Carolina Performing Arts kicks off 14th season in September: free events, Neko Case, plastic artist Robin Frohardt, groundbreaking chamber music, and Buddy Guy

(Chapel Hill, NC — August 8, 2018)
Carolina Performing Arts presents an array of performances and events in September 2018 that reflect the diversity of approaches and offerings in its 18/19 season. In just one month, it offers a dinner-discussion on the role of citizenship in relation to themes of belonging, connection, and agency (presented in collaboration with local non-profits and UNC students); an interactive art installation shining a whimsical but striking light on the effects of plastic waste; a free block party open to all, featuring music, food, and interactive elements; indie legend Neko Case in concert (a Cat’s Cradle co-presentation); flute duo Flutronix in the first of a series of appearances that will develop a world premiere work in collaboration with the UNC/Chapel Hill community; a musical reflection on citizenship and community in a concert featuring Brooklyn Rider and Magos Herrera; and a can’t-miss concert event presenting blues legend Buddy Guy.

SEPTEMBER 8
Stories on Citizenship
6 PM – 8 PM, CURRENT ArtSpace + Studio
Free and open to the public (RSVPs requested: bit.ly/storiesgathering)
This free gathering bringing together community and campus will feature local nonprofit organizations and UNC students engaged in social justice-related work. They will use performance, song, storytelling, and more to explore themes of belonging, connection, and agency. Dinner, provided by Vimala’s Curryblossom Café, will follow as conversation continues with all guests. Featured partners include the Jackson Center, Student Action with Farmworkers, Community Empowerment Fund, Immersion for Spanish Language Acquisition, and El Centro Hispano.

SEPTEMBER 14
CPA Block Party
6:30 – 8 PM, Memorial Hall portico
Free and open to the public
No tickets are required to enjoy live music, games, a performance by the Flash Chorus, a voter registration drive and donation drive for local nonprofit Paws4Ever, and local food trucks as CPA celebrates the kickoff of its new season before the Neko Case concert at Memorial Hall.

Neko Case (with opener Thao of The Get Down Stay Down)
8 PM, Memorial Hall
Tickets from $19
Co-presented with Cat’s Cradle, Neko Case performs as part of her 2018 Hell On Tour in support of her recently released album Hell-On. Thao of The Get Down Stay Down will open for Neko.

SEPTEMBER 14–23
Plastic Bag Store
CURRENT ArtSpace + Studio
Free installation 10 AM – 5 PM
Ticketed evening performances (general admission, $27)
Artist and puppeteer Robin Frohardt’s installation, created with plastic collected from the community, will open free of charge at 10 AM in the CURRENT Studio. The immersive installation, in which visitors can wander through a “store” stocked with products made entirely from discarded plastic, will be open to the public, 10 AM – 5 PM daily through September 23 (closed September 17). Ticketed evening performances in a part of the installation not otherwise open to free entrance visitors start on September 15 (general admission, $27). “Plastic Bag Store” is the first event in the season’s “You Are a Maker” series.

SEPTEMBER 21
Flutronix
8 PM, Moeser Auditorium in Hill Hall
General admission, $37
The flute duo will perform for the first time at CPA, and will premiere the first pieces of “Discourse,” an evening-length work commissioned by CPA. The full work will be developed over the course of multiple visits to Chapel Hill in a two-year residency with CPA, during which the flutists, composers, and vocalists Nathalie Joachim and Allison Loggins-Hull will gather stories from UNC students and faculty, local residents, and community organizations and set those stories to music. They will return to CPA in spring 2020 to perform the completed piece. Joachim says, “Discourse [will] tell the stories of individuals, including ourselves, and engage communities in conversations with one another.”

SEPTEMBER 28
“Dreamers” by Brooklyn Rider and Magos Herrera
8 PM, Memorial Hall
General admission, $27
Contemporary chamber supergroup Brooklyn Rider returns to CPA with Mexican jazz singer Herrera. This politically aware program, “Dreamers,” reinterprets 20th century music classics written during and in reaction to oppressive regimes across Latin America and Spain. “Dreamers” is the first performance in the season’s “You Are a Citizen” series, which asks participants to consider the ways in which they might act on behalf of others, engage in community, and challenge systems of power.

SEPTEMBER 29
Buddy Guy
8 PM, Memorial Hall
Tickets from $62
The blues legend brings his inimitable Chicago sound to Carolina for the second time. Guy’s groundbreaking guitar changed the sound of rock & roll, and he still innovates; he released his 18th studio album, The Blues Is Alive and Well, this year to acclaim. Guitar prodigy and singer Quinn Sullivan will open the show.

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Carolina Performing Arts contact: Christina Rodriguez, (919) 962-6222, crodrig@unc.edu

Press images: https://www.carolinaperformingarts.org/about/marketing-inquiries/press-images/