What’s the difference between a clown and a stand-up comedian? While these two practices overlap, each has a distinct approach to humor, performance, and audience interaction. At the center of this Venn diagram is Zach Zucker, comedian, producer, and clown.

Zach Zucker

In the Jack Tucker Comedy Standup Show, Zucker embodies his alter ego, Jack Tucker, a self-proclaimed beloved comedian whose performance exposes the fragility of entertainment and the conventions of stand-up itself. His genre-defying approach brings a fresh perspective to live performance.

Zucker isn’t the first artist to bring clowning into contemporary performance. Recent UMS presentations, including Dimanche, White Feminist, HOME, and Nate, have also explored clowning in diverse ways, highlighting the form’s versatility and its growing presence in contemporary performance. By exploring the distinctions between stand-up and clowning and how these practices intersect, we can better understand what makes Zucker’s work so compelling.

So, what exactly separates a clown from a stand-up comedian? And what happens when the two collide?

What is stand-up comedy?

Stand-up comedy is characterized by live solo performance, pre-written material that is crafted to feel improvised, and audience interaction. There is no fourth wall in stand-up comedy; comedians often engage in direct conversation with the audience. This style of performance relies on a comedian’s ability to present a heightened version of their own personality and perspective through language rather than elaborate technical elements.

Comedians draw material from personal experiences, everyday observations, and cultural commentary, transforming familiar situations into opportunities for humor. While the material is often carefully constructed and rehearsed, a comedian’s ability to respond to the energy of the room gives each performance a sense of spontaneity.

What is clowning?

Clowning is a performance art that features physicality, spontaneity, vulnerability, and play. It is more than crazy wigs, face paint, and red noses; it’s an ancient tradition practiced in many cultures across the globe. Unlike stand-up comedy, which often relies on language, storytelling, and punchlines, clowning often finds humor in movement, exaggerated behavior, awkwardness, and failure.

Similar to stand-up comedy, the relationship between the performer and the audience is at the heart of clowning. In clowning, the performer doesn’t necessarily need to tell a joke to get a laugh. A prolonged pause, an unexpected movement, or an unsuccessful attempt at something ordinary can become the funniest moment in a performance. The audience is invited to witness the performer’s reactions in real time, making their relationship central to the experience. Rather than hiding mistakes, clowns embrace them. Failure becomes an opportunity for connection, inviting audiences to laugh not just at the performer, but with them.

Legacy of Clowning

To understand the influence of clowning on Zucker’s work, it helps to look at one of the art form’s most influential contemporary teachers: Philippe Gaulier.

Zucker studied at the École Philippe Gaulier, a French clowning school known for shaping generations of actors, comedians, and performance artists. Founded in 1980 by theater pedagogue Philippe Gaulier, the school has become an influential institution in contemporary clowning. Gaulier’s philosophy encourages performers to let go of the need to impress or entertain and instead embrace the freedom of being ridiculous. He calls this practice “finding your idiot”: discovering your most vulnerable, absurd self by welcoming failure rather than fearing it.

This philosophy is central to Zucker’s approach to comedy. Through Jack Tucker, he takes the confidence and self-importance often associated with stand-up comedians and pushes them to absurd extremes. The result is a character who is simultaneously convinced of his own brilliance and completely unaware of how he comes across.

Jack Tucker Comedy Standup Show is a testament to how Zucker takes the techniques he learned through Gaulier’s approach to clowning and brings them into conversation with the conventions of stand-up comedy.

Experience the absurdity of clowning live.

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3 weeks. More than a dozen events. Audiences of all ages. UMS’s Fall 2026 residency at the Ypsilanti Freighthouse celebrated Southeast Michigan artists and welcomed community members across generations. Take a look back at our favorite memories, week by week, and read what our audience had to say:

Week One

Do-Si-Dos, Swings, and Endless Smiles

Our residency kicked off with a fun evening of square dancing and live music, hosted by the Detroit Square Dance Society.

