Event Calendar

Curated by Lee Hansley

Silvia Heyden was born in 1927 in Bosel, Switzerland. She studied at the School of Arts in Zurich under direction of Johannes Itten. She moved to Durham in 1966 when her husband was hired as a faculty member at the Duke University School of Medicine.

She exhibited widely in the United States up until 1993 when she moved back to Switzerland and continued her work there. She returned to Durham in 2005. Her work along with that of Edith London was the subject of a major exhibition in 2014 at the Durham Arts Council. Her works are in the collections of the North Carolina Museum of Art, The Met Museum of Art, The Gregg Museum of Art and Design, Wake Forest University, and the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. She died in 2015.

Robert Weiss presents a new ballet based on paintings by Czech artist, Alfonse Mucha. Weiss came across the series of paintings while visiting an art gallery in Prague and was inspired to bring them to life through ballet. Working with a specially commissioned score by J. Mark Scearce, composed expressly for renowned pianist, William Wolfram, this is a ballet for lovers just in time for Valentine’s Day. The program will also feature Time Gallery, Weiss’ collaboration with Pulitzer prize-winning New York based composer, Paul Moravec.

Starting in the 1940s, Joseph Winters Sr., one of Raleigh’s first African American police officers, transcended the color line by bringing white and black audiences in the capital city together to take in the country’s greatest black musical acts -- from Sarah Vaughan to Chuck Berry to Motown to Parliament/Funkadelic and hundreds more. Joe’s remarkable run as a cop, music impresario and community leader stretched from segregation and Jim Crow in the ‘40s and ‘50s to civil rights and Black Power in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Working with Joe’s surviving children and a volunteer team headed up by marketing exec/musician Billy Warden, the City of Raleigh Museum (COR) is curating a display on Joe’s career which is currently housed in the lobby of Raleigh Memorial Auditorium, home to so many of his memorable shows.

A free reception in the lobby of Raleigh Memorial Auditorium will feature music, guest speakers, Joe’s children Chacona and Joseph Jr. and more on Sunday, February 24, 2:00-4:00 p.m. The exhibit and reception are sponsored by Womble Bond Dickinson and Greg Paul Builders.

The ultimate feel-good show! A mother. A daughter. Three possible dads. And a trip down the aisle you’ll never forget! The story-telling magic of ABBA;s timeless songs propels this enchanting tale of love, laughter and friendship, creating an unforgettable show. A large cast, non-stop laughs and explosive dance numbers combine to make a guaranteed smash. Featuring hits “Dancing Queen,” “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!,” “Take a Chance on Me” and many more!

Tickets are moving quickly for this concert, featuring powerhouse trio I'm With Her, featuring Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, and Aoife O'Donovan, with a special opening set by North Carolina's own Mipso!

I’m With Her is a band rooted in a rare alchemy: three celebrated songwriters coming together to create music that reveals entirely new possibilities in their distinct and deep-seated talents. Since forming in 2014, Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, and Aoife O’Donovan have imbued their songs with a sharply detailed lyricism, graceful musicianship, and — perhaps most powerfully —mesmerizing harmonies that endlessly reflect their extraordinary chemistry.

After years of crossing paths in their intersecting music scenes, Watkins, Jarosz, and O’Donovan founded I’m With Her following an impromptu gig at the Sheridan Opera House in Telluride. Over the coming years they began playing shows and festivals around the world, in addition to taking time out for a number of intensely focused writing sessions (including eight days spent in purposeful seclusion at a borrowed Vermont farmhouse). Arriving in early 2018, See You Around quickly drew critical acclaim and ultimately graced best-of-the-year lists from leading outlets like the New York Times, NPR Music, and Paste.

Chapel Hill’s indie Americana quartet Mipso – Jacob Sharp (mandolin, vocals), Wood Robinson (bass, vocals), Joseph Terrell (guitar, vocals), and Libby Rodenbough (fiddle, vocals) – released their fifth album, Edges Run, on April 6, 2018 via a newly inked record deal with AntiFragile Music. Influenced by the contradiction of its progressive home and the surrounding rural southern landscapes, Mipso has been hailed as “hewing surprisingly close to gospel and folk while still sounding modern and secular” (Acoustic Guitar) and was recently recognized by Rolling Stone as an “Artist You Need to Know.” The band brings a distinctly unique sound – full of wistful beauty, hopeful undercurrents, and panoramic soundscapes. Venturing ever-further from its string-band pedigree to discover a broader Americana where classic folk-rock and modern alt-country sounds mingle easily with Appalachian tradition, Mipso’s music is lush and forward moving, with lyrics that sear and salve in turn.

North Carolina Symphony

Eivind Gullberg Jensen, conductor

Behzod Abduraimov, piano

Rene Orth: Chasing Light

Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2

Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique

Rachmaninoff unfolds one glorious melody after another in his achingly romantic Piano Concerto No. 2. Berlioz tells the tale of an artist who becomes unraveled by unrequited love in the semi-autobiographical Symphonie Fantastique. You’ll be swept away by music that takes “heart-on-your-sleeve” to the extreme!

