Chipola Artist Series Announces The 2024-2025 Season

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The 2024-2025 season promises to be an exciting line-up of great entertainment for all ages opening September 5, 2024 with CAROLINA SOUND.  A premier acapella group from the University of Mount Olive, Carolina Sound performs a variety of genres including secular and inspirational, as well as Christian and patriotic. This 12-member group features talent from across the country. Led by Lester and Holly Rector from Walt Disney World’s Voices of Liberty, Carolina Sound showcases exceptional harmonies and high-energy performances.  Carolina Sound’s vocalists have been hand-picked not only for their musical talents, but also for their gifts in the area of ministry. Some members have worship leading experience, while others have a heart and passion for discipleship, Bible study, and group leading. The University of Mount Olive is a private institution located in Mount Olive, NC rooted in the liberal arts tradition with defining Christian values. 

Prepare to be swept off your feet by BROADWAY IN LOVE, the concert experience that’s been exhilarating audiences around the country on October 8, 2024. Discover the laughter, thrills and chills of Broadway’s greatest songs as shared by real-life Broadway married couple, Libby Servais (Glinda from “Wicked”) and Stephan Stubbins (“Mary Poppins”). In addition to both individually performing on Broadway in NYC, side by side they’ve performed in Broadway concerts, 4th of July celebrations, city tree lightings, corporate events, with the Symphony POPS, and in concert with Kristin Chenoweth.  With their undeniable chemistry and award-winning talent Libby and Stephan weave together an unforgettable experience of songs, laughter, stories and show-stopping moments.  Learn more at www.broadwayinlove.com

The season rounds out on January 16, 2025 with FOREVER TANGO.  Sensuous and sophisticated, the tango inhabits a world where everything can be said with the flick of a leg, the tug of a hand, the tap of a foot and the arch of an eyebrow. Forever Tango features fourteen world-class tango dancers, one vocalist and an on-stage orchestra, including the instrument of the tango, the Bandoneon, in an evening that celebrates the passionate music and dance of Argentina. The dances, performed to original and traditional music, are the result of collaboration between each couple and director/creator Bravo. "The tango is a feeling that you dance ", says Bravo, " a story you tell in three minutes. It's passionate, it's melancholic. It's tender, violent. You dance with somebody - but it's so internal, you dance by yourself. More than just a dance, the tango is music, a drama, a culture, a way of life."  Forever Tango opened on Broadway June of 1997 for what was expected to be an eight-week engagement, ran for 14 months and has since been back to New York on Broadway on three separate occasions, the latest being November 2022.  Forever Tango tells the story of the birth of tango in 19th century Argentina where thousands of men, having abandoned a disintegrating Europe to emigrate to South America, found themselves in a crowded abattoir (packing houses), the bars and street corners of the arrabales (outlying barrios) and in the enramadas (brothels). The tango was born from this lonely and violent existence. Originally shunned by the Argentina society as indecent, the tango became an overnight craze in upper-class Paris when Argentine intellectuals taught it when traveling abroad. The Tango quickly spread across Europe and to America, and was eventually re-imported home to Argentina society, though not unchanged. Born in the brothels and bordellos of Buenos Aires, the tango may be Argentina's best-known export.  Learn more at www.forevertango.us.   

Season tickets go on sale Aug. 21.  Season tickets—$50—are a bargain price when compared to sister institutions where prices are double or triple this amount.  Season ticket holders receive reserved seating renewal privileges for the next season. Patrons who are renewing their season tickets may contact the Box Office beginning Aug. 21.

Single event ticket prices this year are $20 for adults, $10 for children under 18, and $5 for Chipola students and employees.  Single event tickets go on sale Aug. 21. 

For more information, call the Center for the Arts Box Office at 850-718-2420 or visit www.chipola.edu/boxoffice.  The Box Office will open for the Fall Semester on Wednesday, Aug. 21.  Box Office hours are Monday – Thursday, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. and Friday, 9 a.m. – Noon.