Mike Block is a Grammy Award-winning cellist, singer and composer with a passion for cross-cultural collaboration. Hailed as “one of the bravest, most intriguing musicians on the American fusion scene,” (Gramophone) he has been a member of the Silkroad Ensemble for nearly twenty years, and directs Silkroad’s Global Musician Workshop. Yo-Yo Ma calls Block “the ideal musician for the 21st century,” saying, “I’m always struck by his unique perspective on the world and his relaxed and confident approach; he takes on new music and new things fearlessly.”

Christylez Bacon is a Grammy-nominated songwriter, storyteller, rapper, beat-boxer and guitarist from southeast Washington, DC. With a tall antenna and wide curiosity, Bacon loves exploring music in different cultural contexts and has collaborated with Hindustani, Arabic and Brazilian musicians. He was the first hip-hop artist to be featured at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and has composed for and performed with the National Symphony Orchestra and Princeton Symphony Orchestra.

Patricia Ligia is an electric bass player and composer from Montevideo, Uruguay. In addition to playing in Colombian pop superstar Karol G's touring band (with whom she has performed on Saturday Night Live, NPR's Tiny Desk, The Today Show, and stadium shows around the world), Ligia is co-founder of Mestizas, a band that fuses flamenco and jazz with folkloric music from Latin American and the Caribbean. For her, Uruguayan culture makes it feel “easy to be alive, spread joy and share music.”