Following the raw intensity of BLACK HOLE at UMS, TRIBE returns with Marks of RED, the fourth installment of choreographer and performer Shamel Pitts’s RED Series. Beginning with Lake of RED in 2020, the series has grown through performances, residencies, and collaborations to explore the many ways Blackness can be experienced, expressed, and imagined.

While the BLACK Series looked outward, examining the ways Blackness is perceived and represented, the RED Series turns inward. Across each installment, Pitts considers the complexity within Black identity: the memories carried, the relationships built, movement through the world, and the possibilities that emerge when those experiences come together.

Explore the progression of the RED Series leading up to Pitts’ latest creation:

Lake of RED

The RED Series began during an extraordinary moment. Created during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lake of RED is a poetic audiovisual performance shaped by a time when live performance was largely confined to isolated and fragmented spaces.

The work takes place inside a box, reflecting the physical and emotional constraints of that moment. His lyrical poetry moves through the work as an undercurrent, creating a meditation on isolation, reflection, and connection.

Lake of RED established many of the ideas that would continue throughout the series: the body as a site of memory and expression, the relationship between inner and outer worlds, and the possibility of finding connection even within separation.

Solace of RED

From there, the RED Series expanded beyond a single work and into a larger creative process.

Initiated in 2020, Solace of RED was a performance art residency and incubator that gave artists space to experiment, collaborate, and develop new work across disciplines. Across five editions from 2020–2025, the project brought together TRIBE artists and invited guest artists, supporting the creation of three new live performance works and one art installation.

The residency became another way to explore the ideas at the heart of RED: not just through finished performances, but through experimentation, collaboration, and the development of individual voices within a shared creative environment.

That community continues into Marks of RED. Two artists who developed work through Solace of RED, Ashley Pierre-Louis and Marcella Lewis, will perform in the new work.

Touch of RED

The ideas of connection and collaboration took another form in Touch of RED, a multidisciplinary duet exploring Black masculinity and the space between strength and vulnerability.

Set inside a boxing ring, the work transforms a space traditionally associated with competition into a place for connection, compassion, and healing. The performers draw from boxing, Lindy Hop, Gaga movement, and nightlife, creating a physical language that can be both forceful and tender.

With Touch of RED, the series continued to ask how Black identity can hold seemingly opposing experiences at once—strength and vulnerability, individuality and connection, intensity and joy.

Marks of RED

Now, the RED Series enters its fourth installment with Marks of RED—and Pitts is taking the series somewhere new.

Centered on six women, Marks of RED explores how memories shape the way we move, experience our bodies, and connect with one another. Pitts draws from his experiences with Butoh and Sumo alongside the energy of Detroit techno, creating movement that can feel intensely grounded one moment and charged with the energy of a dance floor the next.

The work also represents a major shift for Pitts as an artist. For the first time, he will not perform in his own TRIBE work. Instead, he steps offstage to focus entirely on choreographing and building the world of Marks of RED for its six performers.

That shift is significant. After using his own body as a central part of the RED Series, Pitts is now creating space for six women to carry the work forward. Their bodies, memories, relationships, and perspectives become the center of this next chapter.

The result is a work that feels unlike anything else in the RED Series: surreal but physical, futuristic but rooted in the body. Marks of RED takes the questions that have developed across the series and opens them outward again, asking what happens when memory becomes movement—and what becomes possible when we make space for the experiences that live within us.

See where the RED Series goes next.
Experience Marks of RED at UMS.

Buy Tickets

Starting at $30 (+ fees). $15-20 student tickets available

BONUS:

Step into the sound world of Marks of RED with a playlist of tracks that echo the work’s energy, movement, and atmosphere.

On September 25, UMS’s 26/27 season begins with the return of an old friend.

After a 15-year absence, The Cleveland Orchestra returns to Hill Auditorium for a homecoming that carries an extra sense of occasion. The Orchestra will be led by Franz Welser-Möst, who is entering his 25th and final season as music director, making this Ann Arbor appearance a unique “last chance” to hear one of the great American orchestras alongside a longtime leader of its distinctive sound.

The program itself offers a fitting introduction to the season: three works connected by a sense of landscape, lyricism, and orchestral color. Franz Liszt’s Orpheus opens the evening, with music Camille Saint-Saëns famously described as “woven of sunbeams and starlight.” Bohuslav Martinů’s Symphony No. 2 follows, and it’s a work with a particularly strong connection to Cleveland, having been commissioned by the city’s Czechoslovakian community in 1943 and premiered by The Cleveland Orchestra. The evening concludes with Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 2, one of the composer’s most warmly pastoral works.

Watch on YouTube: The Cleveland Orchestra and Welser-Möst perform Brahms’s second symphony on tour in Vienna

But there’s another story worth celebrating on September 25: the story of The Cleveland Orchestra and UMS.

Nearly a century of music-making in Ann Arbor

Posters promoting The Cleveland Orchestra performances on campus  in 1949, 1952, and 1955

The Cleveland Orchestra’s relationship with UMS stretches back more than 90 years. Its first documented UMS performance took place at Hill Auditorium on March 28, 1935, when the Orchestra performed music by César Franck, Dmitri Shostakovich, Piotr Tchaikovsky, and Igor Stravinsky under conductor Artur Rodzinski.

Since then, the Orchestra has returned to Ann Arbor again and again, appearing more than 30 times in UMS’s performance history. In addition to Rodzinski, its Ann Arbor appearances have featured some of the most influential conductors of the 20th and 21st centuries: Erich Leinsdorf, George Szell, Pierre Boulez, Lorin Maazel, Christoph von Dohnányi, and, most recently, Welser-Möst.

The repertoire tells an equally fascinating story.

Under George Szell, who shaped The Cleveland Orchestra into one of the world’s most acclaimed ensembles during his tenure, UMS audiences heard works ranging from Mozart and Beethoven to Bruckner, Brahms, Hindemith, Tchaikovsky, and contemporary music. In 1965, for example, Szell led the Orchestra in Tadeusz Baird’s 1958 composition, Four Essays for Orchestra, alongside Mozart and Tchaikovsky.

The Orchestra’s UMS appearances have also reflected the adventurous programming that has long been part of its identity. In 1971, Pierre Boulez conducted Debussy’s Jeux, Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin, and Schumann’s “Rhenish” Symphony. In 1995, Christoph von Dohnányi led a program pairing Alfred Schnittke and Arnold Schoenberg with Brahms. And in 1996, the Orchestra performed an unusual program of orchestrated Schubert songs, Debussy’s La Mer, and Wagner’s Rienzi Overture.

The UMS archives also contain the occasional backstage drama. When the Orchestra performed Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in February 1995, bad weather nearly prevented soloist Emanuel Ax from reaching Ann Arbor. He ultimately arrived by private plane, while pianist Anton Nel rehearsed with the Orchestra as a contingency!

Welser-Möst’s Cleveland legacy

Franz Welser-Möst conducting The Cleveland Orchestra

The September 25 concert also brings the UMS-Cleveland Orchestra relationship full circle in a particularly meaningful way.

Welser-Möst first appeared with The Cleveland Orchestra as a guest conductor in 1993 and became its music director in 2002. Over the next quarter-century, he would help shape the ensemble’s sound, programming, opera tradition, and international reputation. By the conclusion of the 26/27 season, he will have led the Orchestra in more than 1,200 performances across nearly 100 cities and more than two dozen countries. He has also appointed more than half of the Orchestra’s current roster — a remarkable indication of the depth of his influence on the ensemble.

His tenure has been characterized by a combination of precision, transparency, warmth, and a deep engagement with Central European repertoire, while also embracing contemporary composers and ambitious opera productions. The Cleveland Orchestra’s 26/27 season is designed in part as a celebration of the musical identity Welser-Möst and the Orchestra have built together.

In their most recent UMS appearance in 2011, audiences heard Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra perform Wagner’s Tannhäuser Overture, Schumann’s Piano Concerto with Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and Bartók’s Music for Celesta, Percussion and Strings.

Fifteen years later, they’re back.

A new season, and a moment in history

There’s something especially fitting about beginning a new UMS season with an ensemble that has been part of the institution’s history for generations.

The Cleveland Orchestra’s return connects the present to a remarkable musical lineage: from Artur Rodzinski’s 1935 appearance, through George Szell’s celebrated Ann Arbor visits, to the adventurous programs led by Boulez, Maazel, and Dohnányi. And now, to Welser-Möst’s final season at the helm.

While the Orchestra’s UMS history stretches back to 1935, every performance is ultimately about the moment when the musicians walk onto the stage and the hall falls silent. Join us on Friday, September 25 for a milestone performance that marks both a thrilling homecoming and a bittersweet farewell.

Buy Tickets

Starting at $30 (+ fees). $15-20 student tickets available

Bonus

Look through our full performance archive (and more vintage posters!) with The Cleveland Orchestra on UMS Rewind.

Ask a casual music fan to name a Bruce Hornsby song, and you’ll almost certainly hear “The Way It Is.” That’s fair enough…the 1986 title track from his debut album with The Range spent weeks atop the Billboard charts, won Hornsby a Grammy for Best New Artist, and eventually became one of the most sampled songs in hip-hop history.

40 years on, that song is just the starting point of a career that has wound through bluegrass, jazz, classical, jam-band improvisation, film scoring, and indie-folk collaboration. And this fall, Hornsby brings all of it to Ann Arbor for the first time, with The Noisemakers, Friday, October 2 in Hill Auditorium.

Where It Started

“The Way It Is” slowly built momentum in the U.S. before exploding on BBC Radio One and then racing around the world. The album eventually sold three million copies, and the band found themselves opening for Steve Winwood, John Fogerty, Huey Lewis, the Grateful Dead, and the Eurythmics before headlining their own tour.