Latin Jazz

Detroit-based septet Aguankó brought the heart and soul of Latin jazz to the Freighthouse, accompanied by a packed audience and live salsa dancing!

“Great vibes, the music was chill and the production values from UMS were top-notch as always!”

Tales from Detroit

Flying Cardboard Theater presented two School Day Performances and a public family performance that celebrated the hidden wonders of the Motor City. After the performance, kids had the chance to make their own puppets and bring them to life on stage!

“My daughter and I loved the performance and the workshop. The space was perfect, and the quality of the performance was excellent. The performers delivered it with so much passion, energy, and fun!”

Week Two

Open Mic Night

Each residency, the songs, stories, and talents shared by our Open Mic Night participants remind us of what makes the Ypsi community so special. Special thanks to our host, folk singer Annie Bacon, for creating a welcoming environment for anyone to take the stage.

Powerful Storytelling

Detroit’s acclaimed Sofa Stories made its Ypsi debut, with a performance and film screening, plus an accompanying public storytelling workshop led by its artists. The project uses live theatre and film to amplify stories of young people impacted by housing insecurity or homelessness.

“This was a truly unique experience that moved me and made me look at unhoused youth in a new light. Entertaining…but also informative and authentic.”

Legendary Jazz

Detroit jazz greats Marcus Elliot and Kris Johnson brought down the house with a 12-piece ensemble commemorating John Coltrane’s 100th birthday through his landmark recording, Africa/Brass. The full performance was also filmed and recorded and will be released as a UMS Live Session on YouTube in the coming months!

“Amazing show! This event represents what the Ypsi Freighthouse residency series is really all about to me. It brought top local and regional jazz talent into Ypsi for the night at a very accessible price and with the excellent UMS production values we’ve come to expect”

Week Three

Come As You Are

The Telegraph Quartet, University of Michigan’s Ensemble-in-Residence, presented a performance that invited anyone who would benefit from a more relaxed concert environment, including individuals on the autism spectrum, people with sensory or communication preferences, and their friends and families.

“The relaxed concert by Telegraph Quartet was a wonderful experience for my Autistic son and me…the reassurance that we could be ourselves was a welcome relief, and the music was excellent!!! Rarely does our community get that opportunity to enjoy an experience like this in its fullness.”

The Whole Family Singing and Dancing

Kids and grown-ups alike were swept into a bilingual, interactive musical adventure by Latin Grammy-winning musical duo 123 Andrés.

Detroit Beats

Detroit trio Dames Brown blended disco, techno, and Gospel for a pulse-pounding night at the Freighthouse. The dance floor stayed packed, the energy was unmatched, and we’re still not over it!

Dazzling and Genre Defying

My Brightest Diamond closed the September residency with a sold-out show. Led by singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Shara Nova, the band’s shape-shifting vocals effortlessly flowed through rock, art pop, and chamber music.

“Shara Nova was absolutely incredible. I had been wanting to see her live ever since I discovered her via UMS back in 2015. Thank you for continuing to bring in unique artists like her!”

Thank you to all who joined us for our September 2026 residency at the Ypsilanti Freighthouse! We’ll be back in April (and with freshly resurfaced parking lots!). Sign up for our interest list to get a reminder when full details are announced in the new year.

In addition to presenting School Day Performances throughout the season, UMS offers SDP+, an interactive arts education program that extends the live performance experience into the K-12 classroom.

Through pre- and post-performance workshops led by professional artist facilitators, students have the opportunity to engage more deeply with the art form, explore the creative process, and investigate the cultural, historical, and artistic themes connected to each performance.

These hands-on experiences encourage creative expression, critical thinking, and reflection, while making meaningful connections between the performing arts and classroom learning. Offered at no cost to schools, SDP+ provided 44 workshops for students across seven schools in conjunction with the Lupita Infante School Day Performance.

“A School Day Performance opens the door to an extraordinary artistic experience, while SDP+ workshops invite students to explore the art form more deeply,” says Terri Park, UMS’s associate director of learning and engagement. “Through hands-on, interactive experiences, students discover new artistic traditions, explore different cultures, and engage with the themes and ideas at the heart of each performance. These experiences help bring the performance to life in ways that can resonate long after the final curtain.”

