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Genre-Bending Musician Shana Tucker Returns to NC

WUNC | By Monique LaBorde,
Anita Rao
Published June 9, 2017 at 12:24 PM EDT
Shana Tucker created the musical genre Chamber Soul to reflect a mix of classical and jazz training with influences from 80s and 90s pop and world music.
Lei Rivera Photography
Shana Tucker created the musical genre Chamber Soul to reflect a mix of classical and jazz training with influences from 80s and 90s pop and world music.

For cellist and singer-songwriter Shana Tucker, the last two years have been a whirlwind. She has been busy promoting her first album "Shine" which received widespread recognition for its original songwriting and distinctive sounds. Tucker recently left her job performing with Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas to pursue new opportunities in her independent career.

Guest host Anita Rao talks with cellist and singer-songwriter Shana Tucker who performs live with Shirazette Tinnin on drums.

Last month, she moved back to North Carolina to focus on her self-described ChamberSoul music. Tucker developed the ChamberSoul genre to fit her own background. It combines her classical cello and jazz training with ‘80s pop and soulful rhythm and blues. Guest host Anita Rao talks with Tucker who performs live with Shirazette Tinnin on drums.

Tucker performs Saturday, June 10 at 4 p.m.at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences as part of the “Rhythm of Race” celebration.

Copyright 2017 North Carolina Public Radio
Monique LaBorde
Monique will graduate from UNC-Chapel Hill in May 2017 with majors in Southern studies and women’s and gender studies.
See stories by Monique LaBorde
Anita Rao
Anita Rao is the host and creator of "Embodied," a live, weekly radio show and seasonal podcast about sex, relationships & health. She's also the managing editor of WUNC's on-demand content. She has traveled the country recording interviews for the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps production department, founded and launched a podcast about millennial feminism in the South, and served as the managing editor and regular host of "The State of Things," North Carolina Public Radio's flagship daily, live talk show. Anita was born in a small coal-mining town in Northeast England but spent most of her life growing up in Iowa and has a fond affection for the Midwest.
See stories by Anita Rao