The Dead, the Session Work, and a Reputation as a Collaborator’s Collaborator

In September 1990, Hornsby joined the Grateful Dead as a touring member, playing more than 100 shows with the band over roughly a year and a half. It’s an unusual credential for a pop hitmaker, but it set the tone for everything that followed. Hornsby has spent four decades treating genre boundaries as something to lean on, not respect.

He’s the piano on Bonnie Raitt’s aching “I Can’t Make You Love Me.” He’s appeared on more than 100 albums by artists as different as Bob Dylan, Chaka Khan, Willie Nelson, Sting, and bluegrass icon Ricky Skaggs (the two even released a full bluegrass album together). He’s scored music for several of Spike Lee’s films.

And a generation removed from “The Way It Is,” Tupac Shakur built “Changes” around that song’s piano riff, introducing Hornsby’s melody to an entirely new audience and cementing it as one of the most recognizable samples in rap.

Reinvention as a Habit

Where a lot of legacy artists spend their later decades touring on nostalgia, Hornsby has done close to the opposite. Working with The Noisemakers, his longtime road band, and a rotating cast of collaborators, he’s spent the last several years releasing a genuinely restless run of records: Absolute Zero with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver and Jack DeJohnette; Non-Secure Connection with Vernon, James Mercer, and Jamila Woods; ‘Flicted with the chamber sextet yMusic and Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig; and the water-themed Deep Sea Vents.

Those records helped make Hornsby an unlikely influence on a younger generation of songwriters (Bon Iver and Ryan Adams among them) who grew up hearing him as an elder statesman of adventurous pop.

Indigo Park: 2026’s New Chapter

This tour also marks a full-circle moment. 2026 is the 40th anniversary of The Way It Is — and instead of simply running a victory lap, Hornsby marked the occasion by releasing Indigo Park, a brand-new 10-song album that finds him, at 70, looking back on his childhood and career while sounding as playful and unpredictable as ever.

The record features Bob Weir and Bonnie Raitt, and it leans into wordplay, literary references, and detours into hip-hop-inflected production alongside dulcimer and quieter balladry. It was, by Hornsby’s own account, an album he tried not to make! After four records in five years he intended to take a break, but one song idea wouldn’t leave him alone.

What to Expect at Hill Auditorium

Hornsby’s live shows are famous for being different every night, with extended improvisation, deep-catalog surprises, and a setlist built more like a jazz set than a greatest-hits run-through. For this show, expect a set that moves fluidly between the songs that made him famous and the sprawling, genre-hopping work of the last decade, plus a first look at Indigo Park material for Ann Arbor audiences.

On Friday, October 2, don’t miss the rare opportunity to hear a great American artist who’s spent 40 years refusing to be defined by his biggest hit.

Buy Tickets

Bonus

Check out Bruce Hornsby and The Noisemakers’ recent performance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

Andrew Morton

A Q&A with Sofa Stories Creator Andrew Morton

This fall, UMS welcomes Every Soul Arts, a Detroit-based arts collective, to the Ypsilanti Freighthouse for two connected events exploring home, belonging, and the experiences of young people impacted by housing insecurity.

Sofa Stories: Stories on Stage and Screen
Fri Sep 18 at 7:30 pm

Stories of Home: Storytelling Workshop
Sun Sep 20 at 4 pm

Both events are pay-what-you-wish, starting at just $5.

We sat down with playwright, theater maker, and Every Soul Arts founder Andrew Morton to talk about where Sofa Stories began, how it’s grown, and what audiences can expect this September.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how this project came to be?

I’m a playwright and theater maker, originally from the UK, but I’ve lived in Michigan for more than half my life. My family moved here when I was a teenager for my dad’s engineering job, and I did some of my schooling here before heading back to the UK for university and a stint living in London. It was in London doing an MA in Community Arts at Goldsmiths College, in collaboration with the National Theatre of Great Britain, that I really refined my practice as a community-engaged artist. I worked briefly with a theater company called Streets Alive that used forum theater with young people experiencing homelessness. I loved that work, but the company lost its funding and had to close.

Fast forward to 2019: I’d recently moved to Detroit after years in Flint, and I was having a bit of a career “midlife crisis,” wondering what I really wanted to make. I thought back to that work in London and asked myself, why not try something like it here? That question became Sofa Stories, and it’s since grown into Every Soul Arts, the organization I run today.

What exactly is Sofa Stories, and how did it start?

Sofa Stories uses live theatre and digital media to amplify the stories of young people impacted by housing insecurity or homelessness who may have resorted to couch-surfing as a means to survive.

Sofa Stories began in 2019 with support from a Knight Arts Detroit Challenge grant. The idea was simple but a little unusual: bring actual sofas into public spaces — parks, sidewalks, unexpected corners of the city — and have performers share monologues about youth homelessness with one or two audience members at a time, sitting right there with them.

Working with organizations in Detroit, we developed original monologues in collaboration with young people with lived experience of homelessness and housing insecurity. It turned out that performing outdoors to an audience of one or two people was also a great fit for the strange constraints of COVID — but we realized our audience reach was limited. Since the monologues were already essentially solo performances, we adapted six of them into short films with help from friends in film and TV.

From there, the work kept evolving. A second phase focused more intentionally on LGBTQIA+ youth, who are significantly more likely to experience homelessness than their peers, as well as Black and Brown youth. We paired six young people with writers, performed the resulting pieces at Detroit Public Theatre, and took the work to events like the Sidewalk Festival, Matrix Theatre Company, and Dally in the Alley, often finding an audience by accident, as passersby noticed the sofas in the middle of everything else going on.

Now we’re in a third iteration, developing six new monologues, and continuing to adapt work for film as the project grows under the Every Soul Arts umbrella.

What can audiences expect from Stories on Stage and Screen on September 18?

The monologues we present at the Freighthouse will be a combination of young people sharing their own stories and actors performing the stories of others. When the project started, we mostly had actors performing monologues created in collaboration with the youth participants. Now, we let the youth participants decide if they want to share their stories themselves, or have an actor bring it to life.

It’s a mix of live and filmed work: three short films from the project’s second phase, interspersed with new live monologues performed from our signature sofas. The films were made in collaboration with partners like the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy (one was shot along the Dequindre Cut) so audiences will get to see the project in two forms: performed outdoors in non-traditional public spaces, and staged more traditionally, the way it’ll appear at the Freighthouse.

Those sofas, by the way, are real workhorses! Detroit-based furniture company Floyd supported the project early on with two loveseats that break apart for easy travel. They’ve been taken apart and put back together more times than I can count and thrown in the back of a truck for years, and they’re still holding up.

How do you approach telling difficult stories without reducing people to their circumstances?

We’re very intentional about it. First, we use person-first language — people with experience of homelessness or housing insecurity, not “homeless people” — because they’re not defined by that one thing. Second, participants can share whatever they want; nothing is required. We take inspiration from Ruth Ellis, namesake of the Ruth Ellis Center, who spoke often about the power of sharing your story on your own terms. If someone doesn’t want to talk about something, we don’t go there.

We also ask people to identify moments of joy, resilience, and connection, not just hardship — the person who showed up for them, or the person working inside a difficult system who genuinely cared. And importantly, everyone retains ownership of their story. If someone later decides they don’t want their piece shared anymore, that’s entirely their call.

All of the young people we work with are paid for their time, expertise, and contributions. That’s a core value of ours: treating lived experience as equal to professional experience.

Two days later, you’re hosting a companion event at the Freighthouse — the Stories of Home workshop. What should participants expect there?

It’s a bit of both something new and something we’ve been testing. We now have a core group of four young people acting as artistic collaborators and a “youth action board” — a model borrowed from other youth homelessness organizations that centers young people with lived experience in decision-making. They’ve helped lead creative engagement sessions with partners like the Ruth Ellis Center, Covenant House, and Detroit Phoenix Center, and we recently ran one with the Detroit Phoenix Center that was really powerful.

For this workshop, participants can expect gentle, collaborative group writing, followed by time for more personal individual reflection and writing. At the end, anyone who wants to can share their story with the group…the same spirit as sharing a story with someone sitting next to you on a sofa.

We’ve broadened the theme of “home” intentionally: it’s not about housing insecurity, but about “home” more universally — leaving home, creating a new one, finding home in a chosen family, or even, for someone like me, an immigrant, finding home in a new culture. Not everyone wants to speak directly about housing, and this framing gives people room to bring whatever version of that story is theirs.

What do you hope audiences take away from these events?

That homelessness and housing insecurity is fundamentally a policy issue. It can happen to almost anyone; life can change quickly, and it looks different in different places and for different people. We have the resources to house everyone if we choose to prioritize it as a community. I hope people leave thinking not just about housing, but about the broader idea of home and belonging, and how we create spaces where everyone feels they’re part of the community.

What’s next for Every Soul Arts?

We’re hoping to build a couple of core ensembles of young people who want to keep making performance and film work, and we’re exploring forming a choir, too. Music is a powerful form of expression that many young people lose access to when they’re rejected from a faith community because of who they are. Funding is still coming together, but we’re planning to move ahead either way. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from the young people I work with, it’s that they’re remarkably resilient and resourceful…and that’s a lesson worth learning from.

Learn more about Every Soul Arts and the Sofa Stories project at everysoularts.org/sofastories.

