StArt of Cool jazz students get BIG gig opportunities with our gear and staging!

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Need something UPLIFTING? How would you feel, performing in front of more than 1000 people? These kids did just that, June 28, uunder Al Strong‘s wing, using Sonic Pie Productions’ gear, staging and crew at Durham Central Park. LISTEN to the ravishingly talented Ricardo Diquez, so generous of spirit, talk about how great they are, opening for him. UNC-TV, The Art of Cool Project, you rock. This is why sponsorships and grants are so needed.

This camp jazzes up summer for kids in Durham

The StArt of Cool makes jazz, well, cool for youth. ?This special summer camp, spun off the The Art of Cool Project, teaches elementary, middle and high school students the fundamentals of jazz. The week-long session culminates with the student ensemble performing as the opening act for the Friday night concert series in Durham Central Park.

Posted by UNC-TV on Thursday, September 26, 2019

The Curator: Tess Mangum Ocaña in Durham Magazine’s Women’s Issue

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Sonic Pie Productions’ CEO Tess Mangum Ocaña is featured in the new issue of Durham Magazine!

Sonic Pie Productions presents All-Ireland Uilleann Piper JARLATH HENDERSON 5.1.19

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Jarlath Henderson is a singer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and doctor. Hailing from County Armagh, Ireland, Jarlath Henderson is the first Irish solo artist to win the prestigious BBC Young Folk Musician of the Year Award, which has led to performances at festivals throughout Europe and to GlobalFest in New York City. Jarlath combines modern, rhythmically intense, percussive electronics to his traditional singing style to create a signature sound that is all his own. He is a masterful balladeer, three times ‘All-­­Ireland Champion’ Uilleann Piper, a teacher both in Ireland and Scotland and has featured in numerous BBC television programs on piping and music. A talented and versatile multi-instrumentalist, Jarlath also plays whistle, flute and cittern.

See them live at Rhythms Live Music Hall, in Lakewood’s Reuse Arts District, between The Scrap Exchange and Scrap Thrift Store. (Tons of free parking.) This is a seated, all-ages evening presented by Sonic Pie Productions. Tickets: $15 adv, $18 day of show

We Are Durham Movers & Shakers

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The city of Durham, North Carolina celebrates its 150th birthday this year. We Are Durham is a project created by Unscripted Hotels to honor this through the art of storytelling and authentic experiences.

Last year, they interviewed some of the prominent movers and shakers in the community (such as Sonic Pie Productions’ CEO Tess Mangum Ocaña) and asked them to break it down. What is Durham’s special sauce? What are two words you’d use to describe it? They’ll be featuring a new face each month in a fun Q&A series that showcases the progressive energy that pulses through Bull City.  Catch a preview of the interviews in the video below.

SPP Newsletter: HippieFest, Parade logistics, Mambo, Golden Belt, Drink Local and Shows We Love

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Late FALL still had that summer fun vibe–what’s on the horizon for 2019?
See this covered stage, called SummerStage and a 100+ year-old smoke stack? This is the historic, newly-unveiled Golden Belt Campus in Durham, and a view you can’t see from Main Street. There are residential options, dozens of artist studios inside, Hi-Wire Brewing just opened, parking is plentiful and Cicely Mitchell of So When Do I Clap? is curating this stage next year!
Less than a month after AfroPunk reviewed a video from her forthcoming album, Good Luck America, Kamara Thomas traded her trademark “Cosmic Americana” comfort zone to channel Aretha Franklin last weekend. (Phil Cook’s Given Family/Chosen Family project at Motorco Music Hall.)
Diali Cissokho & Kaira Ba open for Weedie Braimah Wednesday, December 12. Click here for $15 tickets to this all-ages 8 p.m. show at Pinhook. Braimah, a phenomenally talented and highly sought-after Djembe Fola whose vision is to build a reverence for folkloric West African music in hopes of it evolving and being placed in the world musical arenas of jazz, funk, fusion, world music, and hip-hop, is a new face of African percussion both nationally and internationally. Kaira Ba is also closing out 2018 with a BANG. They’re playing both the early countdown and late night stage at First Night Raleigh, New Year’s Eve.
Batalá Durham and Paperhand Puppet Intervention led a people’s parade on November 30 from American Tobacco to CCB Plaza to light a huge tree across from the Unscripted Hotel. Downtown Durham Inc. contracted Sonic Pie Productions for a 2nd year, to curate talent, provide sound production services and assist with logistics.
Shows we love/gossip/drink local: did you hear Sam Bush AND Taj Mahal are playing Isis Music Hall in West Asheville? (No, not the same night, silly) It’s a gorgeous, intimate venue.

