FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Livermore Valley Arts
Contact: Ruth Egherman (925) 583-2306
Embrace Remarkable Talents Representing The World this April at The Bankhead
Livermore, CA – (March 10, 2025) – Livermore Valley Arts has a powerful pair of performances this April that will both move and entertain Tri-Valley audiences. Silkroad Ensemble’s Uplifted Voices, the social impact organization and Grammy Award-winning musical ensemble will share a special evening of global music on Friday, April 4, and Leela Dance Collective will bring the
richness and depth of kathak, classical dance from North India, right to our contemporary audience in Livermore on Saturday, April 19. The Bankhead is elated to bring these two multi-talented global groups right to the Tri-Valley; both of these stunning performances will take place at the beautiful Bankhead Theater in Downtown Livermore.
On April 4, Grammy Award-winning musical ensemble Silkroad’s Uplifted Voices will bring together a stellar lineup of performer-composers from the Silkroad Ensemble in a series of pieces that highlight each artist’s musical storytelling. These compositions, often inspired by their homeland, ancestors, community, identities, and family, represent previously under-recognized voices from around the world, offering a fresh perspective on the history and migration of music. This unique program showcases a synthesis of global musical traditions and contemporary innovation, with each artist contributing their unique voice to craft a shared musical experience. From the Tuscarora Nation in North Carolina, singer-songwriter and activist Pura Fé blends traditional Native American sounds with contemporary Americana, honoring her Indigenous heritage while celebrating its enduring relevance. Japanese multi-percussionist Haruka Fujii has gained international acclaim as a prominent solo percussionist and marimbist, known for her interpretations of contemporary music and premieres of works by leading composers. Scottish harpist and composer Maeve Gilchrist intertwines jazz and folk while staying true to her Celtic roots, expanding the role of the harp into new, unexplored territories. Acclaimed cellist Karen Ouzounian centers her artistic practice on her love of the collaborative
process and the development of adventurous new works. Lebanese violinist and composer Layale Chaker merges the intricate sounds of Arabic Maqam with jazz and contemporary classical elements, inviting listeners on a journey into new soundscapes. Mazz Swift, a violinist and composer, brings a deeply innovative approach, fusing classic African American music, electronica, and mindfulness, with improvisation as a central theme across genres.
Yo-Yo Ma conceived Silkroad in 1998, recognizing the historical Silk Road as a model for radical cultural collaboration—for the exchange of ideas, tradition, and innovation across borders. In an innovative experiment, he brought together musicians from the lands of the Silk Road to co-create a musical language founded in difference, thus creating the foundation of Silkroad: both a touring ensemble comprised of world-class musicians from all over the globe as well as an organization working to make a positive impact across borders through the arts. Today, under the leadership of Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens, Silkroad leads initiatives and educational programming alongside the creation of new music by the Grammy Award-winning Silkroad Ensemble. This evening is sponsored in part by Bell Investment Advisors. The featuring artists at The Bankhead will be:
Pura Fé, Voice, Lap-steel Slide Guitar
Pura Fé (Tuscarora/Taino) is an Indigenous activist, singer-songwriter, and storyteller known for her distinct, soulful vocals and for breathing life into several musical genres. Her work as a musician has brought her around the world to do work at festivals, benefits in classrooms, online, and in the studio. As a Native activist and cultural leader, she has done work to combat the erasure of native culture, restore traditions, build community, fight corporate takeover of native land, and give a voice to those facing social injustice. As the founding member of the internationally renowned Native Women’s a cappella trio Ulali, Pura Fé helped to create a movement throughout Indian Country, which not only empowered Native Women’s hand drum and harmony but also built a bridge for Native music into the mainstream music scene. Pura Fé’s solo career has produced six studio albums with her Native Blues and lap-steel slide guitar work. While touring Europe with Music Maker Blues Review under Dixie Frog and Nueva Onda French labels, she won the Grand Prix du Disque from L’Académie CharlsCros (French Grammy) for Best World Album in 2006 for Tuscarora Nation Blues, and a Native American
Music Award (NAMMY) for Best Female Artist for Follow Your Heart’s Desire in the same year. Pura Fé and Ulali appeared in and consulted for the Rezolution Pictures Documentary RUMBLE: The Indians That Rocked The World, which won first place at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Pura Fé commented on her experience with the documentary, “This gave me a chance to reenact a piece of the historical birth of blues music that no one considers or hears about.” Incumbent United States Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo once said, “We are systematically being written out of everything.” To have a platform to help bring awareness to the mainstream was crucial to Pura Fé and Ulali. Today, Pura Fé lives in Canada and is writing a film for Rezolution Pictures. She is also working with First Nations dance and theater troops while recording a new album.