Follow along on the entire SDP+ experience with Yael Rothfeld’s three classes of 5th grade music students from Thurston Elementary:

Pre-Show Workshops

Before attending Lupita Infante’s performance, students explored the history of mariachi music and learned what to expect at a live mariachi performance through an interactive, hands-on workshop with five mariachi performers from Detroit, Flint, and Ann Arbor, led by Gean Vincent Almendras with Michael Abbasspour, Camilla Cantu, Brandon Sexton, and Adam Mornes. The pre-concert session began with a simple question: “Have any of you seen the movie Coco?” Lots of hands shot into the air, giving students an immediate connection to mariachi music before diving deeper into its traditions, instruments, and cultural significance.

Through call-and-response activities, students learned the Spanish names of mariachi instruments, including the violin, guitarrón, vihuela, trumpet, and guitar. They also explored the history of mariachi as a male-dominated musical tradition and how artists like Lupita Infante are challenging expectations and showing that mariachi music is for everyone. Artist facilitator Camilla shared her own experience starting an all-female mariachi band, giving students a real-life example of how musicians are making space for more voices in the genre.

Of course, learning about a mariachi concert also meant learning how to join in! Students practiced gritos, the enthusiastic shouts heard at Mexican concerts, first by exclaiming “That’s awesome!” in English. Then, they tried out traditional gritos like “¡Ay, ay, ay!” and “¡Cántalo!” The students even had the chance to lead the shouts themselves while the band played, turning what they had learned into an energetic, hands-on musical experience.

By the end of the workshop, the students were on their feet, singing “Cielito Lindo,” a well-known Mexican folk song, and dancing along to Selena’s “Como la Flor.” What began with a conversation about a familiar movie grew into an opportunity to explore a musical tradition, learn new vocabulary, hear from working artists, and experience the joy of making music together.

School Day Performance

On Monday, October 19, Lupita Infante and her mariachi group led a special hour-long performance for nearly 2,500 enthusiastic K-12 students. Coming from 36 schools and homeschools across the state — Adrian, Ann Arbor, Bloomfield Hills, Canton, Chelsea, Detroit, Dexter, Kalamazoo, Livonia, Onsted, Plymouth, and Ypsilanti — the performance reinforced many of the lessons taught in the pre-performance workshops. In addition to the live performance at Hill Auditorium, 600 students from nine schools registered to view a livestream, which was available for 10 days after the performance.

After the performance ended, students from Bishop Elementary School in Ypsilanti and Scarlett Middle School in Ann Arbor enjoyed a private Q&A with Lupita Infante.

Post-Show Workshops

The same group of artist facilitators returned to each school after the School Day Performance to help reinforce what the students had learned. Integrating new Spanish vocabulary into the lessons, the artist facilitators led a spirited discussion about what inspired the students and what surprised them. Together, they talked about and shared examples of the two different styles of serenatas, the famous ranchera song “Volver Volver,” and different regional styles, such as norteña and polka, from Chihuahua, Jalisco, and Colombia.

Amelia, a fifth grader at Thurston whose family comes from Colombia, was especially excited that Lupita Infante performed a cumbia, a regional dance that she was delighted to share with her classmates. As part of the post-show workshop, all of the students danced the cumbia to music performed by the artist facilitators.

Amelia raises her hand in appreciation while the mariachi band plays.

When asked what surprised the students the most about the performance, Michael enthusiastically raised his hand and exclaimed, “I was surprised at how much I learned,” a comment sure to delight every teacher everywhere. He expounded on his comment after class, demonstrating how he learned to do gritos and emitting a spirited “¡Ay, ay, ay!” He added, “I learned a lot about mariachi. I wish the mariachi band would come more often…I really like the music, and I want to see more of it and to hear more of it. I want to learn more of the songs.”

