The Current's Emerging Artists Showcase 2024

This event is FREE with ticket registration. Space is limited so reserve yours now!

Tickets

The Current’s Emerging Artists Showcase will be documented with photography and audio and audio-visual recordings. By attending this event, you consent to having your image and voice photographed and recorded, as applicable, and to the use by MPR of any such photographs and/or recordings in any and all media.

Doors 6 p.m. | Performance 7 p.m.

About this Event

The Current’s Emerging Artists Showcase brings together musicians from communities across our region to showcase and develop the next generation of songwriters and performers. Powered by The Current with support from the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation and the Minnesota Legacy Amendment's Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, the purpose of the Emerging Artists Showcase is to enable and empower musicians who are in the beginning phases of their careers by providing a platform to cultivate their craft and build a portfolio of recorded work to advance their creative goals.

This year’s showcase will take place at the Duluth Masonic Temple, a venue that was built in 1904 and has been a place for concerts, lectures, opera, theatrical presentations and more over its 100+ year history. Join The Current along with curator Aby Wolf for an evening of music. This showcase will introduce you to the music of Duluth-based Nolen Sellwood and carisa from Madison, Wisconsin.

Nolen Sellwood

Nolen is a young artist with an old soul. His beautifully crafted singing and songwriting skills are captured on his freshman album, "Otherwise" with a second studio album coming soon. Playing alongside him as a trio are his middle school and now college friends, Sam Hovda and Owen Reinert Nash. With a deep inspiration to old British artists such as Nick Drake and John Martyn, he tries to capture the elegance and ethereal beauty that is British isle folk.

carisa

carisa's music is best categorized as bedroom cafe. It hints at some of her influences, primarily bossa nova, folk, and jazz. Her lyrics are often straight from the pages of her journal and are always autobiographical in some way. She primarily performs music with her guitar but has also been seen caressing a keyboard.

Aby Wolf: Music Curator, Performer

Aby Wolf is a Minneapolis-based vocalist, music maker, and passionate collaborator with an elastic skillset. Whether writing vocal arrangements, fulfilling commissions, or performing in clubs, theaters, and schools everywhere from Brainerd to Bratislava to Beijing, Aby brings a palpable element of joy to whatever endeavor she pursues. A lifelong learner with an ever-expanding curiosity, Wolf’s sound is distinguished not by typical markers of genre or instrumentation, but by her impressive range of expression and experimentation. In early 2023, she explored themes of climate anxiety, interconnectedness, and collective potential with her electro/pop EP 'Dream Fruit.' In the fall, Wolf's 12-piece progressive chamber ensemble Champagne Confetti celebrated the long-awaited release of their self-titled LP, a kaleidoscopic love letter written in spacious neo-minimalism, chamber music, jazz, and theater-framed R&B and soul.

Funded in part by the Jane S. Smith Memorial Fund of the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation and the Minnesota Clean Water Land & Legacy Amendment.