Get pay-what-you-wish tickets for both Sofa Stories events:

Sofa Stories: Stories on Stage and Screen
Fri Sep 18 at 7:30 pm

Stories of Home: Storytelling Workshop
Sun Sep 20 at 4 pm

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has captivated audiences with its sweeping retelling of Homer’s epic, but one of the film’s most surprising stars may be its sound. Composer Ludwig Göransson built the score around reconstructed ancient Greek instruments, including the aulos and lyre, to evoke a world that feels both timeless and startlingly new. The result is a soundtrack that has sparked widespread curiosity about ancient music and the stories that inspired it.

If you left the theater wanting more myths, more voyages, and more of those evocative historical sounds, UMS’s 26/27 season offers several performances that pick up where The Odyssey leaves off. Check out five presentations that invite you deeper into the worlds of mythology, seafaring adventure, and centuries-old musical traditions:

When I Saw the Sea

Jan 29-30, 2027 // Power Center

Present day storytelling that honors resilience and survival.

In The Odyssey, the sea is both danger and the route home, and Odysseus’s identity is shaped by crossing it. In When I Saw the Sea, the open water is a glimpse of freedom for a group of migrant women, and the possibility of a life beyond their current exploitation.

For Lebanese director and choreographer Ali Chahrour, art is inseparable from the present moment. His works elevate true personal stories of families, mothers, and working women, which he describes as creating “new heroic figures of everyday society.”

When I Saw the Sea dissolves the boundaries between dance, music, and theater, weaving Arabic and Ethiopian melodies into a powerful act of remembrance and defiance. Live music includes instrumentation that draws from ancient roots in the Levant, including the buzuq (long-necked fretted lute) and mijwiz (double-pipe, single-reed woodwind instrument).

Info & Tickets

Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas

Sun Feb 7, 2027 // Hill Auditorium

Another great Trojan epic, told through one of opera’s great masterpieces.

Love, duty, fate, and loss. If The Odyssey tells the story of the long journey home, Dido and Aeneas explores the journey that comes after.

Based on Virgil’s Aeneid, the opera follows the Trojan hero Aeneas after the fall of Troy. He arrives in Carthage, where he falls in love with Queen Dido before destiny calls him onward to found what will become Rome. It is one of Western music’s most enduring mythological tales, and one that directly continues the world Homer created.

This performance features tenor and U-M alumnus Nicholas Phan, and stars mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, whose interpretation of Dido’s heartbreakingly beautiful closing lament, “When I am laid in Earth,” is particularly masterful:

Played on period instruments by Il Pomo d’Oro, one of the world’s leading early music ensembles, this concert allows audiences to hear the music as listeners would have in Purcell’s own time, with transparent textures and uniquely expressive colors that modern orchestras cannot replicate.

Info & Tickets

Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony

Sat Feb 13, 2027 // Hill Auditorium

The ocean becomes a metaphor for humanity’s greatest journey.

Not every sea voyage involves monsters and shipwrecks.

Inspired by Walt Whitman’s poetry, Ralph Vaughan Williams’s monumental A Sea Symphony transforms the ocean into a symbol of exploration, courage, and the search for meaning. Like Homer’s epic, the symphony asks timeless questions: What lies beyond the horizon? What do we discover when we venture into the unknown? And how does every voyage change us?

The mighty UMS Choral Union, soaring vocal soloists Christine Goerke and Norman Garrett, and the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra will create a musical experience in Hill Auditorium that is expansive and expressive at a cinematic scale.

Info & Tickets

The Mad Lover

Wed Mar 17, 2027 // Rackham Auditorium

Hear the sounds of the 17th century as they were originally intended.

One of the most distinctive aspects of The Odyssey soundtrack is its commitment to historical sound, using ancient instruments to immerse audiences in another place and time.

Performing music from their album The Mad Lover, violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte and lutenist Thomas Dunford similarly transport listeners to an earlier era, in this case the Baroque period with its melancholy, longing, and emotional extremes. Heightened by the exuberance and wild abandon common to the music composed during this period, this concert weaves a different sort of narrative of yearning and loss.

Like Göransson’s score to The Odyssey, The Mad Lover pays homage to the past through historical instruments and techniques that enhance storytelling, character, and atmosphere for an entirely different listening experience.

Info & Tickets

Bonus Pick: The Cleveland Orchestra

Fri Sep 25, 2026 // Hill Auditorium (Opening Night!)

Ancient myth meets grand orchestral sound.

The first presentation of the 26/27 season opens with Liszt’s Orpheus, a symphonic poem inspired by one of mythology’s great musician heroes.

Liszt focuses on Orpheus as a symbol of music’s power to bring beauty, compassion, and healing. With its luminous orchestral colors, especially the prominent harp writing, Orpheus unfolds as a graceful, meditative work that celebrates the transformative power of art.

Info & Tickets

On July 9, Karen Brown joined UMS as its inaugural Chief Operating Officer. Karen comes to UMS from Boston, where she spent the past 20+ years working for another multidisciplinary presenter, the Celebrity Series of Boston, recently renamed Vivo Performing Arts. UMS Vice President of Marketing & Communications Sara Billmann recently sat down with Karen for a conversation.

UMS: Tell us a bit about your background in the performing arts.

Karen Brown: I grew up playing the clarinet. I moved around a lot as a child due to my father’s work, and participating in music was the way I would get connected to the new community. I studied music at Ithaca College, where I also explored arts administration possibilities and then delved into the performing arts as a career.

I’m really grateful to have a career that’s rooted in my personal interests. I’ve had experience with an artist management company in New York City, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Music Center, and the cornerstone of my career thus far, at Celebrity Series of Boston. I’ve always been drawn to the presenting space as I appreciate and enjoy the artistic variety. It keeps things interesting.

You started your career working in dance, correct?

Yes, I started off as a booking assistant at IMG Artists, supporting three sales staff representing North America and a roster of 75 different artists. It was a crash course in not only how the industry functions, but also a host of new artists and genres. I moved towards the managerial side and worked with a roster of a dozen different dance companies and just immersed myself in contemporary modern dance. I had a small expense account and attended performances several nights a week. Seeing lots of quality work, especially in NYC, was an expectation of the job and tremendously enjoyable for me, as well.

And then you went to Tanglewood.

I enjoyed my time at the BSO very much, having multiple venues for one institution, varied audiences, and a deep exploration of orchestral music. The Berkshires are beautiful! However, I missed the artistic variety and pace of a major presenting series.

So you ended up at Celebrity Series, an organization that we know very well here at UMS, where you spent 20 years.

22 years. It’s a big move, to pack up from 22 years in Boston to come here! I have always admired the work of UMS — our organizations are industry peers. And I knew that it was time for me to try something new and stretch myself professionally. As someone who moved around a lot as a child, I also wanted to extend ourselves as a family unit, if the right opportunity presented itself.

What are you most looking forward to in this new role?

What ultimately drew me to this moment was the opportunity to support the 150th anniversary; shape some of the strategic directions that have been outlined by the staff, board and leadership; and make a difference in this community. There’s such an impressive, strong foundation already, and I’m honored to be a part of the organization’s next chapter. I’m deeply motivated by mission-driven work and using the arts to help build connections and enrich people’s lives as individuals and communities.

I’m also curious and interested in engaging with the university opportunities here. Since I am coming from an environment where that has not been as closely integrated with learning, I’m eager to help further develop this relationship.

I think it’s fair to say that UMS wouldn’t be UMS without the University, and some people would even say the University might not be the University without UMS. I want to switch gears a little bit to the presenting world, because a lot of people don’t really understand what it means to be a presenter, especially one that works in a vast array of different spaces.

The opportunities that are on the table when working in multiple venues, the artistic variety this invites, and the connection with communities — all of these offer incredibly rich and varied experiences for audiences. So, I will take a role that requires working in many different places, people and artists any day of the week. I really do think it fuels creativity in a way that ultimately benefits our communities.

All right. Now I’m going to ask you a funny question that you won’t be able to answer.

Green.

That’s not the answer. It’s in the spirit of, you can’t pick your favorite child.

No, please don’t ask me to pick a favorite.

I’m not going to ask you to pick a favorite artist, but talk about a few performances over your career that really stand out.

This is going to be so hard. Let’s start with Street Pianos, which was a public art project I worked on in 2012 and again in 2016, created by British artist Luke Jerram. The premise behind the work is that used upright pianos are painted by community members and then placed in outdoor spaces for anyone to play and enjoy. As part of the 75th anniversary of Celebrity Series, we placed 75 pianos in different public places within the City of Boston, all painted by local artists, and available for all Bostonians for two and a half weeks. The project also needed 75 caretakers and we engaged a huge volunteer corps as yet another way of honoring the community-driven spirit of the work.

The main reason this project was so memorable is that it was the first of many public participatory arts projects we undertook over 15 years. All prioritized outdoor, interactive artistic experiences that engaged a larger, broader public than the organization had previously served. It was a big leap ahead for the institution, and it also allowed me to appreciate and connect with my community in new ways. We regularly visited all 23 neighborhoods in Boston during the planning, install, and festival periods, which deepened the organization’s relationship to the city and people of Boston. To this day Bostonians reminisce about Street Pianos with civic pride.

Amazing. Any other events you’d want to highlight?

Dreamers’ Circus is a band at the forefront of new Nordic folk music. Fans of the Danish String Quartet may know that violinist Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen plays with the quartet and also in this band. Dreamers’ were scheduled to perform in Boston, though the pandemic had other plans. So they recorded a digital performance film, which took place in a stunning non-traditional performance space in Copenhagen. In a very dark time, this digital performance was a bright spot of optimism and joy.

A few years later the group finally performed at Boston’s Jordan Hall in person, and I recall being completely overwhelmed by their work. To then experience their artistry live, in person, was almost too much. I snuck up to the balcony and cried my face off. I needed to be with people, and then at the same time, I just wanted to be by myself at that moment.

