Introducing the 2022/23 Season

By UMS

Watch our 40-second trailer: Live the Moment

A season opener with Trevor Noah. The Berlin Philharmonic and a lineup of international ensembles. A week-long residency with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. The return of our curated series and the No Safety Net renegade festival. And so much more to discover…

“We invite you to join us next season. Live the moment and be reminded just how much we’ve all missed the beauty and wonder of great artistry, and the power it holds for us as human beings to be able to share it with one another.”

— UMS President Matthew VanBesien

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or browse our season highlights below

For Our Patrons & Season Ticketholders

Season Tickets will be available online starting Tuesday, May 10 at 10 am. Renewing subscribers will have early access starting Thursday, April 28. Learn more or flip through our interactive season brochure.

Individual event tickets will go on sale Tuesday, August 2.

For the Press

View Full Press Release (PDF)
View Chronological List of Events (PDF)

Season Highlights

Season Launches with Trevor Noah

Trevor Noah

On Friday, September 16, Trevor Noah opens UMS’s 144th season with a bang, bringing his “Back to Abnormal” tour to Hill Auditorium.

Following his widely-viewed virtual talk with U-M students in 2020, the host of Comedy Central’s Emmy and Peabody Award-winning The Daily Show comes to Ann Arbor for his first live UMS stand-up set.

Trevor Noah’s visit to UMS and U-M is made possible with special support from Michigan Engineering.

Wynton Marsalis Returns for Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Week-long Residency

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis returns to Ann Arbor for a week-long residency that will include two public concerts, a School Day Performance for K-12 students, connections with students at the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance — and a halftime appearance with the Michigan Marching Band!

On Friday, October 14, the ensemble will be joined by the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra and Choirs, as well as the UMS Choral Union, for Marsalis’s epic blues suite, All Rise (Symphony No. 1).

And on Sunday, October 16, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis returns in its big band format for an afternoon of jazz.

The Return of Our Choral Union Series

Berliner Philharmoniker with Chief Conductor Kirill Petrenko

UMS is thrilled to bring back our curated Choral Union Series! The 11 concert series will feature six orchestras, including two different programs with the Berliner Philharmoniker.

• Pianist Sir András Schiff, with works by works by W.A. Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Schubert (Fri Oct 7)
• Wynton Marsalis’s All Rise (Symphony No. 1) with University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra and Choirs and the UMS Choral Union, conducted by Kenneth Kiesler (Fri Oct 14)
• City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, featuring Sheku Kanneh-Mason performing Elgar’s Cello Concerto, conducted by Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla (Wed Oct 19)
• Berliner Philharmoniker – with Noah Bendeix-Balgley on violin and conductor Kirill Petrenko, featuring works by Andrew Norman, W.A. Mozart, and Erich Korngold (Fri Nov 18)
• Berliner Philharmoniker – second program, featuring Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 (Sat Nov 19)
• Violinist Itzhak Perlman performs selected chamber works with Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Emanuel Ax, and the Juilliard String Quartet (Sat Dec 10)
• Sphinx Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 25th anniversary in this rescheduled concert from the 2021/22 Season (Sun Jan 29)
• Violinist Joshua Bell returns for his fifth recital program and ninth appearance with UMS (Tue Feb 7)
• Brno Philharmonic with Dennis Russell Davies performs William Bolcom’s Humoresk for Organ and Orchestra, as well as Leoś Janáček’s monumental Glagolitic Mass with the UMS Choral Union (Fri Feb 10)
• Daniel Hope and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra dive deep into the rich repertoire of American music (Fri Mar 17)
• Chineke! Orchestra with conductor Andrew Grams and violinist Elena Urioste performs works by Carlos Simon, Florence Price, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (Sat Mar 25)

Six-Concert Chamber Arts Series Balances Old and New

Emerson String Quartet; Photo Credit: Jurgen Frank

The Chamber Arts series returns to Rackham Auditorium with a mix of UMS favorites and exciting new projects.

