Rhiannon Giddens

A roots music visionary reclaims the hidden stories of American sound. Few artists move through musical worlds as boldly as Rhiannon Giddens. A singer, banjo virtuoso and musical storyteller, Giddens brings deep history to life with electrifying performances that connect past and present. From folk traditions to opera, her work shines a light on the overlooked voices that shaped American music and invites audiences to hear those roots in a whole new way. The peerless Giddens returns to the Hop after leading a sold-out concert in 2022 as Artistic Director of the Silkroad Ensemble. Special Simulcast Event Rhiannon Giddens Concert Watch Party Dartmouth Green • 7:30 pm Bring friends, touch grass and soak up a free simulcast concert of Rhiannon Giddens as as she performs live in Spaulding Auditorium. And come early to enjoy the broadcast of the World Cup Final at 3 pm, co-presented with the International Student Experiences office. Co-presented with the International Student Experiences Office as part of a campus-wide collaboration About the Artist About the Artist Rhiannon Giddens has made a singular, iconic career out of stretching her brand of folk music, with its miles-deep historical roots and contemporary sensibilities, into just about every field imaginable. A two-time GRAMMY Award-winning singer and multi-instrumentalist, MacArthur "Genius" grant recipient, Pulitzer Prize winner, and composer of opera, ballet, and film, Giddens has centered her work around the mission of lifting up people whose contributions to American musical history have previously been overlooked or erased, and advocating for a more accurate understanding of the country's musical origins through art. A founding member of the landmark Black string band Carolina Chocolate Drops, and the all-female banjo supergroup, Our Native Daughters, Giddens is as much a curator as a creator. She is the current Artistic Director of the Yo-Yo Ma-founded Silkroad Ensemble, hosts a TV show on PBS, My Music with Rhiannon Giddens, and has hosted two podcasts (Aria Code from New York City's NPR affiliate station WQXR, which ran for three seasons, and American Railroad from Silkroad) . Giddens has published two children's books and written and performed music for the soundtrack of Red Dead Redemption II, one of the best-selling video games of all time. She appeared as a recurring cast member on ABC's hit drama Nashville and as a music history expert on Ken Burns' Country Music series on PBS. In 2025, she launched her own music festival in Durham, NC called Biscuits & Banjos, to celebrate Black culture outside the mainstream. As Pitchfork once said, "few artists are so fearless and so ravenous in their exploration"—a journey that has led to NPR naming her one of its 25 Most Influential Women Musicians of the 21st Century and to American Songwriter calling her "one of the most important musical minds currently walking the planet."