Two others I’ll mention for slightly different experiences. I remember a vocal recital we did probably 20 years ago by contralto Ewa Podleś. Remember her?

Absolutely. We have our own Ewa Podleś story.

Ewa had a huge, and unique, voice and could fill the largest of the world’s operatic houses. In the early 2000s she was invited to Boston for a vocal recital in a chamber music hall. During rehearsal, she took great care to adapt her voice to the room so she would deliver an exceptional performance. Preconcert, I recall listening to her prepare a full, proper vocal warmup in the dressing room. Her piano technique and her vocal control, range, and the seriousness with which she approached her instrument was at a level I had not seen with most touring artists, and I remember her as a bit of a force of nature onstage and off.

And for my last tale: For five years Celebrity Series of Boston and the entity that owns the Wang theater co-presented one major international ballet company every year for five years. During the load-in of the Bolshoi Ballet there was discussion about fire certifications and the need to cut a section of one of the scenic elements per Boston Fire Department procedures. The Bolshoi technical staff was furious, telling us that their scenic drop was older than our country, followed by some terse words in Russian. It was a humbling moment, to be sure. Just think of the history of that fabric!

I always love these stories, because it’s clear that so much of what someone brings personally to an experience contributes to what makes it particularly special. It’s not just about a great artist coming on stage and giving a great performance, but the audience is such a critical part of it.

If COVID taught us anything, it was to remind us that artists and audiences need each other for the live experiences to thrive. It’s unfortunate that shutting down public gatherings during a pandemic had to happen to remind us of the importance of this relationship.

So true. From the sublime to the ridiculous, we’ll move to a lightning round. Coffee or tea?

Coffee.

Wine or beer?

Wine.

Red or white?

White. Less messy.

Apple or Android?

Android.

Beethoven or Brahms?

Oh, that is very hard. I can’t choose. I’m a clarinet player and Brahms wrote some really lovely music for clarinet. But with all the repeats it can go on for days. I’ll say Beethoven for purposes of clarity. Ah, that one’s hard.

Ok, I’ll give you an easy one. Beethoven or Mahler?

Why are you stacking Beethoven up against anybody?!? Maybe that should be the answer then.

Anything else you’d like to add?

I am looking forward to being a part of the community here in Ann Arbor. My grandparents used to live here and so I have fond memories of visiting them during the holidays. Yet, I’m looking forward to making this experience our own.

Dance is constantly reinventing itself, and these choreographers are helping lead the way. Through bold experimentation, fearless performance, and deeply personal storytelling, they expand our understanding of what dance can be and do. Their work asks audiences not just to watch, but to feel, reflect, and imagine new possibilities for movement, connection, and expression.

Get to know the artists bringing these visionary works to the Power Center this season:

Shamel Pitts

Shamel Pitts is a multidisciplinary artist, choreographer, dancer, and director whose work blends movement, visual art, and storytelling to explore identity, memory, and transformation. Trained in the Gaga movement language and a former member of the Batsheva Dance Company for seven years, Pitts is the founder and artistic director of TRIBE. His internationally acclaimed works—including BLACK HOLE and the ongoing RED Series—combine dance, sound, ritual, and immersive design to create visionary explorations of Black embodiment, self-expression, and human connection.

Shamel Pitts | TRIBE returns with their newest multidisciplinary dance work, Marks of Red, Sat-Sun Oct 3-4.

Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber

Bobbi and Or are director-choreographers whose collaborative work spans dance, opera, theater, and film. Both are alumni of the Batsheva Dance Company and founding members of the American Modern Opera Company. In 2026, they were appointed resident choreographers of Vancouver’s Ballet BC. Smith and Schraiber — partners both inside and outside the studio — have choreographed works for dance companies such as the Paris Opera Ballet, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, the National Ballet of Canada, the Martha Graham Dance Company, the Royal Danish Ballet, the Batsheva Ensemble, Theater Basel, Ballet BC, and L.A. Dance Project, among others.

Along with New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns, Bobbi and Or premiere a new dance work commissioned by UMS as part of the leadup to its 150th season.

Lucinda Childs

Lucinda Childs is one of the most influential figures in contemporary dance. A founding member of Judson Dance Theater in the 1960s, she helped redefine dance through her groundbreaking minimalist approach, characterized by precise movement, structured repetition, and a striking interplay between music and choreography. Over a career spanning more than six decades, Childs has created landmark works for dance, opera, and theater, including her celebrated collaboration with Philip Glass for Einstein on the Beach. Recently profiled by The New York Times and appointed resident choreographer of Gibney, Childs continues to shape the field with new creations that affirm her enduring artistic vision and influence.

This season, UMS offers a rare opportunity to experience two of her new works, Fri-Sat Apr 2-3.

Join Us This Season

From intimate explorations of identity and memory to large-scale celebrations of music, movement, and collaboration, these performances showcase the extraordinary range of dance in our 2026/27 season.

Dance Series

Each year, UMS and the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance select students for a unique internship experience. Students are paired with internationally renowned artists and companies, including dance, theater, and music ensembles.

The 21st Century Artist Internship is a highly competitive program developed to prepare students for new demands that working artists face in the contemporary marketplace.

This summer, interns will develop industry contacts, hands-on work experience, and deep connections with internationally recognized performing artists. And upon their return to campus, the interns continue their work via a one-credit independent study where they serve as campus ambassadors, educators, and marketers to support their respective artists during their visit to Ann Arbor in UMS’s 2026/27 season.

The 21st Century Artist Internship program is made possible in part by Tim and Sally Petersen.

Cynthia Tang
Placement: London Symphony Orchestra

Cynthia Tang is a rising senior at the University of Michigan pursuing degrees in Oboe Performance and Music Education, with a minor in Arts Administration. Originally from Beijing, China and Los Angeles, California, she is passionate about the intersections of performance, education, community engagement, and arts administration. Alongside her studies, Cynthia works in the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance Admissions Office and teaches young musicians through private lessons, mentorship, and educational outreach. She has taught with Crescendo Detroit, served as an oboe mentor with the Michigan Youth Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Band, and will serve as an Ensemble Manager with the Michigan Youth Symphony Orchestra. She has also worked with students through clinics and sectional coaching in both Michigan and California. Through these experiences, she has developed a strong interest in arts education, youth engagement, and creating meaningful connections between arts organizations and the communities they serve. In her free time, Cynthia enjoys exploring local coffee shops, watching television series, attending live performances, and spending time with friends.

Related UMS Performance

London Symphony Orchestra
with Maxim Vengerov, violin
with Alisa. Weilerstein, cello

Wed-Thu Mar 3-4, 2027 // Hill Auditorium

Grady Yeager
Placement: Berliner Philharmoniker

Grady Yeager is a recent first generation college graduate, who studied music and political science at Michigan. He is from Shelby, Ohio, and has lived there his whole life. During his time at Michigan, he interned with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, where he helped bolster the education departments community outreach programs, and spearheaded a new wellness initiative for the orchestra. As a performer, he played tuba in the Michigan Pops Orchestra and Campus Symphony Orchestra. He also maintains a conducting schedule, and will be leading Faure’s Requiem this winter in efforts to raise money for the Shelby arts programs. In his free time, he enjoys gardening, lifting weights, and playing video games.

Related UMS Performance

Brass of the Berlin Philharmonic with Paul Jacobs, organ

Thu Feb 4, 2027 // Hill Auditorium

Kate Goldman
Placement: Gibney Dance Company

Kate Hart Goldman is a rising junior at the University of Michigan pursuing a BFA in Interarts Performance. A lifelong dancer and actor, Kate has choreographed 6 full length shows as well as numerous shorter works in addition to performing in many more. Most recently she served as the choreographer, co-writer, and featured performer for the dance theater show Bitter Party and as a featured dancer in Black and Brown Theater’s 2026 production of Salome and Aruaca. She is also the current Co-president of the U of M Zouk Dance Club.

Beyond the stage, Kate is deeply interested in dance administration and technical production.
She brings a unique toolkit with both a background in redesigning organizational systems and digital archives as well as a technical skill set in costuming, photography, videography, stage management, and lighting. Whether she is managing backstage operations or assisting with wardrobe, Kate is dedicated to the seamless execution of the performing arts and is eager to support the creative community through both administrative and technical excellence.

Related UMS Performance

Gibney Dance Company
New Works by Lucinda Childs

Fri-Sat Apr 2-3, 2027 // Power Center

With Wynton Marsalis set to step down as artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and music director of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in June 2027, his upcoming Hill Auditorium appearances next Spring will mark his 30th and 31st — and final — performances at UMS in his role with the Orchestra.

Marsalis first appeared at UMS in January 1996 with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra Octet as part of the ensemble’s Morton, Monk, Marsalis tour, which featured unique stylings of works by Jelly Roll Morton and Thelonious Monk alongside Marsalis’s own compositions.

Over the past three decades, the relationship between UMS, Marsalis, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra has grown into a cherished artistic partnership. Their recurring appearances reflect both a longstanding history together and also a shared belief in music’s power to educate, inspire, and bring communities together. The Orchestra’s mission to “entertain, enrich, and expand a global community for jazz through performance, education, and advocacy” closely mirrors UMS’s commitment to connecting audiences with transformative and meaningful artistic experiences.

“Wynton and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra offer one of the most welcoming gateways to jazz,” says Mark Jacobson, vice president of programming and production at UMS. “New listeners are drawn in by the accessibility of their repertoire, while longtime aficionados admire the ensemble’s exceptional musicianship. Their broad appeal makes them a favorite with audiences of all backgrounds.”

