Rhiannon Giddens Comes To The Duke Energy Center this April

PineCone and Broadway Series South are teaming up for a third concert this year bringing GRAMMY award winning musician, and Greensboro native, Rhiannon Giddens to the historic Raleigh Memorial Auditorium at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, where she will perform with a full band. Tickets start at $30 and go on sale on Wednesday, Nov. 1 at 10 a.m.

Singer-songwriter Rhiannon Giddens is the co-founder of the GRAMMY award-winning string band Carolina Chocolate Drops, in which she also plays banjo and fiddle. In 2016, she earned the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass, and in 2017 she released Freedom Highway (follow-up to her acclaimed, GRAMMY-nominated solo album Tomorrow Is My Turn); had a recurring role on the CMT show Nashville; delivered a spellbinding keynote at the International Bluegrass Music Association business conference; and earned a MacArthur Genius Grant. She began gaining recognition as a solo artist when she stole the show at the T Bone Burnett-produced Another Day, Another Time concert at New York City's Town Hall in 2013. Her elegant bearing, prodigious voice, and fierce spirit shine through in her performances and her songwriting, and she masterfully blends American musical genres like gospel, jazz, blues, and country, showcasing her extraordinary emotional range and dazzling vocal prowess.

When Giddens delivered the keynote address at the IBMA's World of Bluegrass conference last month, she framed her remarks around the question, "Are we going to acknowledge that the question is not, how do we get diversity into bluegrass, but how do we get diversity back into bluegrass?"

Her address went on to highlight the contributions of several artists who came before her - knowing her audience, she naturally spoke of Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs, but she also referenced Arnold Shultz, an influential African American fiddle player and guitarist who played with Charlie and Bill Monroe and actually gave Bill the opportunity to play his first paid musical gig, joining together at a square dances with Shultz playing fiddle and Monroe on guitar.

William Lewis, PineCone's Executive Director, said, "Rhiannon's message in both her music and her IBMA keynote resonate with what PineCone strives to reflect in all of our programs. Traditional music often comes from a wide array of influences, and the interplay of those diverse styles and experiences leads to musical innovations that are only possible because so many people of different backgrounds came together to share music. This music belongs to everyone in our community, and we are excited to be working with a great community partner, Broadway Series South, to share this music and its history in Raleigh's Memorial Auditorium this spring."

Tickets for the Rhiannon Giddens concert go on sale Nov. 1 at 10 a.m. to the general public; there is a pre-sale for PineCone members and Broadway Series South subscribers beginning on Oct. 25. Tickets range from $30 to $45 (before sales tax) and can be ordered online via Ticketmaster.com (online fees apply), by phone through PineCone's box office (919-664-8302 - flat $5.36 fee per order), or in person at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts Box Office (no additional fees). Learn more at pinecone.org or dukeenergycenterraleigh.com.

Limited tickets are still available for tonight's PineCone and Broadway Series South concert featuring Old Crow Medicine Show performing their take on Bob Dylan's iconic "Blonde on Blonde" album. On February 3, the two organizations will co-present a concert by The Wailin' Jennys, whose new album, Fifteen, is due out later this month.
Other upcoming PineCone concerts at the Duke Energy Center:

• Songs from the Road Band - Jan. 5, 2018
• Tim O'Brien and The Banjo Tramps, featuring Jan Fabricius, JD Hutchinson, & Old Man Luedecke - Jan. 27, 2018
• Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton - Feb. 23, 2018
• Molly Tuttle - March 2, 2018
• North Carolina Heritage Awards Ceremony - May 23, 2018 (presented in partnership with North Carolina Arts Council)

Upcoming Broadway Series South performances:

• Robert Plant - Feb. 9, 2018
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - in Concert Featuring the North Carolina Symphony - Feb. 23-24, 2018
• The Wizard of Oz - March 13-18, 2018
• Bright Star - April 17-22, 2018

Photo credit: John Peets

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