Music at the Museum Season Finale featuring Contest Winners!
Join us as the four Music at the Museum Contest winners perform virtually from the North Carolina Museum of Art!
Two ways to watch:
– Join a public viewing of the concert on our Museum Park Theater screen. Reserve your free ticket on the right.
– Stream free on YouTube starting at 9 pm on July 27.
Please note that if you reserve a ticket for the Museum Park Theater viewing:
– No alcohol is permitted.
– Attendees are encouraged to bring chairs or blankets.
– Screening canceled in the event of rain.
The season two finale of Music at the Museum features the best of North Carolina talent, decided by jury and public vote.
Without further ado the winners of this season’s contest, and the lineup for the season finale, are:
Americana: Chatham Rabbits
Soul/Funk: Lydia Salett Dudley
Rock: Early Gray
World: Lorena Guill©n Tango Ensemble
Meet our winners!
Chatham Rabbits: As one of North Carolina’s most beloved roots music outfits, Chatham Rabbits has swiftly emerged from the fertile Americana scene in the Triangle with intimate close harmonies and mature songwriting in the vein of predecessors like Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings. The husband-and-wife duo of Sarah and Austin McCombie favors rustic, minimalist acoustic arrangements–mainly clawhammer-style banjo and guitar–that showcase old-time reverence with their songwriting. Chatham Rabbits’ first album, All I Want From You (2019), was recorded with the help of Mandolin Orange’s Andrew Marlin, and their song “Oxen” from their sophomore album, The Yoke is Easy, The Burden is Full, was named one of the “Top Folk Songs of 2020″ by Paste magazine. During the pandemic, they created a mobile concert experience, The Stay at Home Tour, which brought Chatham Rabbits to over a hundred neighborhoods in 2020.
Lydia Salett Dudley is a jazz and gospel pianist and singer living in the Raleigh-Durham area. She released her first single, “Green,” in 2008, and her composition “Sunsets” was featured on the UNC Jazz Band’s album Tenor Vibe in 2010. Her nonprofit organization, The Salett Art Center, Inc., serves at-risk youth by providing music education that empowers individuals to express their own voices. She currently sits on the board of the Heart of Carolina Jazz organization. Her band Jazz Xpressions, consisting of music educators and performers, plays at various festivals and public and private venues. They have released several projects, including Jazz Xpressions (2019), comprised of uniquely arranged jazz standards, and This Is Christmas (2019), consisting of traditional holiday standards, hymns, and original compositions. Her 2020 single “Whatcha Gonna Say” was featured in the New York Times Magazine.
Early Gray is a duo formed by pianist Owen Dodds and guitarist/mandolinist Drake Duffer. Self-described as modern folk, Early Gray began as an experimental duo by two classical musicians, and what started as pure improvisation spun into fully developed vocal and instrumental compositions. Natives of North Carolina, Dodds and Duffer have drawn influence from the state’s various musical spheres. Early Gray’s debut album, Paint the Windows, was released in 2017; another full-length record is upcoming. They have appeared at Lincoln Center’s Clark Studio Theater, New York’s Rockwood Music Hall and Pete’s Candy Store, Carrboro’s Cat’s Cradle, Charlotte’s The Evening Muse, and Elkin’s Reeves Theater.
Lorena Guill©n Tango Ensemble: With its mesmerizing style and sound, the Lorena Guill©n Tango Ensemble has captivated audiences with soulful arrangements of Argentine tango standards and original compositions. Based in North Carolina, the group performs nationally and internationally and also collaborates with milongas (tango dance organizations) Durham Tango and Alma Tango (Winston-Salem). The ensemble’s continuous engagement with Latino regional organizations (Casa Azul of Greensboro, Hispanic League of Winston-Salem) led Guill©n (lyricist) and Alejandro Rutty (composer) to create The Other Side of My Heart, an oral-history musical piece based on interviews with Latina immigrants. In 2019 the ensemble developed In the Embrace of Tango, a program that explores Argentine tango and its crossed path with Jewish culture. Next 2021—22 season they have planned a North Carolina tour with regional youth orchestras performing their newly commissioned Tango Concerto Grosso.