Haruka Fujii, Percussion
Haruka Fujii, Associate Artistic Director of the Silkroad Ensemble and a multi-percussionist, has won international acclaim for her interpretations of contemporary music. She has commissioned and premiered numerous works by luminary living composers. Ms. Fujii has appeared as a soloist with major orchestras, including the San Francisco Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lyon, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra. She also performs as a member of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the New York-based Line C3 Percussion Group, and the Utari Percussion Duo, a collaboration with her sister, Rika Fujii. Her recordings are available on the SONY, Kosei, ALM Records, and Deutsche Grammophon labels. In addition to her performance career, Ms. Fujii is on the percussion faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and frequently serves as a guest instructor at the Juilliard Summer Percussion Seminar and several international percussion festivals. She is also the founder and Creative Director of the newly formed non-profit performing arts organization Nippon Kobo, based in the Bay Area. For an exciting behind-the-scenes look at this one-of-a-kind performance, audiences are invited to listen/watch LVA’s own Beyond the Stage Podcast for an in-depth conversation with Haruka Fujii, for more details on this special evening that truly travels and embraces our global music and traditions. To catch Chief Executive Officer Chris Carter and Marketing Director Ruth Egherman’s exciting podcast interview, visit LivermoreArts.org/beyond-the-stage-podcast; the episode will be released on Thursday, March 13th.
Maeve Gilchrist, Celtic Harp, Vocals
Edinburgh-born harpist and composer Maeve Gilchrist has been credited as an innovator on her native instrument and has taken the Celtic (lever) Harp to new levels of performance and visibility. Currently based in Kingston, NY, Maeve tours internationally as a solo artist and composer as well as being a member of the Grammy-nominated Silkroad Ensemble, Arooj Aftab’s Grammy-winning Vulture Prince Ensemble, and part of the multi-disciplinary quartet Edges of Light. She has performed and recorded with such luminaries as Yo-Yo Ma, Frankie Gavin, Esperanza Spalding, Bruce Molsky, Ambrose Akinmusire, and Solas. As a composer, Maeve straddles the worlds of folk and classical with pieces including her original concerto for symphony orchestra and harp (a co-commission with Luke Benton), a three-movement Samuel Beckett-inspired piece for harp, string quartet, and sound samples which premiered at the Edinburgh International Harp Festival in the spring of 2018, and a number of other pieces for harp ensembles and strings. She is a regular visiting artist at the Berklee College of Music and has had a number of instructional books published by Hal Leonard and 80 Days Publishing. Maeve has released a number of albums to her name on the Adventure Music Record Label, as well as being a featured soloist on the Dreamworks blockbuster movie soundtrack, How To Tame Your Dragon: The Hidden World. Her most recent album, The Harpweaver, has garnered international acclaim including a five-star review from The Irish Times which described it as “buoyant, sprightly and utterly beguiling…a snapshot of a musician at the top of her game.” Maeve is the co-music director of the WGBH holiday show, A Christmas Celtic Sojourn, and the co-artistic director of the brand-new Rockport Celtic Music Festival; an innovative new festival focused on cross-curation and the outer-fringes of Celtic Music.