A defining aspect of Marsalis’s legacy has been his commitment to expanding the possibilities of the jazz orchestra. Many of his appearances with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra have reflected his belief that jazz deserves the same artistic scope afforded to Western classical music. Through evening-length symphonies and extended thematic programs, he has challenged the conventional boundaries of the big band tradition, moving beyond collections of individual tunes to create cohesive artistic statements. These ambitious works have showcased the ensemble’s extraordinary versatility and endurance while preserving the spontaneity and creativity at the heart of jazz.

Wynton’s Original Scores at UMS

Blood on the Fields — February 1997

Marsalis’s first appearance at UMS with the full Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra featured his landmark, evening-length work Blood on the Fields. The jazz oratorio follows two enslaved people, Jesse and Leona, as they journey toward freedom. The work earned the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Music, making history as the first jazz composition to receive the award — an honor that had previously been reserved for classical music.

A Fiddler’s Tale — April 1998

The following year, UMS hosted the world premiere of A Fiddler’s Tale, Wynton’s reimagining of Igor Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale (L’Histoire du soldat). In Stravinsky’s original, a Russian soldier trades his fiddle to the Devil in exchange for wealth. Marsalis updates the story for the modern music industry, following Beatrice, a jazz violinist whose artistic ambitions are tested by the temptations of fame and commercial success, embodied in the work by record producer — and Devil figure — Bubba Z. Beals.

All Rise — October 2022

Although Marsalis has appeared at UMS almost every year following his debut, it was not until 2022 — during the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s first week-long residency in Ann Arbor — that he returned with another epic evening-length work. UMS presented All Rise (Symphony No. 1), an ambitious composition performed by more than 200 artists, including the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the University Symphony Orchestra, the University of Michigan Choirs, and the UMS Choral Union.

Bringing together musical traditions from around the world, All Rise reflects Marsalis’s belief that seemingly different styles of music share common roots and can unite to create something greater than the sum of their parts. Originally commissioned by the New York Philharmonic in 1999, the work gained added significance when it was performed and recorded in New York the days following the September 11 attacks, emerging as a powerful testament to resilience, community, and the unifying force of music.

The residency extended far beyond the concert hall, engaging students of all ages and communities across Ann Arbor. Activities included a Penny Stamps lecture exploring the relationship between art and athletics, a performance at the Milan Federal Correctional Institution in collaboration with the Prison Creative Arts Project and SMTD students, and a memorable collaboration with the Michigan Marching Band for its “Night in New Orleans” halftime show at Michigan Stadium in front of 116,000 fans!

The Jungle — February 2026

Earlier this year, Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra reunited with the University Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kenneth Kiesler to perform The Jungle (Symphony No. 4), a sweeping musical portrait of New York City. Blending jazz, blues, improvisation, and orchestral traditions, the work explores the many cultures, histories, and tensions that shape the city’s identity.

Wynton Marsalis looks to conductor Ken Kiesler after their performance of The Jungle.

The Jungle moves through the evolution of the city starting with Indigenous history, the Jazz Age, European immigration, the rise of Latin American culture, and the frenetic energy of the business world. Along the way, Marsalis examines the contrasts that define urban life, illuminating a city where wealth and poverty, aspiration and struggle, grit and glamour exist together.

This second week-long residency, which was part of a UMS thread celebrating American Icons at the 250th anniversary of our country’s birth, also provided opportunities for public engagement beyond the performance itself. Marsalis joined Ford School Dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes for a discussion marking America’s upcoming 250th anniversary, exploring how music and the arts shape civic life, influence national identity, and help communities envision the future.

The Ever Fonky Lowdown — 2027

In his final appearances at UMS in his current role as JLCO music director, Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra join forces with acclaimed actor Wendell Pierce for a presentation of The Ever Fonky Lowdown. Marsalis has described the work as “a game of buying in and selling out… [that examines] the integrity and results of the culture we create every day by serving the tension between our dream vision, television, mythology and the underlying facts that we have actually experienced.”

Marsalis and Pierce have known each other since their teenage years, their friendship forged in New Orleans at Benjamin Franklin High School and carried through their studies at The Juilliard School before building separate careers on major stages. Their reunion on the UMS stage marks a rare opportunity to see longtime collaborators come together again, with Pierce embodying the hustler, Mr. Game, and serving as narrator to guide audiences through the work’s shifting layers of story, satire, and commentary.

Don’t Miss the End of an Era

Wynton Marsalis’s final UMS appearances as music director of Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra mark the end of an era: a decades-long partnership that has become a cornerstone of our community’s performing arts landscape. Over the past 30 years of UMS events, Wynton and the JLCO have nurtured and shaped a love of jazz in Ann Arbor, not only through landmark performances, but also through deep engagement with students, schools, and the U-M community, expanding access to the art form and inspiring new generations of listeners and musicians.

Jazz Series

Subscribe to the 2026/27 Jazz Series to secure your seats for both of Marsalis’s final performances at Hill Auditorium, and experience an extraordinary lineup of jazz artists, including Samara Joy, Gregory Porter, and Julian Lage.

Some of the most profound musical experiences ever written were created for the human voice. In the 26/27 season, UMS presents an extraordinary lineup of vocal and choral performances:

Sounds of Unity

J’Nai Bridges

The Sphinx Virtuosi string ensemble joins forces with superstar mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges for a program that celebrates artistic excellence, cultural storytelling, and the evolving voice of classical music in America.

Known for her rich tone, commanding stage presence, and emotionally vivid performances, Bridges has quickly become one of today’s most sought-after singers, appearing at the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, and leading concert stages around the world. She performs a bold, new song cycle by acclaimed American composer Damien Geter, with a libretto by Aaron Dworkin.

Mozart’s Final Masterpiece

Earl Lee

Few works in classical music carry the mystique and emotional weight of Mozart’s Requiem. Left unfinished at the composer’s death and forever linked to legends surrounding his final days, the piece has captivated audiences for centuries with its mixture of terror, grief, transcendence, and hope.

This performance marks the UMS Choral Union’s first return to the work in 80 years, joined by the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra under music director Earl Lee. Debut soloists include soprano Hera Hyesang Park, mezzo-soprano/contralto Avery Amereau (who will also sing Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody on the same program), and bass Stephano Park. Tenor and U-M alumnus Nicholas Phan returns for the first of three exciting UMS appearances in the 26/27 season.

A Cherished Holiday Tradition

For many in Ann Arbor, the holiday season simply wouldn’t feel complete without Handel’s Messiah. From the triumphant “Hallelujah” chorus to its moments of serenity and reflection, Messiah continues to resonate nearly three centuries after its creation. Written in just a few weeks in 1741, Handel’s masterpiece combines grandeur, intimacy, and spiritual uplift in ways that still feel immediate today.

Whether it’s your first time hearing the work or part of a decades-long tradition, this performance offers a powerful reminder of music’s ability to bring people together.

Joyce DiDonato Brings Dido and Aeneas to Life

Joyce DiDonato

One of the world’s most recognized singers returns to UMS in Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato joins the acclaimed ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro and conductor Maxim Emelyanychev for a concert performance of the Baroque masterpiece, also featuring tenor and U-M alumnus Nicholas Phan.

At the center of the opera is Dido’s devastating final lament, “When I am laid in Earth,” one of the most heartbreaking scenes in all of opera. Though DiDonato has long performed excerpts from the work, she only began performing the complete opera in recent years, making this appearance especially meaningful.

The program also includes an opportunity to hear Giocamo Carissimi’s rarely-heard opera Jephte, performed by Nicholas Phan and Jiayu Jin, along with continuo orchestra and choir.

Vast, Sweeping, and Rarely Heard

Scott Hanoian

Ralph Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony is one of the grandest works of the choral repertoire, a massive musical journey inspired by the poetry of Walt Whitman. Combining enormous orchestral forces, chorus, and vocal soloists, the piece tacklesthemes of exploration, wonder, spirituality, and humanity’s relationship to the unknown.

Led by UMS Choral Union music director Scott Hanoian and featuring acclaimed soprano Christine Goerke and baritone Norman Garrett, this performance offers audiences a rare chance to experience one of the 20th century’s great choral epics live in Hill Auditorium.

Bach’s Monumental St. Matthew Passion

Masaaki Suzuki

For many listeners, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion stands among the greatest achievements in Western music, a work of astonishing emotional depth, spiritual intensity, and musical architecture.

UMS welcomes back renowned Bach specialist Masaaki Suzuki, the English Baroque Soloists, and the Monteverdi Choir for this monumental masterpiece, which draws listeners inward through its deeply human storytelling and transcendent beauty. Bach weaves chorales, arias, and dramatic narrative into a work that feels simultaneously intimate and universal.

Performed by artists internationally celebrated for Baroque interpretation, this promises to be one of the season’s most anticipated musical events.

Voices That Will Stay With You

The 26/27 UMS season offers extraordinary opportunities to experience the power of the human voice — from intimate operatic storytelling to massive choral masterpieces that fill Hill Auditorium with sound.

The best seats at the best prices are available now when you subscribe to a UMS Season Ticket package. Customize 5+ events of your choice and save 10% off standard ticket prices with a Series:You subscription (our most popular option!), or explore our Choral Union and Chamber Arts package options.

Individual event tickets go on sale Tuesday, July 28.

If you’re interested in even more classical offerings, learn more about this season’s classical instrumental performances.

World-renowned orchestras. Superstar soloists. Boundary-pushing chamber music and genre-defying collaborations.

UMS’s 26/27 season is packed with unforgettable classical performances. Whether you’re a lifelong concertgoer or simply looking for a breathtaking live music experience, these instrumental events belong at the top of your list.

