What’s on at Carolina Performing Arts for Spring 2023

CPA’s spring program features Omar and more music, dance and drama to celebrate the triumph and resilience of the human spirit 

(Chapel Hill, N.C. — Nov. 1, 2022) – Carolina Performing Arts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announces an action-packed spring lineup for its 22/23 season, offering new opportunities to rediscover, reengage and reconnect with in-person arts experiences. CPA’s spring season features classical and jazz concerts, drama exploring the human condition, and the North Carolina premiere of Omar — the powerful new opera by Southern Futures Artist-in-Residence Rhiannon Giddens and acclaimed composer Michael Abels (Nope, Get Out). 

“Let’s come together through shared creative experiences to heal and purge some of the heaviness of the last two years,” invites Alison Friedman, the James and Susan Moeser Executive and Artistic Director. 

The spring season kicks off Jan. 12 with trumpeter and musical storyteller Theo Croker, whose singular style is bringing sexy back with hot fusions of jazz, hip-hop, R&B and more. 

The season continues with Hong Kong Ballet’s stunning presentation of Septime Webre’s new Romeo + Juliet. Webre’s original choreography is accompanied by Prokofiev’s dramatic score and intense martial arts fight scenes to create a brilliant adaptation that fuses dance and drama against the backdrop of a world in flux. 

From Feb. 25-26, CPA presents the North Carolina premiere of Southern Futures Artist-in-Residence Rhiannon Giddens’ and composer Michael Abels’ new opera, Omar. Co-commissioned and co-produced by CPA and Spoleto Festival USA, this sweeping work draws inspiration from the 1831 autobiography of Omar Ibn Said, a West African scholar enslaved in Charleston, South Carolina and Fayetteville, North Carolina. Omar tells a profound story of strength, resistance and religious conviction in the face of harrowing circumstances. 

The spring season continues to engage artists and community partners to produce new works, collaborations and research for the Southern Futures initiative, which uses the arts to explore social justice, racial equity and the American South. CPA’s spring lineup brings back Southern Futures artist and longtime CPA collaborator Toshi Reagon, who will present Nite & Day, an uplifting musical event created in partnership with — and inspired by — the local community. 

Music lovers will be thrilled with the wide range of additional genres throughout the spring:  

• Zero Grasses: Ritual for the Losses, is dedicated to Jen Shyu’s late mother and father. Commissioned by John Zorn, this stunning work of theater, music and movement offers a profound exploration of grief and the envisioned life. 
• Sō Percussion and Caroline Shaw are known for creating new interpretations of modern classics and new avenues for classical music. For Carolina, they team up to create an exciting world of color and sound.  
• Terri Lyne Carrington + Social Science confront social justice issues through a thrilling meld of jazz, R&B, indie rock, contemporary improvisation and hip-hop for their Carolina Jazz Festival headlining performance. 
• Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Mitsuko Uchida return to Chapel Hill with a program that combines music from the two Viennese schools, pairing the finesse of Mozart with the expressionism of Schönberg. 
• Award-winning pianist Jean Yves-Thibaudet brings his sparkle to Memorial Hall, where he will perform the complete Debussy Preludes. 
• Members of the Silkroad Ensemble perform Falling Out of Time, a song cycle traversing vast and varied emotional landscapes to explore themes of accompaniment in grief and what we owe each other. 

The spring season also features dance and theatre performances to spark curiosity, stimulate conversation and celebrate our life stages: 

• HOME is a large-scale performance project that revolves around the life cycle of a house. Created through a mix of illusion, choreography, construction and a bit of clowning, Geoff Sobelle’s work illuminates how the messiness of life transforms a house into a home. 
• Tao of Glass is a celebration of the power of theatre. This personal collaboration between the great actor, puppeteer and director Phelim McDermott and composer Philip Glass is part autobiographical play and part meditation on the power and influence of Glass’s music. 
• Co-founded in 1991 by Annie-B Parson, Molly Hickok and Paul Lazar, Big Dance Theater is known for its inspired use of dance, music, text and visual design. Audiences can experience two of the company’s ingenious pieces: The Road Awaits Us and Cage Shuffle. 
• the other shore, zoe | juniper’s thought-provoking, two-room installation interrogates the audience-performer relationship and offers new perspectives on how we interact with stories. 

SPRING 2023 

Single tickets and holiday packages are available for the general public starting Nov. 15. Ticket sales for current donors will begin Nov. 7 according to gift level.  

Carolina students are eligible for $10 tickets for select seats on a first-come, first-served basis. Current employees of UNC-Chapel Hill and UNC Health receive a 15% faculty/staff discount on tickets to CPA performances. Valid UNC One Card/ID required for student/faculty/staff discounts; limits apply. Active or retired military personnel, and patrons 65 and older receive a 10% discount on CPA performances with valid ID; limits apply. 

Additional discounts available for select performances. Visit carolinaperformingarts.org for details. 

For full performance listings, pricing and venue information, visit carolinaperformingarts.org. 

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About Carolina Performing Arts  

The mission of Carolina Performing Arts is to spark curiosity, inspiring all members of our community to discover and more fully engage with the world. We collaborate with dynamic and compelling artists from across the globe to create novel, mission-driven performing arts experiences in partnership with our community. We also open our venues to others to explore, create and celebrate their own work.  

The 22/23 season at Carolina Performing Arts features numerous ways for our communities to participate in inspiring arts experiences.  

About the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill    

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the nation’s first public university, is a global higher education leader known for innovative teaching, research and public service. A member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, Carolina regularly ranks as the best value for academic quality in U.S. public higher education. Now in its third century, the University offers 77 bachelor’s, 112 master’s, 66 doctorate and seven professional degree programs through 14 schools, including the College of Arts & Sciences. Every day, faculty, staff and students shape their teaching, research and public service to meet North Carolina’s most pressing needs in every region and all 100 counties. Carolina’s nearly 356,000 alumni live in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. Territories and 161 countries. Nearly 193,000 live in North Carolina. 

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