Silk Road Music

Silk Road is a professional Chinese troupe that has a consistently successful rapport with audiences. It has twice won the Best World Music Award from the West Coast and was also nominated for a JUNO. Based in Vancouver BC, it uses its innovative approach of classical Chinese music to promote cultural links with non-Asian traditions, reflecting the true multicultural spirit of immigrants in Canada. Silk Road Music offers musical programs with a variety of personnel formats, from duo to quintet. All formats include Pipa virtuoso Qiu Xia He (founder of Silk Road Music) and the talented multi-instrumentalist Andre Thibault. All formats provide both concert and school programs.
Silk Road creates music with a very new sound based on solid traditional Chinese music and interpretive technique. Bold, colourful arrangements combine pipa (Chinese lute) played by Qiu Xia He, ruan (Chinese guitar) played by Zhi Min Yu, and guitar, oud and percussion played by Andre Thibault. Instrumental virtuosity gives scope for superb singing. Willy Miles, a Vancouver opera sensation, sings in English. Feng Jun Wang, trained in the Beijing Opera, sings in Mandarin. Each draws on a great theatrical tradition and rigorous vocal training. Together, they and their fellow musicians give the performances all the beauty of the Chinese folk tradition and plenty of Western showmanship.
Silk Road Music is one of the few Chinese touring ensembles in North America to have performed at all the major festivals in Canada. Its music has been featured on CBC’s Asian music compilation, and by the Philadelphia Museum, Whitefish Theater in Montana, Seattle Asian Museum, the BBC international recital in the UK, Montreal Jazz Festival, Festival De Quebec, Kentucky Arts Centre and Charlotte, N.C. Throughout its travels, Silk Road Music has realized the potential of music as both the expression of a culture and a powerful link between cultures. Silk Road’s audiences have gained a greater understanding for Chinese music, for the music of their own traditions, and for the energy that results when cultures eagerly try to learn from one another.
Qiu Xia and Andre offer the Silk Road Duo show China Speaks Your Language for both concerts and school programs.
This husband-and-wife team is well equipped for cultural exploration. … Their love of music has taken them on tours all over the world with award-winning groups like Silk Road Music, ASZA, Cordes en Folie and JouTou.
Over the past 15 years they have performed in many different venues, including the Montreal Jazz Festival, a BBC recital in England, the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, hundreds of schools in North America, UBC and SFU in Vancouver, and countless community concert series. In 2004, they were featured with the Vancouver Symphony at the Orpheum to welcome His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Duo
Discoveries and travels of Qiu Xia He with her pipa, accompanied by multi-instrumentalist Andre Thibault. A guest percussionist is available.
Full Group
Silk Road Music is an award winning group that has taken Chinese-Western collaboration to a new level. Its innovative blend of Asian, jazz, Latin, Celtic music and classical Chinese instruments and techniques has created a unique sound. It can be presented with a quintet, quartet, trio or duo.
Duo
Recent research suggests that the Chinese explorers of the 15th century voyaged not only to India and Africa, but around the world to the Americas. Whether true or not, this controversial theory has inspired a worldwide journey of musical exploration by the Silk Road Duo. In an adventurous encounter of musical traditions, Qiu Xia He and Andre Thibault show that China does indeed speak your language. A guest percussionist is available.