Opening Night: The Cleveland Orchestra

Be there for the triumphant return of one of America’s most celebrated orchestras. The Cleveland Orchestra and music director Franz Welser-Möst are back in Hill Auditorium for the first time in 15 years, opening the 26/27 season with works by Liszt, Martinů, and Brahms.

Three Piano Titans, Three Unforgettable Recitals

This season brings an extraordinary lineup of solo recitals from today’s most electrifying pianists:

Bruce Liu burst onto the international scene with his dazzling win at the 2021 International Chopin Competition, earning acclaim for performances that combine youthful spontaneity with remarkable polish. His UMS debut promises virtuosity with charisma to spare, paired with beloved piano masterworks including Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata.

As evidenced in his sold-out UMS debut recital in 2025, Seong-Jin Cho has become one of the defining pianists of his generation, celebrated for interpretations that balance poetry, precision, and emotional depth. His wide-ranging program includes two works by Prokofiev, whose ten pieces from Romeo and Juliet were arranged for piano even before the full ballet premiered.

Then there’s Yuja Wang, a true phenomenon whose technical brilliance, unparalleled style, and fearless artistry have captivated audiences around the globe. Whether delivering thunderous showpieces or intimate lyricism, Wang transforms every performance into an event. (Program to be announced)

Chamber Music Meets Guitar

The Grammy-winning Escher Quartet joins acclaimed classical guitarist Jason Vieaux for a program that explores the rich, rarely heard combination of string quartet and guitar. Intimate, colorful, and deeply expressive, this collaboration highlights chamber music’s ability to create astonishing emotional immediacy. It’s an ideal concert for listeners who love discovering hidden gems of the repertoire.

Pushing Classical Music Forward

For adventurous listeners, few performances this season promise as much excitement as Andy Akiho and Sandbox Percussion. Akiho’s music blends contemporary classical composition with infectious rhythm, striking sonorities, and influences that stretch far beyond the traditional concert hall.

Performed by the wildly inventive Sandbox Percussion, this program showcases the sheer theatricality and creativity of percussion music — proving that classical performance can be as visually thrilling as it is musically compelling.

Two Living Legends

Few artistic partnerships in classical music are as beloved as Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax. Their decades-long collaboration and friendship has produced performances of extraordinary warmth, humanity, and musical connection. Expect an evening filled with emotional depth and moments of pure joy. (Program to be announced)

Isidore Quartet and Anthony McGill

The dynamic young Isidore Quartet joins forces with Anthony McGill, principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic and an artist who brings extraordinary expressive range to every collaboration. Together, they will perform quintets by Brahms and Mozart, and explore a new work written for the ensemble by University of Michigan alumnus James Lee III.

The Spectacular Sounds of Brass and Organ

The musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic are legendary individually and collectively, showcasing the thrilling power, precision, and brilliance for which the orchestra is famous. Members of the Berlin Philharmonic brass section join celebrated American organist Paul Jacobs and other special guests for a one-of-a-kind Hill Auditorium concert that showcases the brilliant sounds of virtuosic brass blending with the mighty organ.

A Baroque Escape

The Mad Lover reimagines Baroque music through a contemporary lens. Violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte, who led early music specialists Les Arts Florissants in a superb all-Vivaldi program in 2025, returns with lute player Thomas Dunford in a performance that showcases the themes of abandon, yearning, and loss common to the music of the Baroque era.

The London Symphony Orchestra

The London Symphony Orchestra returns to UMS with two distinct programs featuring chief conductor Sir Antonio Pappano and internationally renowned soloists:

This first of two UMS presentations with the LSO features violinist Maxim Vengerov performing Beethoven’s exquisite violin concerto 200 years after the composer’s death, followed by Shostakovich’s tragic and powerful Symphony No. 8.

Cellist Alisa Weilerstein returns to the Hill Auditorium stage as soloist for Elgar’s iconic Cello Concerto. Richard Strauss’s glorious tone poem Ein Heldenleben closes the program with its sensational color and imaginative orchestration, a musical depiction of a hero constantly at battle with its critics.

Take Your Seats to a Season Filled with Discovery

From legendary performers and celebrated orchestras to boundary-pushing contemporary works and intimate chamber collaborations, UMS’s 26/27 season offers classical music experiences for every kind of listener.

The best seats at the best prices are available now when you subscribe to a UMS Season Ticket package. Customize 5+ events of your choice and save 10% off standard ticket prices with a Series:You subscription (our most popular option!), or explore our Choral Union and Chamber Arts package options.

Individual event tickets go on sale Tuesday, July 28.

If you’re interested in even more classical offerings, learn more about this season’s Voices You Need to Hear.

With the University of Michigan’s campus-wide theme “Human Health and Well-Being” shaping the academic year ahead, UMS is diving into the powerful ways the arts can inspire healing, foster connection, and support wellness. Throughout the 26/27 season, performances will explore the intersection of arts and wellness, inviting audiences to experience how music, dance, and storytelling can nourish both individuals and communities. There’s a growing understanding that the arts can play a meaningful role in addressing isolation, fostering resilience, and strengthening our collective well-being.

The center of this theme is a multi-day residency with the London Symphony Orchestra. The ensemble has promoted the integration of arts and wellness through their Creative Health programs in London, which help address mental health challenges among healthcare professionals, improve patient well-being through music-making in hospital settings, and combat loneliness and isolation among older adults, among other goals. In addition to their two performances at Hill Auditorium with Maxim Vengerov, violin and Alisa Weilerstein, cello, the orchestra will collaborate with the University of Michigan, Michigan Medicine, and the U-M Arts Initiative in a series of activities that includes small ensemble performances at U-M Hospitals, sharing best practices with local practitioners of creative health work in clinical settings, and other activities to be announced.

Alongside our partnership with the London Symphony Orchestra, two performances in UMS’s No Safety Net Theater series will explore the intersection of art, wellness, and lived experience.

In Watch Me Walk, Anne Gridley uses humor, grace, anger, and wry observation to reflect on her experience living with physical disability and others’ perceptions of it.

 

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In 300 Paintings, Sam Kissajukian explores mental health and personal struggle through comedy, storytelling, honesty, and visual art. Together, these works invite audiences to consider how art and creativity can positively impact connection, self-reflection, and our emotions.

In a time when many people are seeking ways to feel grounded and connected, UMS hopes this season will offer audiences not only memorable artistic experiences, but also a sense of community. Whether through music shared in a concert hall, stories told on stage, or moments of laughter that illuminate deeply personal experiences, these performances remind us that creativity can help us better understand ourselves and one another.

We hope you can join us in the new season.

Watch our 30-second trailer

Musical giants. Groundbreaking dance. No Safety Net theater. A focus on Arts & Wellness. Welcome to UMS’s 148th season.

Explore All 26/27 Events

26/27 Season Tickets

Or browse season highlights below.

For Patrons & Season Ticketholders

Current subscribers can renew their series starting Tuesday, April 28 at 10 am. Season ticket packages are available to the general public starting Tuesday, May 5.

Individual event tickets go on sale Tuesday, July 28, 2026.

For the Press

View Full Press Release (PDF)

Season Highlights

Orchestras & Recitalists in Hill Auditorium

Franz Welser-Möst conducting The Cleveland Orchestra

World-renowned ensembles and virtuoso soloists deliver a UMS Choral Union Series of exceptional artistry, star power, and unforgettable performances:

• The Cleveland Orchestra and music director Franz Welser-Möst return to Ann Arbor for the first time in 15 years, opening the 26/27 season. (Fri Sep 25, 2026)
• Three phenomenal pianists present solo recitals over the course of the season: Bruce Liu* (Wed Oct 28, 2026), Seong-Jin Cho (Sun Mar 14, 2027), and Yuja Wang (Thu Apr 8, 2027).
• Legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma reunites with pianist Emanuel Ax for an evening of masterful collaboration, celebrating decades of shared artistry and musical connection. (Thu Dec 10, 2026)
• Members of the Berlin Philharmonic Brass section join celebrated organist Paul Jacobs in a special performance showcasing Hill Auditorium’s Frieze Memorial Organ. (Thu Feb 4, 2027)
• As part of an extended arts and wellness residency at UMS, the London Symphony Orchestra presents two different programs led by Sir Antonio Pappano, featuring violinist Maxim Vengerov and cellist Alisa Weilerstein, respectively. (Wed-Thu Mar 3-4, 2027)

* indicates UMS debut artist

Groundbreaking Dance

Marks of RED by Shamel Pitts | TRIBE

Experience visionary choreographers and boundary-defying performers in a dynamic exploration of movement, from bold new commissions to minimalist masterworks:

• Shamel Pitts | TRIBE returns with its newest work, Marks of RED, an Afrofuturistic meditation dance piece featuring the viewpoints of six women. (Sat-Sun Oct 3-4, 2026)]
• As part of the leadup to our 150th season in 28/29, UMS is commissioning a new dance work with New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns* and co-choreographers and dancers Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber. (Sat-Sun Oct 23-24, 2026)
• Legendary choreographer Lucinda Childs is known for her close association with composer Philip Glass, who celebrates his 90th birthday in 2027. New Works by Lucinda Childs features a landmark new piece for 10 dancers, with music that was originally composed for, but never used in, Einstein on the Beach. (Fri-Sat Apr 2-3, 2027)
• In The Butterfly Who Flew Into the Rave, venture to Detroit’s Andy Arts Center to witness the chaotic bliss of a three-day rave, condensed into a single hour and performed by Oli Mathiesen Co* from New Zealand and Detroit’s Suburban Knight*. (Fri-Sat Apr 30–May 1, 2027)