Yael Rothfeld, the music teacher at Thurston Elementary School in Ann Arbor who has been a longtime participant in UMS’s School Day Performance series said, “I can teach the information about mariachi from the curricular materials that UMS provides for every School Day Performance. But I did not expect an actual band, authentic mariachi performers, to come into the classroom and allow the students to see and hear the instruments close up.

“My students got so much more out of the School Day Performance because of what they saw and experienced in person. I’ve already told Terri to sign me up when SDP+ is offered for the Sandbox Percussion performances next month.”

Natalie is a performer and teaching artist who received her BFA in theater performance and dance from UM-Flint in 2011. Since then, she has performed with many regional theaters, specializing in devised, musical, and educational theater. Her work is dedicated to advocating for accessibility in the arts, believing that everyone should have the opportunity to be involved in creative experiences — as a participant or a spectator —and all should strive to be more inclusive and accommodating in every way.

UMS sat down with Natalie to learn more about her connections to Flint, her plans for the residency, and how accessibility plays a role in her creative process.

Can you describe devised theater and how you approach it?

Devised theater is a form of theater where the script is created through the rehearsal process. You start by bringing together a small ensemble, and maybe you have a concept or theme you want to explore, or maybe you just play improv games and see what happens. You might begin with a general outline of a story, or even just a single idea. From there, you experiment and play. Usually, there’s a director or stage manager helping develop the story, or you might record rehearsals so you can revisit them later. When something cool happens, you say, “I’m going to keep that,” and slowly, you start building a script out of those moments.

Eventually, you have a story and a script that you can repeat. In that sense, devised theater is different from improv, where the performance changes every time. By the time you perform the show, you have a set piece that you can return to each time.

Are you going into this project with an idea?

The theme I want to work through is inclusivity, telling different perspectives and stories that aren’t always told or featured, and creating opportunities for performers who don’t always get the chance to share their experiences.

I really like the idea of telling stories that deal with resilience or overcoming some kind of obstacle or barrier. I think that’s something anyone can relate to, regardless of their abilities. Everyone has faced some kind of struggle in their life, so I think it’s a fairly universal idea.

Do you have any advice for fellow artists who are trying to create accessible spaces and inclusive performances?

I’m very open about the fact that I’m not a member of the disability community, so I try to talk to and listen to as many people in that community as possible and learn from their perspectives, even when they challenge something I’ve always thought or believed. I’ve always liked the mantra: When you know better, do better. Sometimes, you don’t realize that you’ve been doing something incorrectly, even unintentionally, until someone points it out. They might say, “This is the term we prefer to use,” or “Here’s a way to make this more accessible that it currently isn’t.” And you listen and think, “I’ll try to do better going forward.”

I think a lot of people get defensive in those situations, because it can feel uncomfortable to realize you’ve been doing something wrong. Instead of focusing on that, I try to approach it as an opportunity to learn. Now that I know, how can I do things differently? How can I incorporate that knowledge moving forward?

What have you learned from collaborating with people whose experiences and identities differ from yours?

Oh, so much! That’s what inspired me to go into this avenue in the first place. I was working with a theater called Wild Swan which performed at Washtenaw Community College. They did shadow interpreting for all of their shows. Instead of having the action of the play and an interpreter off to the side, the interpreter is a character in the show. They’re integrated into the performance so that someone using sign language doesn’t have to constantly take themselves out of the show. They can be in it, with the interpreter becoming another character in a crowd scene or, in a more intimate scene, almost like an inner monologue or an imaginary friend.

I also noticed that the interpreters who had an acting background were more entertaining. They were the ones you were drawn to visually. And I thought, “Oh, wow. If you have a performance background, that kind of helps with interpreting.” I just thought it was such a cool method of theater, and I started becoming really interested in accessibility.

Wild Swan also offered audio descriptions for people with visual needs, if needed, and they always prioritized accessibility in their space. It was just so cool, and I thought, “Oh, this is what I want to do. This is the path I want to take.”

What does Flint mean to you personally and artistically?

