American Icons 250
UMS is excited to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our country in 2026. To honor this milestone, our 25/26 season includes a number of events that center around America’s diverse and iconic voices, exceptional creativity, and innovative spirit.
Centennial Celebrations
Three of the American Icons 250 presentations double as centennial celebrations. These milestones aren’t just about looking back — they’re about recognizing the long-lasting influence these icons have had on American culture and creativity. From shaping artistic movements to redefining performance and storytelling, their legacies continue to resonate today.
Martha Graham Dance Company
GRAHAM100
Fri-Sun Jan 16-18 // Power Center
Martha Graham is recognized as a primal artistic force of the 20th century. She radically expanded the dance vocabulary, rooting it in social, psychological, and sexual ideas, and forever altering the art form. Her company, celebrating its 100th season since its 1926 beginnings in a small studio at Carnegie Hall, exemplifies its founder’s timeless and uniquely American style of dance. The Graham company will present three different performances in the Power Center.
Terence Blanchard and Ravi Coltrane
Miles Davis and John Coltrane Centennial
Sun Feb 15 // Hill Auditorium
The year 1926 saw the birth of two towering figures who reshaped the landscape of 20th-century music: Miles Davis and John Coltrane. In this limited tour, Terence Blanchard and Ravi Coltrane, two of today’s most visionary musicians, come together to honor their legacies in a concert that is both a centennial tribute and a living, breathing continuation of their spirit.
GATZ
Elevator Repair Service
Fri-Sun Mar 27-29 // Power Center
A century after the publication of The Great Gatsby and 20 years after its acclaimed off-Broadway run, Elevator Repair Service’s GATZ comes to Ann Arbor following its sold-out run at New York’s Public Theater in November 2024. Told over a single 6½-hour production (plus dinner break), GATZ is not just a retelling of the Gatsby story, but a complete enactment of the novel, in which Fitzgerald’s masterpiece is cleverly delivered word for word.
Instrumental Figures
Each of the other performances featured as part of American Icons 250 recognizes America’s history in unique ways, using instruments not only as tools for music-making but also as voices that carry cultural memory, identity, and innovation across generations.
Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band
Thu Jan 29 // Michigan Theater
Led by the celebrated vocalist Julia Keefe (Nez Perce), this 16-piece ensemble of Native musicians highlights an often overlooked but rich history of Indigenous bands that existed on reservations across the country in the early 20th century. It both deepens and challenges our understanding of the “uniquely American” art form known as jazz.
Wynton Marsalis Symphony No. 5
Fri Feb 6 // Hill Auditorium
This preview of Wynton Marsalis’s new Symphony No. 5, composed in honor of America’s 250th birthday, will be performed by musicians from the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance and the beloved Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
The Complete Philip Glass Piano Etudes
Co-presented with the Gilmore Piano Festival
Sat Apr 18 // Hill Auditorium
As America celebrates its 250th year, Philip Glass’s collection of 20 piano etudes stands as a powerful tribute to innovation and artistic dedication. These intimate and inventive works reflect both Glass’s personal journey and the creative spirit that defines the nation’s cultural legacy. Ten different pianists will perform the 20 short pieces over the course of a single evening.
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