Music Director

Singer

Rhiannon Giddens has made a singular, iconic career out of stretching her brand of folk music, with its miles-deep historical roots and contemporary sensibilities, into just about every field imaginable. A two-time GRAMMY Award-winning singer and instrumentalist, MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient, and composer of opera, ballet, and film, Giddens has centered her work around the mission of lifting up people whose contributions to American musical history have previously been overlooked or erased, and advocating for a more accurate understanding of the country’s musical origins through art. As Pitchfork once said, “few artists are so fearless and so ravenous in their exploration”—a journey that has led to NPR naming her one of its 25 Most Influential Women Musicians of the 21st Century and to American Songwriter calling her “one of the most important musical minds currently walking the planet.”

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Rhiannon Giddens

The Paramount Theatre

One of the most influential and prolific musicians in the world, Rhiannon Giddens is joined by the multi-cultural Silkroad, the ensemble she has helmed since 2020, filling the shoes of Yo-Yo Ma. Prior to her Soraya debut, Southern California has welcomed her both as an opera composer (LA Opera’s Omar) and in the prestigious post of Music Director of the Ojai Music Festival. First an exceptional singer and purveyor of Americana, she is now equally at home with a banjo as she is with a full orchestra or musical instruments from all corners of the globe. In their new, multi-year project, Giddens and Silkroad illuminate the creation of the transcontinental railroad, one of the greatest feats of technology in the 19th century, and equally a complicated chapter in American history for those who labored to build it, including the Chinese and Irish immigrants, as well as the African American and Indigenous people.

Rhiannon Giddens

Music Director, Singer

Events

May 2, 2024

Rhiannon Giddens · Paramount Theatre

Nov 12, 2024

American Railroad Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens · The Soraya

About

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