Both of my parents worked at UM-Flint their whole lives. My dad was an art professor, and my mom worked at the Early Childhood Development Center. They’re both retired now, but I was always there growing up. We’d go to art walks every second Friday of the month and walk around all the galleries. That campus has been a staple of my upbringing and my connection to the city. When I was about 10, my dad worked on a project to create the world’s longest consecutive mural, with the goal of getting into the Guinness World Records. I was just a little kid helping paint. So I’ve always been in and around Flint.

I’ve never left, and I’ve never really wanted to. A lot of that has to do with my family and wanting to stay close to them. When I was younger, I wanted to be a Broadway star, but the older I got, the more I realized that would mean moving, and I didn’t want to do that.

A couple of years ago, I saw a former UM-Flint professor of mine looking for an alum to design sound for a show. I reached out and ended up doing it. It brought me back to my alma mater, which was so much fun because I’d had such a great experience there and really enjoyed my relationships with my teachers.

That’s part of why I’m so excited about this opportunity. It feels like being back home.

How can people get involved in your upcoming project?

Auditions will take place in February, I’m still in the research phase currently! Keep a lookout for announcements and updates.

Ann Arbor’s timeless holiday tradition returns as the UMS Choral Union and Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra present Handel’s Messiah. For many community members, this is the musical highlight of the year and marks the “official” start of the holiday season.

This year’s exceptional voices include a returning U-M alum and a recent Grammy winner.

Learn more about the singers below, and don’t miss them in Hill Auditorium Dec 5-6.

Get Tickets

Amanda Forsythe, soprano

The American soprano Amanda Forsythe, celebrated for her performances on both sides of the Atlantic, is a regular soloist with the highly acclaimed baroque ensembles the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, and more. Forsythe recently won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album and previously won for Best Opera Recording for her role of Euridice in Charpentier’s La descente d’Orphée au enfers with the Boston Early Music Festival.

In the 26/27 season, Forsyth joins the Academy of Ancient Music, singing Telemann’s Ino with conductor Laurence Cummings. She also performs Handel’s Messiah with Le Concert d’Astrée and Emmanuelle Haïm in Los Angeles, Mozart’s Requiem with the Milwaukee Symphony, and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra) and St. Matthew Passion (Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France). Forsythe makes two appearances with Boston Baroque during the season and tours the Western United States, Canada, and Hawaii with Opera Prima. She also continues her long collaboration with Boston Early Music Festival, performing on several programs throughout Boston.

Sun-Ly Pierce, mezzo-soprano

Chinese-American mezzo-soprano Sun-Ly Pierce, Third Prize Winner of the 2024 Operalia competition, is rapidly establishing herself as a versatile and dynamic artist in both traditional and contemporary repertoire.

Pierce’s 26/27 season begins with her return to Houston Grand Opera for Faust (Siebel) and Boston Lyric Opera for Le nozze di Figaro (Cherubino). Other highlights of the season include Handel’s Messiah with Boston Baroque and the Houston Symphony, Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with The Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and Mozart’s Requiem and Mass in c minor on tour with Les Musiciens du Louvre. She also returns to the stage at Carnegie Hall for a solo recital presented by the Music Academy of the West. Pierce concludes the season at Santa Fe Opera in Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina). Future engagements include leading roles at the New National Theatre Tokyo, Houston Grand Opera, and The Metropolitan Opera.

Nicholas Phan, tenor

Nicholas Phan is a Grammy Award-winning lyric tenor, curator, and educator, celebrated for his expressive artistry and versatility across a wide-ranging repertoire that spans nearly 500 years. Described by The Boston Globe as “one of the world’s most remarkable singers,” he has earned international recognition for his captivating stage presence, keen intelligence, and natural musicianship. Raised in Ann Arbor, Phan is a graduate of the University of Michigan and is the 2012 recipient of the Paul C. Boylan Distinguished Alumni Award and the 2018 Christopher Kendall Award.