• Emerson String Quartet, embarking on its farewell tour, brings works by Felix Mendelssohn, Johannes Brahms, George Walker, and Antonín Dvořák (Sat Oct 1)
• Danish String Quartet features Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” and performs a new work by Finnish composer Lotta Wennäkoski inspired by the same (Fri Oct 28)
• Takács Quartet and pianist Jeremy Denk perform Schumann’s Piano Quintet and quartets from Franz Joseph Haydn and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (Wed Jan 18)
• Aaron Diehl and his trio showcase his fluency in both classical repertoire and dynamic jazz improvisation, interspersing solo sections from The Well-Tempered Clavier with bebop tunes in corresponding keys (Fri Jan 27)
• Farida and the Iraqi Maqam Ensemble perform classical maqam, a form of Arab art music traditionally sung by men (Sun Mar 19)
• The Los Angeles music collective Wild Up performs Julius Eastman’s Femenine, a long-ignored masterpiece of minimalism (Sun Apr 16)

Dance Series Features Performances in Ann Arbor and Detroit

École des Sables of Senegal; Photo Credit: Maarten Vanden Abeele

UMS’s dance series will take place in three beloved venues across Southeast Michigan: the Power Center, the Detroit Opera House, and Hill Auditorium.

• Pina Bausch Foundation and École des Sables of Senegal present The Rite of Spring/ common ground[s], which pairs Pina Bauch’s pioneering version of The Rite of Spring with a new work created, performed, and inspired Germaine Acogny and Malou Airaudo (Fri–Sat Oct 21–22 // Power Center)
• French company Ballet Preljocaj tackles the Mount Everest of the ballet world with a new take on Swan Lake that reinvents the timeless tale of love, betrayal, seduction, and remorse as a contemporary ecological tragedy (Fri–Sun Feb 17–19 // Detroit Opera House)
• Step Afrika!, the country’s first professional dance company dedicated to the tradition of stepping, blends percussive dance styles practiced by historically African American fraternities and sororities, traditional West and Southern African dances, and an array of contemporary dance and art forms (Sun Mar 12 // Hill Auditorium)

Jazz Series Includes Five Wide-Ranging Performances

Cécile McLorin Salvant

In five wide-ranging performances, this season’s Jazz Series features performers at the forefront of the genre.

• Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra perform Wynton’s All Rise (Symphony No. 1) with the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra and Choirs and the UMS Choral Union, conducted by Kenneth Kiesler (Fri Oct 14)
• Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis returns to the big band format for an afternoon of jazz (Sun Oct 16)
• Aaron Diehl and his trio showcase his fluency in both classical repertoire and dynamic jazz improvisation, interspersing solo sections from The Well-Tempered Clavier with bebop tunes in corresponding keys (Fri Jan 27)
• NEA Jazz Master Maria Schneider and her 18 member Orchestra make their UMS debut (Sat Mar 11)
• Cécile McLorin Salvant brings her quintet and genre-obliterating virtuosity to Hill Auditorium  (Fri Apr 14)

No Safety Net 3.0 Creates Space for Community Dialogue on Socially-Engaged Art

Are we not drawn onward to new erA, Ontroerend Goed; Photo Credit: Mirjam Devriendt

UMS’s renegade festival, No Safety Net, returns for its third installment in January–February 2023.

The festival launches with the Belgian theater company Ontroerend Goed with a uniquely palindromic work about the environment — a piece that uses creative stagecraft to give hope that we can undo some of the damage that has already been done.

Details on the remaining productions and artists, along with a robust set of contextual activities, will be announced in Fall 2022.

Plus Much More!

Including the great Mexican ranchera singer Aida Cuevas (Friday, November 4); the annual performances of Handel’s Messiah (Saturday-Sunday, December 3-4); and a double bill of Béla Fleck’s My Bluegrass Heart and Punch Brothers (Friday, December 16).

Explore all 2022/23 events