February 2020
Maria Schneider Orchestra
Evocative. Majestic. Heart-stoppingly gorgeous. These are a few of the phrases used to describe Maria Schneider’s music. With her 18-member jazz collective, the renowned bandleader defies categorization. One of few artists to have earned Grammys in multiple categories, she is known for tailoring her compositions to highlight the unique talents of her orchestra’s members. For their first performance at Carolina Performing Arts, the Maria Schneider Orchestra headlines the 2020 Carolina Jazz Festival.
Find out more »Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano with the UNC Symphony Orchestra
Acclaimed mezzo-soprano and host of the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, Isabel Leonard returns to Carolina Performing Arts to perform with the award-winning UNC Symphony Orchestra. Designed in collaboration with the ensemble, this special program will highlight selections from Ms. Leonard’s diverse repertoire.
Find out more »March 2020
Cellular Songs Concert, Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble
In this concert version of revolutionary American artist Meredith Monk’s latest music-theater work, she shares her genius in discovery and innovation. Cellular Songs turns to the very fabric of life itself, exploring our interdependent relationship with nature and looking to its underlying systems as inspiration for human behavior in our tumultuous world. Performed by Monk with the women of her acclaimed Vocal Ensemble, this concert features some of Monk’s most adventurous and daring music for the voice to date, paired…
Find out more »Meklit
“An infusion of jazz, rich Ethiopian culture and that artsy San Francisco flavor. It’s also got a spicy dash of visceral poetry that paints pictures in your head as you listen.”—NPR Poet. Singer. Songwriter. Composer. Fierce performer. Ethiopian-born Meklit is all of these things and more. Known for her distinctive style of Ethio-jazz, she makes music that sways between cultures and continents, lighting up every rhythmically charged live performance with undeniable energy, emotion, and a startlingly beautiful new sound.
Find out more »HOME created by Geoff Sobelle
“A wholly unique blend of concept, stagecraft, movement, music, and visual storytelling that gives fast-moving form to the ways, large and small, in which a house becomes a home.” —Boston Globe Where is home? If home is not a place, what is it? In HOME, a house is conjured onstage as if from nothing. Residents move in, move out, get evicted, burn it down, loot it, rent it, remodel it, get married, get divorced, age, die in it, and haunt…
Find out more »HOME created by Geoff Sobelle
“A wholly unique blend of concept, stagecraft, movement, music, and visual storytelling that gives fast-moving form to the ways, large and small, in which a house becomes a home.” —Boston Globe Where is home? If home is not a place, what is it? In HOME, a house is conjured onstage as if from nothing. Residents move in, move out, get evicted, burn it down, loot it, rent it, remodel it, get married, get divorced, age, die in it, and haunt…
Find out more »Mitsuko Uchida and Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Legendary pianist and Mozart interpreter Mitsuko Uchida returns to Chapel Hill with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra for their second performance together on the Memorial Hall stage, where they will dazzle with an all-Mozart piano concerto program. Mitsuko Uchida, Piano and Director Meesun Hong Coleman, Concertmaster and Leader
Find out more »Visions for Frida Kahlo, Melissa Aldana
In a new work inspired by Frida Kahlo, Chilean jazz saxophonist Melissa Aldana pays homage to the groundbreaking artist. With new animation by Ana María Aresti and Diego Pequeño reminiscent of Kahlo’s work and the Latin American style of magical realism set to Aldana’s music, Visions for Frida Kahlo is a bold sonic and visual tapestry.
Find out more »April 2020
Discourse, Flutronix
In this emotionally resonant new work from flute and electronics duo Flutronix, the voices and personal stories of Chapel Hill are brought to vibrant life. Commissioned by Carolina Performing Arts, Discourse draws inspiration from—and incorporates—individual stories from this place for a stunning immersive musical performance in the intimate setting of CURRENT ArtSpace + Studio. Created over a two-year residency at Carolina Performing Arts, the seeds of Discourse were planted in response to the fear, uncertainty, and frustration dividing the US.…
Find out more »Discourse, Flutronix
In this emotionally resonant new work from flute and electronics duo Flutronix, the voices and personal stories of Chapel Hill are brought to vibrant life. Commissioned by Carolina Performing Arts, Discourse draws inspiration from—and incorporates—individual stories from this place for a stunning immersive musical performance in the intimate setting of CURRENT ArtSpace + Studio. Created over a two-year residency at Carolina Performing Arts, the seeds of Discourse were planted in response to the fear, uncertainty, and frustration dividing the US.…
Find out more »The Soul Rebels with special guest Big Freedia
The Soul Rebels started with an idea: take the pop music they loved to hear on the radio and the New Orleans brass tradition of their hometown and make it into something new. The result? A revolutionary, deep pocket funk fusing soul, hip-hop, jazz, and rock with a popping brass band sound. Joined by New Orleans-based rapper—and Queen of Bounce music—Big Freedia, they make their Carolina Performing Arts debut in style.
Find out more »she is called, Brooklyn Youth Chorus
A remarkable musical portrait of women’s experiences from biblical times to the present day, she is called traces a path from early texts by men about women to explorations of current themes through the work of contemporary women composers, including Shara Nova and Toshi Reagon (Carolina Performing Arts Mellon Foundation Creative Futures fellows). Brought to life by the acclaimed Brooklyn Youth Chorus (BYC), this program illuminates the musical and spiritual lives of women today in radiant form. This performance is…
Find out more »Kiran Ahluwalia
Bringing the great vocal traditions of India and Pakistan squarely into the present, Kiran Ahluwalia honors her roots while departing from them in masterful, personal ways. With original compositions that embrace influences from across the globe, Ahluwalia and her band invite us to explore the human condition in a transcendent, melodic groove.
Find out more »May 2020
London Symphony Orchestra with Sir Simon Rattle, music director
Led by renowned conductor Sir Simon Rattle, the internationally acclaimed London Symphony Orchestra—named one of the top five orchestras in the world by Gramophone— makes their debut on the Memorial Hall stage with a two-night engagement.
Find out more »London Symphony Orchestra with Sir Simon Rattle, music director
Led by renowned conductor Sir Simon Rattle, the internationally acclaimed London Symphony Orchestra—named one of the top five orchestras in the world by Gramophone— makes their debut on the Memorial Hall stage with a two-night engagement.
Find out more »Goldberg Variations, Lang Lang
Few artists can claim to have the same profound impact on the world of music as Lang Lang, who has broken untold boundaries in bringing classical music into the 21st century. One of the world’s most renowned pianists, Lang Lang returns to Carolina Performing Arts to perform the Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach.
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