* indicates UMS debut artists

Choral and Operatic Masterworks

Joyce DiDonato

Incredible voices unite in performances of extraordinary emotional depth:

• The Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, UMS Choral Union, and outstanding soloists perform Mozart’s Requiem, widely considered one of his most sublime works. (Fri Nov 13, 2026)
• Handel’s Messiah is brought to life each year by friends and colleagues from the community who perform with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra and the UMS Choral Union. (Sat-Sun Dec 5-6, 2026)
• Joyce DiDonato returns with Il Pomo d’Oro and conductor Maxim Emelyanychev for a concert performance of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, also featuring tenor and U-M alumnus Nicholas Phan. (Sun Feb 7, 2027)
• Conductor Scott Hanoian leads Ralph Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony, joined by soprano Christine Goerke and baritone Norman Garrett. (Sat Feb 13, 2027)
• Bach specialist Masaaki Suzuki returns to conduct J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, one of the composer’s great masterpieces, with the English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Choir. (Sat Feb 20, 2027)

No Safety Net

Zach Zucker as ‘Jack Tucker’ in Jack Tucker Comedy Standup Show

Our daring No Safety Net theater series returns, putting the spotlight on artists who fuse performance art and storytelling to explore everything from personal struggle to global injustice:

• Equal parts parody, performance art, and masterclass in comedic tension, Jack Tucker Comedy Standup Show is the misguided brainchild of Zach Zucker*, a performer who is celebrated for blending virtuosic clowning with razor-sharp satire. (Wed-Sun Nov 18-22, 2026)
• Watch Me Walk is a hilarious dark, biting, and compassionate new play about disability, pity, injustice, family mythologies, and the absurdities of the American health care system, expertly performed by Anne Gridley*. (Thu-Sun Jan 21-24, 2027)
• When I Saw the Sea is a powerful new theater work by director and choreographer Ali Chahrour that confronts Lebanon’s kafala system — a structure that binds migrant domestic workers to their employers and enables widespread exploitation, abuse, and erasure. (Fri-Sat Jan 29-30, 2027)
• Australian comedian Sam Kissajukian* transforms a deeply personal journey into 300 Paintings, a critically acclaimed show blending comedy and visual art to explore bipolar disorder, creativity, and recovery. (Thu-Sun Feb 18-21, 2027)

* indicates UMS debut artists

Celebrating Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis

These performances are part of Wynton Marsalis’s final season as artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and music director of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. We celebrate Wynton and the JLCO for their dozens of magnificent performances at UMS over the past 30+ years.

• Acclaimed actor Wendell Pierce narrates Wynton Marsalis’s 2019 masterpiece The Ever Fonky Lowdown, combining droll commentary with soulful, big band-backed vocals. (Sat Apr 24, 2027)
• Join us as we celebrate the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s 28th UMS concert — and Wynton Marsalis’s 31st and final Ann Arbor appearance with the Orchestra (Sun Apr 25, 2027)

Powerhouse Jazz and Contemporary Vocalists

Samara Joy

Distinctive voices and styles offer a dynamic celebration of contemporary musical expression:

• Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers* deliver an electrifying, genre-blurring sound that moves effortlessly between rock, jazz, folk, and beyond. (Fri Oct 2, 2026)
• Jazz sensation and six-time Grammy award winner Samara Joy returns to Hill Auditorium after her sold-out 2024 UMS debut. (Fri Oct 9, 2026)
• Gregory Porter brings his unique blend of jazz, soul, and gospel to Ann Arbor for the first time since 2014. (Thu Feb 11, 2027)
• Unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of her artistry as both a singer and an actress, Audra McDonald returns to UMS for her ninth appearance since her debut in 2000. (Sun Apr 18, 2027)

* indicates UMS debut artist

Arts & Wellness @ Michigan

Anne Gridley in Watch Me Walk

Explore the powerful intersections of creativity, mental health, and lived experience, bringing together performances and programs that illuminate how art can support personal and collective well-being:

• UMS is proud to partner with the London Symphony Orchestra and Michigan Medicine for a multi-day arts residency that will include numerous events, activities, demonstrations, and talks, all related to a theme of music and wellness. (March 2027)
• In Watch Me Walk, New York theater legend Anne Gridley brings her delightfully frank, gleefully experimental, and profound new work embodying the absurdity of navigating both disability and others’ perceptions of it. (Thu-Sun Jan 21-24, 2027)
• Over the course of what turned out to be a six-month manic episode, Sam Kissajukian went from being a comedian to a visual artist, creating over 300 large-scale paintings and unknowingly documenting his mental state through the process. His one-man theater piece, 300 Paintings, tells his story with humor, charm, and honesty (Feb 18-21, 2027)

Collaborative Chamber Artists

Thomas Dunford and Théotime Langlois de Swarte

Intimate performances that span centuries and styles, highlighting the richness and innovation of chamber music:

• The Sphinx Virtuosi celebrate our country’s ever-evolving story through reimagined classics and newly commissioned works, including a bold, new song cycle composed by Damien Geter and performed by mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges*. (Sun Oct 18, 2026)
• Jason Vieaux* joins the Escher Quartet for a program of rarely heard music written for string quartet and guitar. (Sun Nov 8, 2026)
• Following his UMS debut last season alongside the Imani Winds, composer and percussionist Andy Akiho returns with his steelpan and the Brooklyn-based ensemble Sandbox Percussion*. (Sun Nov 15, 2026)
• The Isidore String Quartet and clarinetist Anthony McGill return to perform quintets by Brahms and Mozart, along with a new piece by U-M alumnus James Lee III. (Fri Dec 18, 2026)
• With its new cellist, Mihai Mirica, joining the ensemble following the retirement of founding member András Fejér, the Takács Quartet returns with pianist Jeremy Denk. (Fri Feb 5, 2027)
• Violinist and early music specialist Théotime Langlois de Swarte returns with lute player Thomas Dunford*, celebrating Baroque works from their album, The Mad Lover. (Wed Mar 17, 2027)
• The Rosamunde Quartet — composed of members of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the Kammerakademie Potsdam — unites to bring world-class artistry and a shared passion for chamber music to audiences. (Thu Apr 22, 2027)

* indicates UMS debut artist

Music from the Americas

Lupita Infante

Celebrate the vibrant evolution of Latin American musical traditions, with artists who honor their cultural roots while boldly reimagining them for today’s global stage:

• Mexican American singer Lupita Infante* brings a fresh, modern voice to traditional mariachi and ranchera, carrying forward the legacy of her family while redefining it for a new generation. (Sat Oct 17, 2026)
• The C4 Trío*, a groundbreaking Venezuelan ensemble, redefines the cuatro. Led by virtuoso Héctor Molina, the group blends folk roots with jazz, Latin, and pop influences to create a uniquely rich and versatile sound. (Thu Jan 28, 2027)

* indicates UMS debut artists

UMS at the Michigan Theater

Julian Lage

UMS returns to the Michigan Theater for two performances in the 26/27 season:

• Acclaimed guitarist Julian Lage* joins forces with bassist Jorge Roeder, keyboardist John Medeski, and drummer Kenny Wollesen for a dynamic quartet that blends jazz, folk, and beyond into spontaneous, deeply collaborative music. (Sat Nov 7, 2026)
• Oscar nominated filmmaker and U-M alumnus Sam Green* joins forces with writer and environmentalist Rebecca Solnit for TREES — a film documenting humankind’s relationship to our Earthly cohabitants. The film features actress Judi Dench, poet laureate Ada Limon, and is accompanied by live narration and music. (Sat Feb 27, 2027)

* indicates UMS debut artist

Discover all upcoming events. Additional 26/27 Season programming — including School Day Performances, Family and Digital presentations, plus our Fall residency at the Ypsilanti Freighthouse — will be announced over the coming months.

Joel Howell and Linda Samuelson have lived in Ann Arbor since the early 1980s and are avid arts supporters in our community and beyond. A former UMS Board member, Joel is an emeritus professor of Medical History and Internal Medicine at the U-M Medical School and College of LSA. He is the founder of the Medical Arts Program, which uses the arts as a pathway to enhance medical students’ and house officers’ ability to provide high quality, humanistic clinical care by emphasizing essential but often overlooked skills such as empathy, awareness of social context, and comfort with ambiguity. Linda is a professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology and Internal Medicine at U-M, researching the role of stem cells in the gastrointestinal tract.

Joel and Linda are supporting the upcoming concert of Philip Glass’s Complete Piano Etudes — a concert that has a personal connection for the couple. UMS Vice President of Marketing & Communications Sara Billmann sat down with Joel and Linda in March to talk about their connection to the arts, to UMS, and to Philip Glass.

UMS: Tell us a bit about how your interest in the arts began.

Joel: I grew up in Mississippi and started playing piano in sixth grade, but only after I promised my father that I would practice an hour each day. My father’s sister attended the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, so he had a good sense of what was required to be serious. I stopped taking lessons when I went to college. About 10 years ago Linda and I went to the piano sale at the Music School and bought a beautiful 1937 Steinway Grand. Shortly after, I began taking lessons again, with Joel Schoenhals, a professor of piano at EMU. It’s become a major part of my life.

Linda: I’m more of a listener than a player…I used to sing in the choir in high school, in East Lansing, but it was through Joel more than anything else that I became more seriously involved with the arts.

Joel, you grew up in Mississippi and Linda, you grew up in East Lansing. How did you meet?

Linda: We met each other when I was a freshman and he was a sophomore at Michigan State University and started seeing each other a couple of years later. Then Joel went off to the University of Chicago to go to medical school, and I joined him there and completed my PhD in microbiology.