Do you like to “drink local”? Have you tried Mystic bourbon or Oak City amarettoyet? They’re about $25 a bottle, Triangle-based, hand-crafted and SO good, especially on the 29 degree nights.
Sonic Pie Productions is THRILLED to have signed a 2nd-year sound production services/modular staging contract with Hippie Fest. We’ll be returning to Ohio, South Carolina and Salisbury, NC in 2019!

Third Friday Durham, Durham’s monthly “gallery crawl” continues with a winter branding for January-March 2019. THANK YOU, EVERYONE, FOR A GREAT 2018!
OTHER UPCOMING SPP CONCERTS & EVENTS

It was our BIGGEST September ever, and Sonic Pie Productions gives you backstage, front row and front of house access!

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It was our BIGGEST September ever, and Sonic Pie Productions gives you backstage, front row and front of house access!

Erykah Badu, surrounded in by “pyramid” of magical light headlines the 5th annual Art of Cool Festival in downtown Durham, North Carolina. Sonic Pie Productions provided Production and Venue Management at five of this progressive jazz, soul, hip hop and R&B festival’s venues, September 28-29, 2018.

How about MAXWELL, last Friday night? “Fortunate” from between the barricade and stage. Night two of Maxwell’s ’50 Intimate Nights” North American Tour at the 5th annual Art of Cool Festival, Durham, NC. 

  

  

Did you see Don Cheadle play Miles Davis in the biopic, Miles Ahead? The soundtrack and all the recreated “live” tracks were played by trumpeter Keyon Harrold, pictured right, in a full band set at the 250 capacity Pinhook (at full capacity!)

Plus, we provided sound production services at the 12 act, multi-stage Groove In The Garden (below), at Stephenson Amphitheater and Rose Gardenin Raleigh, North Carolina, on this beautiful WPA-built stage.

 

 

The game plan: what to do when tonight’s artist never got on the plane

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Richie Havens, Odetta and Ani DiFranco are examples of cancellations Sonic Pie Productions’ founder Tess Mangum Ocaña navigated, but with ample advance notice, and one for unavoidable good reason (death). Sound Girls shows you how to handle patron disappointment (and anger) when the venue finds out the artist never got on the plane. The game plan has to be in place before #dayofshow https://theatreartlife.com/one-and-done/unexpected-show-cancellation/

Sonic Pie Productions past, present and future in Indyweek.com

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Sonic Pie Productions Marks Five Years of Business in Durham This Weekend

Posted by  on Fri, Feb 9, 2018 at 3:50 PM

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The music industry is notoriously dominated by dudes, but this weekend, one woman is celebrating her success as an independent promoter—and looking toward expanding her business.

Tess Mangum Ocaña runs Sonic Pie Productions, staging and promoting shows in the Triangle and all over North Carolina. She’s served stints booking for The ArtsCenter (for which the INDY gave her an Arts Award in 2012) and with Casbah (which is now Social Games and Brews), but more recently, she’s worked with the Art of Cool Festival, the Festival for the Eno, and the International Bluegrass Music Association’s annual World of Bluegrass festival downtown. One of her biggest current projects is booking the annual free summer music series in Durham Central Park, which begins on June 8 and runs through late August.

Ocaña is marking the anniversary with a party at The Rickhouse in Durham on Sunday afternoon. It’s free and open to the public, and features a performance from Diali Cissokho & Kaira Ba that begins at 3:15 p.m. But even as the celebration approaches, Ocaña is still looking toward growing Sonic Pie into something bigger and better—she’s stepping into regional production with Hippie Fest, a series with stops in North and South Carolina, as well as in Michigan and Ohio.

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Sonic Pie Productions celebrates 5th anniversary February 11

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Sonic Pie Productions, proudly based in Durham, NC is turning FIVE and we’re throwing a party at The Rickhouse, downtown! We strategically chose a Sunday afternoon so you and all our friends across North Carolina can actually come. Catering by Soigné Events. Live music TBA…no cover charge. We are so thankful you let us create community and commerce through live events. https://www.facebook.com/events/1540747715991592/
Dress code: fly as hell
Ages: all
Bar: cash

2017: a GREAT Sonic Pie Productions Year In Live Music

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2017 has been a GREAT Sonic Pie Productions Year In Live Music. Here are some snapshots. Thank you to all our clients, production partners, artists, and audience members.