Name: On Banjo: Alison Brown & Friends
Start: 2026-07-05T19:00:00
Location: Guild Hall

Tatiana Hargreaves

Alison Brown

Michael Daves

John Ragusa

Jody Nardone

Garry West

Bryan Brock

Guild Hall

Traversing the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans, Silkroad presents a brand new trio seamlessly blending three disparate narratives of language and sound. Three internationally acclaimed, genre-bending artists who each have been credited with reshaping the landscape of their respective instruments through their unique improvisational styles and compositional voices. 

Hailing from Damascus, Syria, Kinan Azmeh has been taking the international music scene by storm with his unique blending of Eastern and Western styles, bombastic improvisation and large-scale compositions for orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic and the Seattle Symphony. 

Acclaimed composer and instrumentalist Kaoru Watanabe‘s work is grounded in traditional Japanese music while imbued with contemporary jazz, improvisation, and experimental music elements, working with such figures as Laurie Anderson, Jason Moran and André 3000. 

Scottish harper and composer Maeve Gilchrist has been credited with bringing the Celtic harp to new levels of visibility through her unique improvisational and textural approach to the instrument and her collaborations with artists such as from Arooj Aftab, Yo-Yo Ma, The Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Esperanza Spalding.

Silkroad Up Close: Kaoru Watanabe, Kinan Azmeh, and Maeve Gilchrist

 Guild Hall and D’Addario welcome Grammy Award-winning banjoist Alison Brown for an evening rooted in American tradition and shaped by global influence. A pioneering artist, Brown has expanded the banjo’s voice far beyond bluegrass, drawing on jazz, folk, Celtic, and international traditions to create music that is both deeply grounded and boldly exploratory.