About
Robin Ryczek is a cultural strategist, author, and musician working at the intersection of music, human rights, and storytelling. She spent ten years building Afghanistan's music education infrastructure — developing the country's National Institute of Music, founding Rock School Kabul, and collaborating with musicians from Kabul's historic Kharabat quarter. She directed a cultural repatriation project that digitized and returned the Dupree archives to the Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University, and when Kabul fell in August 2021, she led evacuation and resettlement efforts for displaced musicians and artists — work that continues today.
She speaks on music, human rights, and education at SXSW, the House of Parliament, Georgetown University, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and the American European Orchestras Symposium, where she delivered a keynote address. Her research traces the hidden histories of female musicians along the Silk Road. She is the author of the forthcoming illustrated fable The Adventures of Bunny — a poetic story of hope and belonging, born from a decade of teaching music in Afghanistan and featuring hand-painted miniatures by Afghan artist Kaihan Hamidi.
“Ryczek is out on the frontier of her instrument’s capabilities, and her virtuosity sometimes casts her in the role a lead guitarist might play in your average rock band, authoring signature intros and outros and melodic lines that tie the songs together. ”
Before Afghanistan, Robin worked on a wide range , toured as a cellist with Jethro Tull and co-founded the band Arc Iris (ANTI-/Bella Union). Her cello appears on albums by Ezra Furman, Jerry Joseph, Nicole Atkins, and Peter Bufano/Cirkestra, and she has performed everywhere from Newport Folk Festival and the Kennedy Center to Preservation Hall and the Mogadishu Music Festival.
She studied under Helga Winold and Menahem Pressler at Indiana University, and holds degrees from Interlochen Arts Academy, Indiana University, and the New England Conservatory.
Selected Press & Media
Rolling Stone, Forbes, PBS NewsHour, Boston Globe, New York Times, Guardian, Getty Images, BBC, NPR, Al-Jazeera, ANTI- Records / Bella Union
Selected Stages
Newport Folk Festival, Kennedy Center, End of the Road Festival, Union Chapel, Greek Theatre, Institut Francais Afghanistan, Preservation Hall, Mogadishu Music Festival, Bonnaroo, Seb-i Arus/ Hiçhane (Konya)
Selected Speaking
SXSW, House of Parliament, Georgetown University, U.S. Institute of Peace, British Council, Tufts University, Fundacion BBVA, AEOS Keynote, New England Conservatory, Hiçhane (Konya)
Education
Interlochen Arts Academy | Indiana University Bloomington (B.M.) | New England Conservatory, Contemporary Improvisation (Graduate Studies)