2 Tickets to the Cal Performances Silkroad Ensemble on Friday May 3, 2019 at 8pm.

Cal Performances welcomes the return of the Silkroad Ensemble with Heroes Take Their Stands, an ambitious multimedia commissioning project that unpacks the magnitude of being fearlessly human in the face of incompatible obligations.

For the project, which was conceived by folklorist and sociologist Ahmad Sadri, five composers and as many collaborators from diverse traditions have created new works that explore the stories of five heroic figures across time and cultures, with subjects ranging from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., to Elektra from Greek mythology, to Arjuna from the Hindu epic Mahabharata, to Dou E's fable from the Yuan Dynasty, to the Persian epic tale of Siavosh. Each work was developed as part of a conversation between composer and collaborator, resulting in a multi-part, theatrical performance that brings together more than one dozen live instrumentalists with dance, video, animation, and pre-recorded music.

The artistic creators include: Pauchi Sasaki and Nomi Sasaki; Kaoru Watanabe and Wu Man; Colin Jacobsen and Aparna Ramaswamy; Jason Moran and Lucy Raven; and Kayhan Kalhor and Hamid Rahmanian.