We’ve been married a long time…50 years this year.

Congratulations! And you still seem to really like each other. I know how many concerts you go to each year, both here in Ann Arbor and in other cities. 50 years of marriage equals a lot of performances together.

Joel: When I was in medical school, my Great-Aunt Rose had season tickets to all three series of the Chicago Symphony. If it was raining, or snowing, or if Brahms was on the program, she gave us her tickets. Fifth row center, right there. Later, when I was in medical residency at the University of Chicago, we were able to use tickets donated by a grateful family member of a patient. He donated tickets for residents to attend Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Because Linda and I already had symphony tickets, we tended to go more for the opera.

Linda: That was when Joel and I first saw opera and fell in love with it.
That also at least partially explains what must have influenced you in developing the Medical Arts program.

Joel: Music can help learners become better doctors. One way is through careful listening. We have concerts for students at our house. Sometimes a soloist plays a piece for the students without telling them anything at all about the composition. We discuss their feelings, thoughts, reactions. And then, after telling them who wrote the piece, the context of the composition, perhaps what the composer intended, we listen to it again. Students always hear things differently the second time around.

Most students notice the wide dynamic range of live performances … so many of them spend their whole lives listening to MP3 files with dynamic compression and they just don’t appreciate the differences between loud and soft music — the sort of experience one gets listing to live music at a UMS concert.

Another goal of using the arts is to help student physicians learn to be more attuned to the nuances of a specific patient, not only to be more attentive to details but also to appreciate the importance of social context as well as to be more tolerant of ambiguity.

And how was it that you ended up back in Michigan?

Linda: I was living in Chicago finishing my PhD and Joel was living in Philadelphia finishing a fellowship. This was around 1981.

Joel: And we thought we would try a traditional marriage and live in the same city just to see how it would go. I was coming from hearing the Philadelphia Orchestra all the time, and Linda had the Chicago Symphony. We wondered if we would be able to hear great music in a small Midwestern college town. But when we saw the UMS calendar, we realized we didn’t have anything to worry about.

Ok, my favorite question, especially of people who have been attending our concerts for so many years: what are some of your strongest memories / favorite concerts?

Joel: Murray Perahia doing the Goldberg Variations … you start off with this incredibly simple melody that a halfway decent amateur pianist could easily play. And then you go on this wild trip, this elegant adventure, through all sorts of mind-boggling variations, and after more than an hour you come back to the same place you started, the same simple, elegant music. The silence in the house after that concert was just profound. I don’t know why, but I thank goodness nobody felt the urge to leap up and applaud instantly when it was over.

Linda: There was also the woman who substituted for Cecilia Bartoli – Ewa Podleś. What an amazing concert that was! [Editor’s note: Cecilia Bartoli had to cancel a long-awaited recital appearance in 1997, when she developed a respiratory infection two days before the concert. Polish contralto Ewa Podleś was a last-minute substitute.]

Joel: All of the Takács Quartet concerts…the elegance and beauty of their performances. And the first Royal Shakespeare series.

Linda: Oh my gosh, that was amazing. Wasn’t that amazing?

Joel: Another one was [Philip Glass’s] Einstein on the Beach…we saw it in both Ann Arbor and New York.

Which brings us back to Philip Glass…

Joel: Which brings us back to Philip Glass. Joel [Schoenfels] has studio recitals for his students. The next one is going to be the same day as the performance of the complete Philip Glass piano etudes. So I figured, what the hell? I’m going to play two or three of them for the studio recital that day, though certainly not anywhere near the level that we’re going to hear in Hill. Actually playing the pieces gives a whole new insight into Glass’s music. It can be somewhat hypnotic and transfixing, somewhat inspirational and always intense and immersive…playing that kind of repetitive motion over and over again with subtle changes, it’s not trivial. I’ll play numbers 1, 4, and 5, or possibly 1, 5, and 6. Not 100% sure.

That’s such an incredibly personal and meaningful connection to this concert. I always knew that you did a lot of preparation before attending concerts, but this is a pretty high bar!

Joel: I try to listen at least once to everything that’s going to be performed. I’ve always said that my ideal concert includes at least one piece that I know from beginning to end and at least one that I’ve never heard before. And very often that’s often what we get at UMS. UMS gives us the best chamber music and symphonic music in the world. We love getting series tickets because that gets us to concerts we wouldn’t choose otherwise.

Linda: Last year we went to Santa Fe Opera and loved it. The outside setting and the quality of the productions are inspirational. While we continue to hold season tickets to Lyric Opera, we’re also hoping to explore and go to Central City Opera in Colorado. This year Joel flew to New York to see Tristan and to San Francisco for Parsifal.

You travel for opera, but all of your other needs are met in Ann Arbor.

Joel: Exactly. I also think if you don’t go to a concert every now and then and hate it, then you’re not being open-minded, you’re not being aggressive enough, you’re missing some good stuff.

Linda: I think there’s a big gap between hating something and not really appreciating it.

Joel: Ok, yeah. I’ll go with not really appreciating.

If you’ve spent any time in the stranger corners of classical music TikTok lately, you may have encountered Klaviercular — the self-described “pianomaxxing” influencer who has turned extreme piano listening into a lifestyle brand.

Part endurance athlete, part keyboard evangelist, Klaviercular has built a growing following by documenting his quest to attend the most long, complete, and physically demanding piano performances around the globe. Think less “casual recital attendance” and more “ultra-marathon but for Debussy.”

And according to his latest posts, two upcoming performances at UMS have him absolutely feral.

The Pianomaxxing Philosophy

For the uninitiated, ‘pianomaxxing’ is a lifestyle philosophy coined by Klaviercular that centers on maximizing one’s exposure to the piano repertoire through full cycles, complete editions, and multi-hour recital feats.

His rules are simple:

• The longer the program, the better
• “Complete works” are mandatory
• Bathroom breaks are a skill issue

“Short recitals are mid,” Klaviercular explained in a recent livestream while practicing wrist stretches. “If the pianist isn’t playing at least two hours of straight repertoire, what are we even doing? I’m trying to achieve full repertoire immersion.”

Legendary Piano Endurance Feats

Klaviercular’s résumé already includes some serious pianistic endurance events.

In 2023, he traveled to New York for pianist Yuja Wang’s legendary Rachmaninoff marathon at Carnegie Hall, where she performed all four piano concertos and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in a single evening.

“Bro that concert changed my brain chemistry,” he said. “Yuja basically no-hit-ran Rachmaninoff. Absolute main character energy.”

Then in 2025 he made a pilgrimage to Ann Arbor for Seong-Jin Cho’s performance of the complete solo piano works of Ravel at Hill Auditorium.

“I was locked in for the entire cycle,” he said. “Three hours of Ravel? That’s peak pianomaxxing content. The vibes were immaculate.”

Two New Targets in Ann Arbor

Now Klaviercular has his eyes on two upcoming UMS performances that he says represent “the future of elite piano listening.”

The Complete Philip Glass Piano Etudes

A full performance of all 20 Philip Glass Piano Etudes might intimidate many audiences. Not Klaviercular.

“This is literally my Super Bowl,” he posted. “Twenty etudes. Ten pianists. Minimalism grindset. I’m about to enter Glass mode.”

He elaborated further in a follow-up clip:

“People say minimalist music is repetitive. That’s the point. You just lock in and ascend. By Etude No. 11 you’re basically transcending the algorithm.”

He has reportedly begun “training” by listening to looping Glass playlists while walking on an incline treadmill.

Debussy: The Full Preludes Arc

If the Glass marathon wasn’t enough, Klaviercular is also planning to attend Jean-Yves Thibaudet performing the complete Debussy Preludes.

For him, the appeal is both musical and strategic. “Debussy preludes are like a cinematic universe,” he explained. “You can’t just watch one episode. You need the full lore.”

He added, “Thibaudet doing the whole cycle? That’s not a recital, that’s Debussy endgame. I’m pulling up early, hydrating, and mentally preparing for maximum impressionist vibes.”

Training for Piano Endurance

Like any serious endurance athlete, Klaviercular takes preparation seriously.

His pre-concert routine reportedly includes:

• Wrist mobility exercises
• A carefully timed nitro cold brew protocol
• Strategic protein snack deployment during intermission
• Stretching to survive extended sitting

He also recommends a mindset shift for newcomers to pianomaxxing.

“Don’t think of it as a long concert,” he advises. “Think of it as repertoire expansion DLC for your brain.”

The Future of Pianomaxxing

Klaviercular says his long-term goal is to attend a full performance of all 32 Beethoven sonatas in one weekend.

“Is it possible?” he asked his followers recently. “Probably not. But that’s what makes the grind beautiful.”

In the meantime, he’s counting down the days until his next Ann Arbor pilgrimage.

“Glass etudes. Debussy preludes. Two absolute piano marathons,” he said. “UMS is honestly feeding the pianomaxxing community right now.”

And if you see someone in the lobby stretching their wrists and whispering “lock in” before the downbeat…it’s probably Klaviercular.

Happy April Fools’ Day from UMS!

While Klaviercular isn’t real, our two epic April piano events are. Learn more and lock in your tickets for these unmissable performances:

The Complete Philip Glass Piano Etudes with 10 Pianists

Co-presented with The Gilmore Piano Festival

Sat Apr 18 at 7:30 pm // Hill Auditorium

More Info & Tickets

Starting at just $20 (+ fees); $15-20 student tickets available

Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

Perfoming Debussy’s complete preludes

Wed Apr 22 at 7 pm // Hill Auditorium

More Info & Tickets

Starting at just $14 (+ fees); $15-20 student tickets available