College of Visual and Performing Arts

Ben Folds
2027-03-20 20:00 (America/New_York) | UNCG Auditorium, 408 Tate Street, Greensboro, NC, 27412, United States
Ben Folds is an Emmy-nominated singer-songwriter who has created an enormous body of genre-bending music, which includes pop albums with Ben Folds Five, multiple solo albums, a holiday album, and numerous collaborative records.

He currently tours as a pop artist, while also performing for over two decades with some of the world’s great symphony orchestras.

Folds, who served for eight years as the first-ever Artistic Advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) at the Kennedy Center, stepped down from his post when President Trump announced his takeover of the Center. Just days before the US presidential election, Folds recorded two sold-out performances with the NSO, which he released as a live album in 2025 that debuted at the top of the Billboard classical and classical crossover charts.

A New York Times best-selling author, Folds has also created new music for film, television, and theatre, including original songs for an ongoing series of animated Peanuts specials on Apple TV.

In 2022 Folds launched a music education charitable initiative in his native state of North Carolina entitled “Keys for Kids,” which provides funds and keyboards to existing nonprofits that offer free or affordable piano lessons to school-age children from economically disadvantaged households. For the past fifteen years, he has been an outspoken advocate for arts funding, music education, and music therapy in the United States as a member of Americans for the Arts and the Arts Action Fund.

Tickets & Pricing

Ticket TypeOrchestra/MezzBalconyUNCG Students$7.50$7.50Regional Students$15.00$15.00UNCG Faculty & Staff$25.00$25.00Adults$65.00$50.00Seniors/Military$55.00$40.00Children (K-12)$20.00$20.00

PURCHASE TICKETS

* Tickets to CVPA and UCLS events are sold exclusively through our box office locations and ETix website, and nowhere else. Tickets purchased through third-party vendors cannot be honored.

In addition to public presentations, artists in the UCLS series have important interactions with UNCG students, such as holding masterclasses, talkback sessions, and seminars, often just hours before performing on stage. Thanks to a grant from The Cemala Foundation, some of these artists also work with K-12 students in the Guilford County Schools.

Carmen Bradford
2027-04-23 19:30
Carmen Bradford with UNCG Jazz Ensemble I

Carmen Bradford is jazz royalty, a 2024 Count Basie Orchestra Family member, and Grammy Award® winner for Basie Swings the Blues: The Count Basie Orchestra. She’s been nominated five times for Grammy Awards and is the recipient of the Los Angeles Jazz Society’s Jazz Vocalist Award. With her body of work, which reflects her vast experience, versatility, and technical brilliance, she has carved out her place in jazz history and continues to contribute to the preservation of this uniquely American art form.

She was discovered and hired by William “Count” Basie when she was just twenty-two; she went on to be the featured vocalist with the legendary Count Basie Orchestra for nine years and has continued to perform with them regularly throughout her career. All four of her Grammy Award nominations are for albums with the Count Basie Orchestra, including two in the 1980s and a third, Big Boss Band, with guitarist George Benson. (She and Benson performed the classic duet, “How Do You Keep the Music Playing,” on the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.) The fourth is 2022’s Live at Birdland.

Tickets & Pricing

Ticket TypeOrchestra/MezzStudent$8.00Adult$28.00Senior$18.00

PURCHASE TICKETS

* Tickets to CVPA and UCLS events are sold exclusively through our box office locations and ETix website, and nowhere else. Tickets purchased through third-party vendors cannot be honored.

Robinson Family Visiting Jazz Artists

A residency made possible by the Robinson Family Fund, established by Ward Robinson (’19 PBC Jazz, ’10 MPH) and Pamela Pittman, is bringing two jazz luminaries to UNCG’s School of Music this year. Guitarist John Scofield and Electrospective, and vocalist Carmen Bradford will come to Greensboro for residencies with students and concerts which will be open to the public.
