Carolina Performing Arts

06/17/2026

No two shows are the same — and neither is a single shift on our Production team.

Lighting. Audio. Staging. Students on our crew get hands-on technical experience and the rush of supporting performaces in front of a live audience.

Learn more and apply at the link in our bio.

06/11/2026

An eight-hour round trip from Blythewood, South Carolina for a performance that changed everything.

When Westwood High School students saw Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater live at Memorial Hall this spring, many were experiencing concert dance for the first time. They planned the trip themselves, from researching buses, advocating to their principal, and calling our box office to reserve tickets.

“It allowed them to see themselves in those spaces.” — Veneshia Stribling, dance educator, Westwood High School

Read the full story at the link in our bio.

05/19/2026

A new arts festival is coming to Chapel Hill.

Carolina Performing Arts is proud to announce All. Together. Now., a multiday arts festival debuting Feb. 18–21, 2027.
 
All. Together. Now. invites audiences to move across campus and downtown Chapel Hill encountering art, ideas, and each other along the way. Spend the afternoon immersed in a performance inside a planetarium, join a public conversation at a coffee shop, experience a work-in-progress inside a theater, or stumble onto a late-night jam session. 
 
From dance, theater, music, film, and multimedia performances to artist talks, student showcases, workshops, public artmaking, and late-night jam sessions, the festival reimagines spaces as a connected, dynamic playground for creativity, curiosity, and shared discovery.
 
The full festival lineup will be announced this August. 
 
Read the official press release and learn how to get involved at the link in our bio.
 

04/21/2026

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis takes the stage at Memorial Hall this Friday, April 24 for a sold-out evening celebrating a decades-long artistic partnership and a pivotal chapter in Marsalis’s extraordinary career.
 
Arrive early and make a night of it: from a lively second line on the plaza to student musicians sharing the stage, the celebration starts well before the first note.
 
Swipe for everything you need to know!
 
📆 Friday, April 24 
📍 Memorial Hall
 

04/19/2026

EXCITING OPPORTUNITY UNC STUDENTS 👀
 
Are you passionate about making live performance come to life? Want a fun, on-campus job working behind-the-scenes?
 
Carolina Performing Arts is hiring student staff across front of house, production, and ticketing services.
 
Apply online:
🖥️ carolinaperformingarts.org/student-employment
 
Follow along for more updates, we can’t wait to have you on the team!
 

03/24/2026

Leave your mark at Carolina. GiveUNC, our annual day of giving, is today, and together Tar Heels can make a lasting impact.
 
Join Carolina Performing Arts supporter Carrie Harbinson (BSBA ’07, MBA ’19) and fellow alumni, students, faculty, staff, and friends in supporting the arts. Every gift — of any size — helps move Carolina forward. Link in our stories to learn more!

03/20/2026

Remembering Mae McLendon

We join the Chapel Hill and Carrboro community in honoring the life of Mae McLendon, a tireless public servant, advocate, and neighbor who passed away this past week.

In 2019, Carolina Performing Arts was humbled to honor Ms. McLendon as part of 1971, our outdoor projection installation celebrating local women who have advanced voting rights and expanded opportunities for others. Through that project, created with community partners Carolina Women's Center, the Southern Oral History Program, and the Chapel Hill Public Library, we recognized leaders whose impact is felt both in history books and in the everyday life of our region.

We are grateful for her life, her leadership, and the example she set for future generations.

Her legacy lives on in the community she helped shape.

To learn more about her impact: https://chapelboro.com/news/obituaries/chapel-hill-community-leader-mae-mclendon-dies-at-76

To learn more about her work with Carolina Performing Arts: https://www.unc.edu/posts/2019/09/10/carolina-celebrates-unsung-heroes-of-voting-rights-through-art/

Mae McLendon, a longtime public figure in Chapel Hill and Carrboro politics and volunteer organizations, passed away at the age of 76.

03/20/2026

A milestone. A legacy. A living history of movement.
 
Martha Graham Dance Company returns to Memorial Hall for a one-night-only centennial performance—celebrating 100 years of groundbreaking dance.
 
Founded by Martha Graham, the company redefined who could be seen on stage, centering women in a field that often excluded them.
 
This milestone program asks a timeless question: What is an American?
 
The program features Appalachian Spring, one of Graham’s most iconic and emotionally charged works. It also includes two new works: En Masse, choreographed by North Carolina native Hope Boykin, and Cortege by Baye & Asa, a contemporary ensemble work that reimagines themes of fate and collapse through movement.
 
A century in motion—and still shaping what comes next.
 
📆 Wednesday, March 25 at 7:30 p.m.
📍 Memorial Hall
🔗 Tickets in bio.
 

03/11/2026

What do a conductor and a coach have in common?
 
Quite a lot, it turns out.
 
Following the release of Conductors and Coaches, the newest chapter of Artists Are Athletes / Athletes Are Artists™, we gathered a few “field notes”—reflections on leadership from Yannick Nézet-Séguin, music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera, and the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal, and Jenny Levy, head coach of UNC Women’s Lacrosse, four-time NCAA national champion, and as of earlier this week, the 2nd winningest coach in Division I women’s lacrosse history with 450 wins.
 
From preparation to trust, creativity to performance under pressure, their insights reveal just how much the qualities of great leadership transcend discipline—and how inspired leaders draw from fields beyond their own.
 
Click the link in our bio to read the full Q&A and watch the video.
 

03/04/2026

Big shoutout to our amazing community for joining us for back-to-back sold out Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performances last week.

Tuesday, we hosted Divine 9 Night alongside the Sonja Haynes Stone Center, where we celebrated culture, movement, and pride.

Wednesday, we welcomed multiple student groups, including one that had an eight hour round trip drive from South Carolina!
 
For the full gallery, please check out the album on our page. Dance will be back in Memorial Hall on March 25 as we welcome Martha Graham Dance Company!