Karen Ouzounian, Cello, Vocals
Described as “radiant” and “expressive” (The New York Times) and “nothing less than gorgeous” (Memphis Commercial Appeal), cellist Karen Ouzounian creates music from a deeply personal place. An acclaimed soloist, chamber musician, collaborator, and composer, she is the recipient of the S&R Foundation’s Washington Award and is sought after for her open-hearted, vibrantly detailed, and fiercely committed performances. Recent projects include the creation of an experimental theater work with director Joanna Settle; the world premiere of Lembit Beecher’s
cello concerto Tell Me Again with the Orlando Philharmonic; the world premiere of Anna Clyne’s Shorthand for solo cello and strings with The Knights, which she toured as soloist with The Knights throughout Europe and the U.S. and released on Avie Records; the release of Kayhan Kalhor’s Blue as the Turquoise Night of Neyshabur for solo cello, kamancheh, and tabla; the development, touring, and recording of Osvaldo Golijov’s Falling Out of Time; and the digital world premiere of Beecher’s A Year to the Day, filmed for The Violin Channel with Augustin Hadelich and Nicholas Phan. Additional recent and upcoming appearances include concertos with the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Virginia Symphony, Sarasota Festival Orchestra, Greater Bridgeport Symphony, and Philharmonic Orchestra of Santiago, Chile, in repertoire ranging from the Elgar Cello Concerto to John Adams’s Absolute Jest. Dedicated to the art of chamber music, she was a founding member of the Aizuri Quartet for eleven years, during which time the ensemble was awarded major chamber music prizes on three continents and earned a GRAMMY nomination. She has toured with Musicians from Marlboro, appeared at the Ravinia, Caramoor, and Ojai festivals, and performs regularly as a member of the Silkroad Ensemble and The Knights. Her evening-length video work In Motion, an exploration of heritage, family history, and migration through interviews, her own compositions, and collaborations with visual artists Kevork Mourad and Nomi Sasaki and composer-percussionist Haruka Fujii, was presented by BroadBand. Recent compositions include works for the Silkroad Ensemble, Noe Music, and upcoming work for solo cello, Armenian instruments, and choir for Cantori New York.
Layale Chaker, Violin, Vocals
Raised on the verge of several musical streams since her childhood, Lebanese violinist and composer Layale Chaker debuted her musical training at the National Higher Conservatory of Beirut in her native Lebanon. She later pursued her musical studies at the Conservatoire de Paris and the Royal Academy of Music in London and is currently working towards her doctoral degree at Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris. She has studied under professors such as Mohamed Hashem, Carmen Scripcariu, Jeanne-Marie Conquer, and Nicholas Miller. Layale has appeared as a soloist, performer, improviser, and composer in concerts, recitals, and projects around Europe, the Middle East, North and South America, and Asia, with collaborations and commissions with Oxford Orchestra, West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Holland Baroque, Babylon
Orchestra, Avignon Festival, Lucerne Festival, National Sawdust, London Jazz Festival, Wigmore Hall, and New World Symphony among others. She is also the founder and leader of Sarafand, with whom she has released the album “Inner Rhyme” which received features in The New York Times, The Strad, and Songlines as Top of The World in March 2019 with a 5-star review, NPR’S #2 of 10 Best Releases of January 2019, and was #1 for weeks on the World Charts of iTunes and Amazon Music. Layale is a Ruth Anderson 2017 Competition Prize winner, the recipient of the Royal Academy of Music’s 2018 Guinness Award and the Nadia & Lili Boulanger 2019 Scheme, and a finalist of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé 2018 Prize.
Mazz Swift, Violin, Vocals
Critically acclaimed as one of America’s most talented and versatile performers today, Violin/Vox/Freestyle Composition artist Mazz Swift has engaged audiences all over the world with the signature weaving of song, melody, and improvisation that they call MazzMuse. As a singer, composer, and Juilliard-trained violinist who plays electronic and acoustic instruments, Mazz has performed and recorded with a diverse accumulation of artists including the Silkroad Ensemble, William Parker, Butch Morris, Jason Lindner, James “Blood” Ulmer, Vernon Reid, Valerie June, Whitney Houston, DJ Logic, and D’Angelo. Mx. Swift is a 2021 United States Artist and 2019 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, currently working on a series of compositions that involve conducted improvisation, and that are centered around protest, spirituals, and the Ghanaian concept of ‘Sankofa’: looking back to learn how to move forward.
