. In January 2018, Giddens co-produced (with Dirk Powell ) Songs of Our Native Daughters for Smithsonian Folkways . Written and recorded with fellow artists Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla , and Allison Russell, "The album confronts the ways we are culturally conditioned to avoid talking about America's history of slavery, racism, and misogyny." Also in early 2018,

2090-438: The fifth century, while there are Armenian scholars who believe it existed more than 1,500 years before that. The earliest instruments similar to the duduk's present form are made of bone or entirely of cane. Today, the duduk is exclusively made of wood with a large double reed, with the body made from aged apricot wood. The particular tuning depends heavily on the region in which it is played. An eight-hole duduk (not counting

2145-474: The first player plays the melody, the second plays a steady drone called dum , and the sound of the two instruments together creates a richer, more haunting sound. The unflattened reed and cylindrical body produce a sound closer to the English horn than the oboe or bassoon . Unlike other double reed instruments like the oboe or shawm , the duduk has a very large reed proportional to its size. UNESCO proclaimed

2200-528: The historic Silk Road, including Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, India, the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan. The Ensemble uses various instruments from the Silk Road region, including a pipa , a Chinese short-necked plucked lute; a duduk , an Armenian double reed woodwind; a Shakuhachi , a Japanese bamboo flute; and a morin khuur , a Mongolian horse head fiddle; among many others. The Silk Road Ensemble has recorded eight CDs. The group's 2009 CD Off

2255-401: The instrument while they inhale air into their lungs. This "circular" breathing technique is commonly used with all the double-reed instruments in the Middle East. Duduk "is invariably played with the accompaniment of a second dum duduk , which gives the music an energy and tonic atmosphere, changing the scale harmoniously with the principal duduk." Armenian musicologists cite evidence of

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2310-589: The libretto and served as lead composer with help from co-composer Michael Abels . Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic , the world premiere of Omar was postponed until 2022. It received the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Music. In July 2020, Giddens was named Artistic Director of the cross-cultural music organization Silkroad (arts organization) . The position had been vacant since 2017 when Silkroad's founder, Yo-Yo Ma , stepped down. On August 17, 2020, Giddens guest-hosted

2365-436: The name as Persian, the word tutak . In Armenia, the instrument is also known as tsiranapogh ( ծիրանափող ). This instrument is not to be confused with the northwestern Bulgarian folk instrument of the same name (see below, Balkan duduk ). Similar instruments used in other parts of Western Asia are the mey and balaban . The duduk is a double reed instrument with ancient origins, having existed since at least

2420-518: The only original member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. In 2013, Giddens began pushing further into her solo career. Giddens participated in "Another Day, Another Time", a concert inspired by the Coen brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis . Many critics have stated that Giddens had the best performance at what was called "the concert of the year". Late in 2013, Giddens contributed the standout

2475-718: The outset of a renewed five-year affiliation with the University, designed to enable new artistic and cultural opportunities at Harvard and in surrounding communities. Silkroad has been affiliated with both Harvard University and the Rhode Island School of Design in the USA, where the Silk Road Ensemble engaged with faculty and students in annual residencies. Silkroad's partnership with the Rhode Island School of Design took place from 2005 through 2010. As part of Silkroad programming,

2530-582: The past." Rhiannon further demonstrated the broad range of her musical interests with several subsequent projects. In early November, she performed as a soprano with the Louisville Orchestra in Teddy Abrams ' multimedia tribute to Muhammad Ali , The Greatest . A week later, she sang with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra for their live recording of American Originals: 1918 , which explored

2585-429: The playback of these direct-to-disc recordings, she exclaimed "you feel like your soul is coming out of the speaker." In October 2017, Giddens was named one of the 2017 class of MacArthur "Genius" Fellows . The organization noted, "Giddens's drive to understand and convey the nuances, complexities, and interrelationships between musical traditions is enhancing our musical present with a wealth of sounds and textures from

2640-401: The programming lineup at Wondrium leading the series "The Banjo: Music, History and Heritage." In 2022, Giddens was named the musical director of the 2023 Ojai Music Festival . On 7th July 2024, Giddens and her band headlined the Gate to Southwell Festival. In 2017 and 2018, Giddens appeared in the fifth and sixth seasons of the CMT 's Nashville as Hannah Lee "Hallie" Jordan,

2695-453: The range of the instrument and region. The reed (Armenian: եղեգն , eġegn ), is made from one or two pieces of cane in a duck-bill type assembly. Unlike other double-reed instruments, the reed is quite wide, helping to give the duduk both its unique, mournful sound, as well as its remarkable breathing requirements. The duduk player is called dudukahar ( դուդուկահար ) in Armenian. The performers use air stored in their cheeks to keep playing

2750-446: The show's soundtrack. With many of the members who worked on ATLA now working on The Dragon Prince , the duduk regularly appears in its soundtrack as well. The sound of the duduk was also used in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for a lullaby which Mr. Tumnus plays on a fictitious double flute and in the theme song of the Dothraki clan during the TV adaptation Game of Thrones . Armenia's entry in

2805-524: The thumb hole on the lower side) can play ten successive notes of a diatonic scale with simple fingering, or sixteen consecutive notes of a chromatic scale by half-covering holes. For example, an A duduk can play all the notes from F♯ to the A more than an octave higher. (Another reference gives different information. ) By using the lips to "bend" notes and partially covering holes any pitch in this range can be produced, as required for Oriental music. The instrument's body has different lengths depending upon

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2860-510: The time she was done, she had systematically dismantled the myth of a homogenous Appalachia." In June 2017, Giddens appeared in the multi award-winning documentary The American Epic Sessions , directed by Bernard MacMahon , where she recorded "One Hour Mama" and English folk ballad " Pretty Saro ", on the restored first electrical sound recording system from the 1920s. Both performances were released on Music from The American Epic Sessions: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack . Upon hearing

2915-412: Was announced that Giddens and the Carolina Chocolate Drops would be inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame . In 2017, Giddens became only the fourth musician to perform at both the Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals. Later that year, she delivered the keynote address at the World of Bluegrass Business Conference 2017. According to Bluegrass Today, "Giddens shattered long-held stereotypes...By

2970-436: Was featured on Austin City Limits . Later in 2016, Giddens became the first American to be honored as Folk Singer of the Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards , and it was announced that she would be receiving the prestigious Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass . Winning this award makes Giddens both the only woman and the only person of color to receive the prize in its six-year history. Also in 2016, it

3025-502: Was written with Daniel Lanois . In December 2018, she began hosting a podcast called Aria Code with Rhiannon Giddens produced by the Metropolitan Opera and WQXR-FM . The program examines why individual arias have a lasting impact on audiences and how singers prepare to perform them. In 2019, Giddens released two studio albums: Songs of Our Native Daughters with Allison Russell , Leyla McCalla and Amythyst Kiah, and There Is No Other with Italian musician Francesco Turrisi. For

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