With a sensitive yet assertive approach that's steeped in tradition yet firmly rooted in the present, Della Mae is a collective of five versatile instrumentalists/vocalists who draw from a bottomless well of rootsy influences to create vibrantly original music that conveys the band's expansive musical vision with timeless lyrical truths and an unmistakably contemporary sensibility, placing them alongside such roots-conscious young acts as the Avett Brothers, Punch Brothers, the Lumineers, and Hurray for the Riff Raff.

North Carolina Symphony

Clemens Schuldt, conductor

Jinjoo Cho, violin

Ligeti: Romanian Concerto

Korngold: Violin Concerto

Brahms: Symphony No. 2

The cheerful nature of the Brahms Symphony No. 2 calls to mind bright sunshine and blue skies, and Ligeti’s Romanian Concerto shimmers with spirited folk tunes. Together with the unabashedly romantic Korngold Violin Concerto—which leaves no question as to Korngold’s background as a film composer—this is a feel-good program that speaks directly to the soul.

Franco Escamilla is a comic entertainer born on April 29,1981 in Cuautla Morelos, Mexico. He is a Musician, Comedian and Standup Performer, he is well known as “El Diablo (the Devil)”or “El Amo del Sarcasmo (The Master of Sarcasm)” for his Youtube videos of sarcastic jokes for adults, he brings a style of stand up comedy with a rough, sour touch and with a black humor that has characterized him in his artistic career.

Franco Escamilla es un comediante nacido el 29 de Abril 1981 en Cuautla Morelos, México. Es Músico, comediante y mejor reconocido como “El Diablo” o “El Amo del sarcasmo” por sus videos y chistes sarcásticos en YouTube. Él trae con un estilo de comedia sarcástico, brusco, agrio y un poco oscuro que es lo que lo define su característica artística. Este año termino su última gira “Por la Anécdota” incluyendo presentaciones agotadas en Europa, E.E.U.U, Japón, y Australia. Ahora llegara con su nueva gira R.P.M a una ciudad cerca de ti.

North Carolina Opera is proud to present soprano Leah Crocetto (NCO's Norma) in recital with pianist Mark Markham. The program features classic songs by Respighi, Poulenc and Rachmaninoff, George and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Harold Arlen and Sammy Fain. The program also includes the North Carolina premiere of Eternal Recurrence, a new song cycle by American composer Gregory Peebles, Don't miss this "recital for the ages." (WQXR, New York)

United Arts is proud to partner with the Wake County Public School System for the Pieces of Gold student talent showcase. Pieces of Gold,  a Wake County staple for more than 30 years,  features 1,000 Wake County Public School System students singing, dancing, and performing to a packed Raleigh Memorial Auditorium each March. This is a show that you don’t want to miss!

To celebrate the 100th birthdays of Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins, icons of classical music and ballet, as well as Broadway, we will be reviving their Fancy Free – the ballet that changed American dance forever. This work was also the genesis of the Broadway show and Hollywood movie, On the Town.

For the first time ever, we will present Jerome Robbins’ Afternoon of a Faun set to the music of Claude Debussy.

North Carolina Symphony

Wesley Schulz,conductor

Your Broadway dreams come true as the Symphony invites you to choose the hits you want to hear! Vote for your favorite romantic, fun-filled, and inspiring songs made famous on the Great White Way—from Wicked to Les Misérables, from The Phantom of the Opera to Chicago, and many more. We bring the Broadway voices; you make your voice heard!

The ‘Sad Clown with the Golden Voice’ is here with his heartfelt anthems and a suitcase full of Kleenex!  This Pity Party is not all sadness and longing. The show is peppered with a brilliant sense of the absurd, mixing lots of humor with the awkward, tender moments. A veritable “Pagliacci by way of Pee-Wee Herman and David Lynch” (The AJC), Puddles Pity Party has 305k fans on Facebook and over 120 million views on YouTube for indelible interpretations of classics by ABBA, Bowie, Cheap Trick and Queen and his unforgettable mash-up of “Pinball Wizard/Folsom Prison Blues”.  You may recognize him from his recent appearances on America’s Got Talent and viral video collaborations with Postmodern Jukebox.  

Experience Hendrix celebrates the musical genius of Jimi Hendrix by bringing together a diverse array of phenomenal musicians including Joe Satriani, Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, Jonny Lang, Dweezil Zappa, Eric Johnson, and more. Billy Cox, bassist for both the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Band of Gypsys, anchors a rhythm section that provides the foundation for exciting renditions of numerous signature Hendrix favorites such as “Purple Haze” and “Little Wing.”

Jimi Hendrix was a pioneer in both rock and blues; he expanded the possibilities of what could be achieved on his instrument and in popular music. Likewise, the Experience Hendrix Tour continues to expand as Jimi’s legacy grows. In 2004, the first tour came to fruition with a three-date string of shows on the west coast, starting in Hendrix’s hometown of Seattle. By 2008, the Experience Hendrix Tour had become a full-fledged, coast-to-coast expedition and continuing to date without showing any signs of slowing down. Audiences are presented the opportunity to see great artists paying homage to Hendrix while collaborating with each other in ways they’d never do in their own live shows.