Inside Johnny Gandelsman’s First Season as Curator-in-Residence at CPA

This is the third in a three-part conversation with Johnny Gandelsman.

by Lauren Wingenroth

The Curator

Acclaimed violinist Johnny Gandelsman’s role as the curator-in-residence for Carolina Performing Arts’ 2024-25 season marked a first for both parties: CPA had never had a curator-in-residence before, and Gandelsman had technically never curated before.

But that doesn’t mean the work of curating—bringing artists together; imagining engaging programming; making connections between people, places, and genres—was new to Gandelsman. In fact, his propensity for doing just those things during his many visits to CPA over the past 20 years was what sparked the idea to bring him in as a curator.

“He’s always bringing people together,” says Amy Russell, CPA’s senior director of artistic and production. “It’s so special how he does that; there’s so much joy and enthusiasm from those collaborators, and such a strong desire to make new things together. We thought, how do we crack open the impact of why these people want to work with you? We came up with the curatorial idea. If you look at the way he works, he’s doing it all the time, but no one has ever given him that title before.”

The fruit of Gandelsman’s curatorial position—the five-part CPA This is America series based on his anthology of the same name—wraps up this month with performances on April 23 and 24, featuring both Gandelsman’s longtime collaborators as well as student and faculty musicians from UNC. We spoke to Gandelsman about what it feels like to officially take on the title of curator, the joys and challenges of curating, and what he’s most looking forward to as he concludes his CPA series.

Q&A with Johnny Gandelsman

We spoke with Gandelsman ahead of this month’s final two performances in the This is America series, asking about his inspiration for the anthology, what he’s learned from performing these works, and why they continue to resonate today.

This is your first time officially being curator, but it seems like you’ve been unofficially curating for most of your career.

The title sounds grand. But yes, in our work with Brooklyn Rider, we curate when we make decisions about commissioning new work. Over the last few years, I’ve been producing music for Ken Burns documentaries, and one of my roles is to match music and musicians to what the film is trying to achieve, and I guess that is also curation. And then, of course, I listen to music a lot, and I always share it. I think if you make a playlist and you give it to a friend, you’re a curator.

What’s it been like to curate this series? What was your approach?

I’m not thinking of it as curating. I’m thinking of it as getting to bring some friends and artists who I’ve admired for years to this place that has been dear to me for decades, and to either introduce or reintroduce them to Chapel Hill audiences. Some of these people I’ve been to Chapel Hill with before, like Kinan Azmeh, who was a longtime Silk Road Ensemble member; and Carla Kihlstedt [of Rabbit Rabbit Radio], who was a member of Two Foot Yard, who we played with the first time Brooklyn Rider came to town; and Gabe Kahane, who was part of the 100th anniversary Rite of Spring commission we had from CPA. But I’m really excited that audiences will get to see other, even more personal, sides of them. Every band is bringing their projects, and it’s who they are. So my friend Christina Courtin, who has been a friend for over 20 years, is one of the musicians and people I admire most, and she came with her band. There are no words to describe how amazing she is as a singer-songwriter; as a musician. I get to sit in the audience and just enjoy it. So, yeah, sign me up to be a curator anytime.

Were there any learning curves or challenges throughout the process of curating this series?

The challenges were, how do you make choices? Because there’s so many people and so many musicians I would love to introduce to people. That’s the hardest thing. Other than that, it’s all beautiful gravy. I love it.

Anything you’re especially looking forward to in the series?

We’re going to do a concert with students in April, and possibly some faculty and some local musicians. I think that’s going to be really fun. It will be a broader representation of what American music is, and I’m really excited about that.