Closing Plenary

Speakers

• Gemma Mortensen

  Moderator

  Founder and co-creator, New Constellations, Crisis Action

  Gemma is an award-winning thinker and practitioner in transformative, systemic change. She is founder and co-creator of New Constellations, which exists to help people envision and create futures of human and planetary flourishing. New Constellations creates immersive experiences for diverse groups to explore transformation in specific places, specific systems and for their own personal leadership. She is a co-founder and chair of More In Common and sits on the advisory council of Yale University’s International Leadership Centre. She was previously Chief Global Officer at Change.org and CEO of Crisis Action – an organisation that won the MacArthur Award and Skoll Award for its innovative systems model.

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• Kinan Azmeh

  Speaker

  Composer/Clarinet, Silk Road Ensemble

  KINAN AZMEH
 Hailed as a “Virtuoso” and "Intensely Soulful" by the New York Times and "Spellbinding" by the New Yorker, and "Incredibly Rich Sound" by the CBC. His utterly distinctive sound across different musical genres has gained him international recognition as clarinetist and composer. Kinan has been touring the world as soloist, composer and improviser. Notable appearances include: Opera Bastille, Paris; Tchaikovsky Grand Hall, Moscow; Carnegie Hall and the UN's general assembly, New York; the Royal Albert hall, London; der Philharmonie; Berlin; the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, Washington DC; Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie and the Damascus opera house for its opening concert in his native Syria. He has appeared as soloist with the Bavarian radio orchestra, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony and the Syrian Symphony Orchestra among others.; and has shared the stage with Yo-Yo Ma, Marcel Khalife, Aynur, Daniel Barenboim and Jivan Gasparian. His compositions include several works for solo, orchestra, and chamber music; film, live illustration, and electronics. His discography include three albums with his ensemble Hewar, several soundtracks for film and dance,  a duo album with pianist Dinuk Wijeratne and a recent album with his New York Arabic/Jazz quartet. He serves as artistic director of the Damascus Festival Chamber Music Ensemble, His is a frequent guest faculty at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music and is on the advisory board of the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra. He is also a member of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble with whom he was awarded a Grammy in 2017. Kinan is a graduate of New York's Juilliard school, and of both the Damascus High institute of Music and Damascus University’s School of Electrical Engineering in his native Syria. Kinan earned his doctorate degree in music from the City University of New York in 2013. www.kinanazmeh.com

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• Cristina Pato

  Speaker

  Artist, Interdisciplinary Educator. Galician Bagpipes, Piano., Silk Road Ensemble

  Cristina Pato (Ourense, Spain 1980) Artist and Interdisciplinary Educator. Galician Bagpipes, Piano. Producer. Member and educational advisor: Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble Blodgett Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Harvard University (Department of Music) Cristina Pato is a master of the Galician bagpipes (gaita), a classical pianist, and a passionate educator. Hailed as “a virtuosic burst of energy” by the New York Times, and as “one of the living masters of the gaita” by the Wall Street Journal, her professional life is devoted to cultural exchange and forging new paths for the Galician bagpipe. Cristina has performed on major stages throughout the world and has released and produced six solo gaita albums and two solo piano recordings, and collaborated on more than 40 records as a guest artist. In 1998, Cristina Pato became the first female gaita player to release a solo album, and since then she has collaborated with diverse artists including New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Yo-Yo Ma, Arturo O'Farril, Paquito D'Rivera and dancers Damian Woetzel and Lil’ Buck. Education is a critical part of Cristina’s personal and professional life. She serves as Silkroad’s Education Ensemble Advisor, has been an artist-in-residence at a number of universities, including Harvard, the University of California, and The College of the Holy Cross, is the founder of the multidisciplinary Galician Connection Festival, and writes a bi-monthly column for the Spanish newspaper El Correo Gallego. Cristina holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Collaborative Piano from Rutgers University, degrees in piano, music theory, and chamber music from the Conservatorio de Musica del Liceu, and a Master of Fine Arts in Computer Music from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. In 2017 Cristina Pato was named Blodgett Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Harvard University (Department of Music). www.cristinapato.com

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• Anya Grundmann

  Speaker

  Vice President, Programming & Audience Development, National Public Radio

  An award-winning and innovative content leader at one of America's most trusted and beloved media organizations, Anya Grundmann is NPR's Vice President for Programming and Audience Development. Her portfolio extends NPR's journalism and storytelling to more than 30 million people a month across the radio, podcasting, and the web. She oversees national culture, comedy, news talk and music radio programs, NPR's industry-leading podcast portfolio, NPR Music (home of the Tiny Desk Concerts), NPR video and events. Previously, Anya Grundmann served as Executive Director of NPR Music, a premiere award-winning source for music discovery and innovative multiplatform journalism, in close partnership with 13 public radio stations and major NPR news programs. In 2013, Billboard Magazine named her as one of the "Power 100" in the music industry, and Fast Company noted that Anya and her team are "re-inventing public radio for the post-radio generation."

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