About

Robin Ryczek is a cellist, author, and cultural strategist working at the intersection of music, human rights, and storytelling. She advocates for the rights of musicians and artists in conflict and post-conflict environments, researches the histories of female musicians along the Silk Road, and 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. 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.

Robin spent ten years building Afghanistan's music education infrastructure --- co-developing Afghanistan’s National Institute of Music, founding Rock School Kabul, collaborating with musicians from Kabul's historic Kharabat quarter, and directing a cultural repatriation project that digitized and returned the Dupree archives to the Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University. When Kabul fell in August 2021, she led evacuation and resettlement efforts for displaced musicians and artists --- work that continues today.

Before Afghanistan, Robin toured as a cellist with Jethro Tull and co-founded rock band Arc Iris (ANTI-/Bella Union). Her cello has appeared on albums by Ezra Furman, Jerry Joseph, Nicole Atkins, Peter Bufano/Cirkestra, and others, and on stages from Newport Folk Festival and 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, IU, and is alumni at 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)

Discography (Selected)

Albums with or appearing on: Arc Iris, Alem Cabul, Ezra Furman, Jerry Joseph, Nicole Atkins & Jim Sclavunos, Peter Bufano / Cirkestra, Saad Sultan, and more.