By Aaron Fiedler, Arts & Science Council

Imagine thousands of people waiting for a convention to kick off when, from up above, an opera singer starts belting out an aria. This happened to a lot of very surprised people at the United States Institute for Theatre Technology Conference in Charlotte this past month. Opera Carolina was in top form yet again as they brought together four performers for the Arts & Science Council’s latest Random Act of Culture®. The venue, the Charlotte Convention Center, provided a perfect space for the singers to perform – the main entrance to the convention hall is a two-story atrium with a second level that overlooks the first.

Just before 10:30 a.m. the singers positioned themselves throughout the second level overlook. As the music began, curious conference goers looked on with confusion and joy. During the 15-minute performance thousands of people gathered from all over the convention center to see the singers pop up from throughout the crowd to begin singing. As the performance ended, the crowd cheered and applauded the singers who finished the RAC on the landing of the stairs to the second floor in what became a makeshift stage. When the “You’ve Just Experienced a Random Act of Culture” signs went up, the crowd erupted in even louder applause.

By far, this was the largest (crowd wise) RAC presented by ASC to date. As always we look forward to telling you about and showing you all that Charlotte is up to next month.