Jazz legend Herbie Hancock kicks off CPA’s 20th season
Carolina Performing Arts celebrates its 20th season with a star-studded slate of performers.
Carolina Performing Arts is celebrating its 20th anniversary by asking big questions about America — where it’s been, where it’s going and how the country fits into the fabric of the world.
Setting the tone for CPA’s 2024-25 season is one of the most iconic and impactful artists in American music history, jazz virtuoso Herbie Hancock. The 84-year-old Hancock will open CPA’s 20th year with a Sept. 24 performance at Memorial Hall.
Hancock’s career spans five decades, 14 Grammy Awards and includes collaborations with fellow music legends like Miles Davis and Joni Mitchell. Just as importantly, Hancock is known for his humanitarian work and his channeling of art to help foster peace, serving as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations’ UNESCO agency.
“Herbie Hancock is the perfect ambassador to launch our 20th season,” said Alison Friedman, the James and Susan Moeser executive and artistic director for CPA. “He’s used his platform to promote peace dialogue and cultural exchange through music, and this is something that’s vital to the core of what Carolina Performing Arts does.
“Our mission is building bridges. We use arts as the tool to bring groups together to see and experience sides of cultures, people and societies that you don’t get through the news, through commerce and business or through politics.”
Hancock’s performance sets the stage for an eclectic and start-studded CPA season that Friedman says will explore “what it means to be part of this American experiment.”
Highlights include:
- “This Land is Your Land” by Martha Redbone Roots Project and American Patchwork Quartet on Oct. 25. The evening will pay homage to the diverse cultural mosaic within America, as Redbone’s blend of folk, blues and gospel reflect her southeastern Cherokee/Choctaw and African American roots.
- “American Railroad” by Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens on Nov. 20. Giddens, a three-year artist-in-residence at CPA, returns to direct Silkroad’s exploration of the Transcontinental Railroad that was built by Irish, Chinese and other immigrant communities, as well as African Americans and displaced indigenous communities.
- A five-part “This is America” series, beginning Dec. 13, by curator-in-residence Johnny Gandelsman. A Grammy-award winning violinist and member of the Brooklyn Rider quartet, Gandelsman developed this project during the COVID-19 pandemic. As he describes it, the series “celebrates America’s rich cultural tapestry and its myriad perspectives, thoughts and ideas, offering a vivid counterpoint to the idea that this land can be understood through a singular, dominant point of view.”
None of these performances aim to provide clear-cut answers about the American experiment.
“We’re not so presumptuous to say we know how to define America,” Friedman said. “It’s about asking questions and then listening to different responses and insights. We’re hoping that audiences this year come in with an open, curious and courageous mind.”
CPA in the community
In addition to on-campus performances, CPA’s 20th season will also venture into the Chapel Hill community and surrounding area.
Most notably, CPA has partnered with campus and community stakeholders to bring the iconic Jaipur Literature Festival to North Carolina for the first time. Held annually in India, JLF-North Carolina will take place Sept. 27-28 on campus and at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh and features a caravan of writers, thinkers, poets, influencers, balladeers and raconteurs.
Additionally, for the first time, CPA will present two performances at The Chapel of the Cross. Brookyln Rider will pay tribute to iconic composer Philip Glass on Oct. 4, and famed choir The Crossing will perform “What Belongs to Me” on Nov. 15.
