Chris Robinson, Joss Stone, The War and Treaty, Robert Randolph and George Porter Jr. are among the acts slated to appear at The Tipping Point. Tulane University’s signature benefit concert supporting student scholarships, the 10th annual event will take place at New Orleans’ Orpheum Theater on November 6. This year’s concert theme is The Decade of Impact.
Other confirmed acts include Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s Ben Jaffe, Amy Helm, River Eckert, Ivan Neville, Tony Hall, Raymond Weber and the Dumpstaphunk Horns while Eric Krasno will serve as the event’s music director and bandleader. Produced by Greg Williamson and Nicole Rechter of RWE Partners, the concert “brings artists together in combinations created specifically for the evening rather than presenting a traditional series of individual sets.”
“For 10 years, The Tipping Point has brought extraordinary artists to New Orleans for a purpose that goes to the heart of Tulane’s mission: ensuring that talented students have the opportunity to pursue a Tulane education regardless of their financial circumstances,” said Tulane President Michael A. Fitts said in a statement. “Reaching this anniversary is a chance to celebrate what this community has built together and, most importantly, to continue investing in the students who will carry that impact forward.”
“Ten years ago, Nicole and I set out to create something that captured the extraordinary musical spirit of New Orleans, a city where genres collide, generations come together and incredible things happen when artists share a stage,” Williamson added. “The Tipping Point has always been about more than a lineup of remarkable musicians. It’s about what happens when artists like Chris Robinson, Joss Stone, The War and Treaty and Robert Randolph come together with New Orleans legends like Ben Jaffe, George Porter Jr., Ivan Neville, Tony Hall, Raymond Weber, Eric Krasno and the Dumpstaphunk Horns. There’s a chemistry, a spontaneity and a sense of musical community that simply cannot be manufactured. That’s the magic of New Orleans, and it’s what has made The Tipping Point so special for the past decade. Nicole and I are incredibly proud of what we’ve built and even more excited about what’s ahead.”
“The magic of The Tipping Point has always been in the combinations,” Rechter said, echoing those sentiments. “Artists come into this room from different musical backgrounds and generations, and by the end of the night they’ve created something together that no one in the audience will see anywhere else. Ten years in, it’s remarkable to look at the community that has grown around this concert and to know that every year it comes back to supporting opportunities for Tulane students.”
Past Tipping Point performers have included Emmylou Harris, Billy F Gibbons, Ziggy Marley, Grace Potter, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Warren Haynes, Joe Bonamassa, Stephen Marley, Lukas Nelson, Mavis Staples, Taj Mahal, Irma Thomas, David Shaw, Oteil Burbridge and Preservation Hall Jazz Band, among others.