Through traditional works and cross-genre collaborations, Leela Dance Collective brings the richness and depth of kathak, a classical dance from North India, to contemporary audiences worldwide, bringing together leading artists from around the world to advance a collective vision for kathak. Based in Los Angeles, Leela has garnered critical acclaim under the artistic direction of Rukhmani Mehta and Seibi Lee (distinguished disciples of the kathak legend Pandit Chitresh Das) and Rachna Nivas, and engages some of today’s leading dancers and musicians, as well as collaborative artists of other genres. Extremely accomplished artists on their own, Mehta has received the Alliance for California Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Grant, and the Fulbright Award, and has been nominated twice for the Isadora Duncan Dance Award, and Lee has received an Isadora Duncan Dance Special Award and two subsequent nominations for
performances as principal dancer of the Chitresh Das Dance Company. Leela Dance Collective has created groundbreaking productions including SPEAK, a kathak and tap collaboration, Son of the Wind, a traditional dance drama, and ReSound, a pop-up performance series. Past highlights include appearances at Ford Theaters, BroadStage, Kimmel Cultural Campus, the Green Music Center, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai, Maui Arts & Cultural Center, and NC State LIVE. Leela Dance performances are so much more than just a dance or a music show; author Valarie Kaur so eloquently commented on the Dance Collective: “Luminous and spellbinding…a masterful innovation in dance, music, and song…With power, precision, and grace, the dancers embody mystery, discovery, and merger. The result: we are transported into a time out of time, where the longing of mystics mingles with modern-day hearts. It feels like drinking from a sacred wellspring. Or entering a chamber of the heart longing to be opened.”
Encounters with Beauty, being presented at The Bankhead on April 19, takes its inspiration from the mystical poetry tradition of 16th-century India. Kabir, Surdas, Meera – these poet-saints ignited a movement of love and devotion that unified people across religion, caste, class, and ethnicity. A cross-genre work that brings this poetry to life through kathak dance, contemporary chamber music, and North Indian classical vocals and percussion, Encounters with Beauty creates a visceral and transcendent experience for audiences through powerful dance and live music. Created by Leela Dance Collective Artistic Directors Rukhmani Mehta and Seibi Lee with music by Reena Esmail, Encounters with Beauty is commissioned in part by Newman Center for Performing Arts. Demonstrating a firm grounding in tradition paired with an innovative spirit, do not miss this special and powerful, ‘regal’ and ‘brilliant’ performance in Downtown Livermore. An exciting supplement to this powerful performance, Leela Youth Dance Company, a pre-professional performing group that trains and empowers young South Asian women, will be giving a short “mini” performance on the Bankhead Plaza sometime in the hour before the 8pm show, an ‘appetizer’ of sorts for the beauty and storytelling to take place at 8pm on the 19th. As summed up by Joanne Divito of LA Dance Chronicle, Leela Dance shares “intense devotion and joy…what an exquisite evening of brilliant dance and music…a gift that needs to be shared.” A beautiful blend between the worlds of Indian and Western classical music, Leela Dance brings communities together through the creation of equitable musical spaces for
all, an innovative and engaging dialogue; meditative, explosive, global, and timeless. Livermore Valley Arts is so honored to present this remarkable group.
Tickets for shows in the 2024-2025 Bankhead Presents season are available online, by calling 925-373-6800, or at the box office windows. For a complete list of events, visit LivermoreArts.org.
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Livermore Valley Arts is an independent 501(c)3 non-profit offering wide-ranging programs that provide access to the arts for the Tri-Valley community and beyond. The Bankhead Theater and Bothwell Arts Center are home to eight resident performing arts companies, over 40 studio artists, and cultural arts instructors. LivermoreArts.org
Show: Silkroad Ensemble: Uplifted Voices
Date/Time: Friday, April 4, 2025, at 8:00pm
Tickets: $25—$90 ($25 student/military personnel) / Groups of 10 or more save 20%
Show: Leela Dance Collective
Date/Time: Saturday, April 19, 2025, at 8:00pm
Tickets: $25—$75 ($25 student/military personnel) / Groups of 10 or more save 20% Dates, times, and ticket prices for other events available at www.LivermoreArts.org
