Well-Being Concerts
featuring Nnenna and Pierce Freelon
Well-Being Concerts featuring Nnenna and Pierce Freelon
Saturday, December 5 and Saturday, April 10
4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
in the Gregg Museum of Art & Design
$25 Public | $25 Faculty/Staff | $10 NC State Students
*General Admission*
These concerts are created in partnership with Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute.
Be human with us.
We invite you to arrive with an open mind as we reimagine the traditional concert format as a space for intentional connection and mindful reflection.
The seating for this experience is general admission and will take place within Maya Freelon’s Grounded exhibition at the Gregg Museum. Participants will choose from a variety of casual and comfortable seating options, with mats, cushions and chairs all available on a first-come, first-served basis.
All are welcome. Come as you are.
About the Artists
Nnenna Freelon
A seven-time Grammy nominee, Nnenna is an acclaimed jazz singer, composer, storyteller, author, podcaster and advocate for arts education.
She describes herself as a “grief sojourner,” a title that encapsulates her ever-evolving relationship through and alongside grief.
Nnenna’s decades of creative works span music, spoken word, literature and beyond. Her 2025 album Beneath the Skin is her first collection of all-original songs exploring themes of love, loss, resilience and joy. Her podcast, Great Grief, uses musically-supported storytelling to share lessons about loving greatly through loss. Additionally, her book, Beneath the Skin of Sorrow: Improvisations on Loss, serves as both a memoir and a guide to navigating grief.
Pierce Freelon
Pierce Freelon is known for working at the intersection of children’s media, music and storytelling.
His Grammy-nominated children’s albums, AnceStars and Black to the Future, have been featured on NPR, Billboard and the Today Show.
Pierce is a champion of community engagement. As co-founder of the Emmy Award-winning series Beat Making Lab, he traveled the world teaching music production to young musicians with PBS Digital Studios. Inspired by this project, Pierce then founded Blackspace, a makerspace for Durham teens centered on Afrofuturism and innovation in the digital arts. He is also a podcaster, ice cream maker and former Durham City Councilman.
Together, Nnenna and Pierce are a Grammy-nominated mother-son duo known for AnceStars, a children’s album that honors their family legacy. This includes the late architect Phil Freelon — Nnenna’s husband and Pierce and Maya’s father — an NC State alum and principal architect for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. He also designed the Gregg Museum’s current home, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2027.
About Well-Being Concerts
Carnegie Hall’s Well-Being Concerts combine world-class musical performances with elements of self-care and mindfulness, animated by evidence that music helps people heal and thrive. They support arts presenters across the country and around the globe to create Well-Being Concerts for their own communities.
NC State LIVE and the Gregg Museum of Art & Design are proud to partner and present these Well-Being Concerts locally, while highlighting the Freelon family and honoring their connections to the museum, the university and the Triangle community.
These concerts are created in partnership with Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute.
