RALEIGH — The North Carolina Museum of Art recently announced two upcoming concerts in partnership with Cat’s Cradle.

The concerts will be the first shows to return to the Joseph M. Bryan Jr. Theater, in the Museum Park, since the 2020 season was canceled beause of the pandemic.

“There is hardly a better feeling than a concert in the Museum Park Theater under the stars,” said Valerie Hillings, Museum director. “We can’t wait to safely welcome visitors back for a memorable concert season.”

Big Thief, featuring a special guest, will be the first performance featured and is set to take the stage Sept. 22. Tickets are $23 for members and $25 for nonmembers.

Anybody who has borne witness to Big Thief in the wild will find songs they recognize on their latest album “Two Hands.” Many of the album’s tracks — “The Toy,” “Those Girls,” “Shoulders,” “Not,” “Cut My Hair” — have been live staples for years.

“’Two Hands’ has the songs that I’m the most proud of; I can imagine myself singing them when I’m old,” said Big Thief member Adrianne Lenker. “Musically and lyrically, you can’t break it down much further than this. It’s already bare-bones.”

Lyrically this can be felt in the “poetic blur of the internal and external. These are political songs without political language. They explore the collective wounds of our Earth; abstractions of the personal hint at war, environmental destruction, and the traumas that fuel it,” a description of the new album read.

Pink Martini, featuring China Forbes, is scheduled to perform Oct. 31 at the museum. Tickets go on sale Thursday at 10 a.m. for members and Friday at 10 a.m. for nonmembers. Tickets are $41 for members and $46 for nonmembers.

Featuring a dozen musicians, with songs in 25 languages, Pink Martini has performed its multilingual repertoire on concert stages on six continents. After making its European debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and its orchestral debut with the Oregon Symphony in 1998, the band has gone on to play with more than 50 orchestras around the world, including multiple engagements with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the Boston Pops, the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center, the San Francisco Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the BBC Concert Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall in London.

Drawing inspiration from music from all over the world and crossing genres of classical, jazz, and old-fashioned pop, Pink Martini hopes to appeal to all.

“We’re very much an American band, but we spend a lot of time abroad and therefore have the incredible diplomatic opportunity to represent a broader, more inclusive America … the America which remains the most heterogeneously populated country in the world … composed of people of every country, every language, every religion,” said bandleader and pianist Tom Lauderdale.

More information can be found and tickets can be purchased on the museums website, ncartmuseum.org/concerts, or by calling the box office at 919-715-5923.