‘Silk Road Duo’ in Rochester

At School & Gallery Concerts

The Rochester Chamber Music Society will sponsor the musical ensemble Silk Road Duo at two appearances in Rochester.

The members of Silk Road Duo, Qiu Xia He and Andre Thibault make their home in Vancouver, Canada. Qui Xia composes, sings and plays the pipa, a Chinese lute. Andre is a guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and a singer. Their program "China Speaks Your Language!" will surround the Chinese pipa with many world instruments including the flamenco guitar from Spain and the oud and bouzouki, lutes from the Middle East and Greece.

Instruments from Brazil, Africa, Morocco, India, Asia and China’s Yunnan province will also make appearances. Creation of this program was inspired by recent research that suggests the Chinese explorers of the 15^th century voyaged not only to India and Africa, but also around the world to the Americas.

The duo will spend the day at Rochester School Thursday, May 3. During the day the duo will conduct three workshops for students in grades K-2, 3-5 and 6-7. There will be an evening performance when students will share what they learned with their friends, families and neighbors. Silk Road will also perform during the evening concert, which begins at 6:30 p.m. in the school auditorium. The concert is free and open to the public.

Silk Road will give two performances Friday evening at Big Town Gallery on Main St. in Rochester at 7 and 8:30 p.m. To reserve tickets for either of these shows, call Anni Mackay at 767-9670.

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