A celebrated recording artist, Phan won the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for his recording of Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Mater with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony. A five-time Grammy nominee, Phan’s most recent album, A Change Is Gonna Come, was nominated for the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. His previous albums — Stranger: Works for Tenor by Nico Muhly, Clairières, and Gods and Monsters — were nominated for the same award in 2023, 2020, and 2017. He is the first singer of Asian descent to be nominated in the history of the category.

Charles H. Eaton, baritone

Hailed as a “swaggeringly charismatic baritone with a versatile voice,” American baritone Charles H. Eaton begins his 26/27 season with a role and company debut as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Kentucky Opera. He returns to the role of Sam in Trouble in Tahiti with the Austin Symphony Orchestra. In 2027, he joins the Metropolitan Opera roster, covering William Dale in their production of Silent Night. He then makes his company debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as Schaunard in La bohème, followed by a role and company debut as Papageno in Die Zauberflöte with Florentine Opera in Milwaukee.

Eaton graduated in 2024 from the Minnesota Opera Resident Artist program, where he received great acclaim for his “beautiful, deep voice” and “astonishingly chameleonic” performances as Sam in Trouble in Tahiti, Schaunard in La bohème, Argante in Rinaldo, and Masetto in Don Giovanni. In 2023, he made his Carnegie Hall debut as baritone soloist in the Fauré Requiem and received third place in the Houston Saengerbund Competition, a German vocal competition for rising professional singers.

An Enduring Masterpiece. A Timeless Tradition. Handel’s Messiah.

Don’t Miss It

Scene from the film Amadeus

There are certain pieces of classical music that seem to exist everywhere in pop culture, even if you don’t know their names.

You may have heard the ominous opening of Mozart’s Requiem in Amadeus, the 1984 Oscar-winning film that helped cement the mythology surrounding the composer’s final days. How about its haunting “Lacrimosa” in The Big Lebowski? Or, if you’re a Marvel fan, you may even recognize the thunderous “Dies irae” from X2: X-Men United.

The Requiem’s dramatic melodies and unmistakable choral sound are repeatedly called upon to convey everything from terror and tragedy to mystery and transcendence on the silver screen. But, there’s nothing like experiencing this music in a renowned concert hall.

On Friday, November 13, the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, the UMS Choral Union, and four outstanding soloists will come together to perform the Requiem in the magnificent acoustics of Hill Auditorium. Info & tickets

How has the Requiem’s haunting beauty captivated audiences for centuries?

A masterpiece surrounded by mystery

Mozart’s Requiem has always been accompanied by a story almost as dramatic as the music.

Commissioned anonymously in 1791, the work was left unfinished when Mozart died at just 35 years old. His student, Franz Xaver Süssmayr, ultimately completed the score using Mozart’s sketches. As Mozart’s health declined, legend has it that he became convinced he was writing the Requiem for his own funeral (a story that has contributed to the work’s enduring aura of mystery and mortality).

The reality is, of course, more complicated than the legend — but that uncertainty is part of what makes the Requiem so fascinating. It’s a work shaped by Mozart’s imagination, his final illness, the work of those who completed it after his death, and centuries of listeners who have found their own meaning in its music.

The Requiem moves between extremes: terror and tenderness, darkness and light, judgment and mercy…

The opening “Requiem aeternam” begins with an almost funereal restraint before the chorus enters.

Then comes the “Dies irae,” one of classical music’s great explosions of fear and power.

The “Confutatis” alternates between ominous male voices and luminous responses from the higher voices.

And in the “Lacrimosa,” the music seems to stop time altogether.

Many of these moments have become so familiar, that it can be easy to forget just how extraordinary they are.

From Amadeus to The Big Lebowski

Part of the Requiem’s cultural staying power comes from its remarkable cinematic life.

Miloš Forman’s Amadeus made the work central to its depiction of Mozart’s final days, intertwining the music with the film’s fictionalized account of Mozart’s relationship with Antonio Salieri. The film helped reinforce the mythology surrounding the Requiem and introduced the work to generations of moviegoers.

But the Requiem has also found some rather unexpected homes.

In The Big Lebowski, the “Lacrimosa” accompanies one of the Coen brothers’ wonderfully strange sequences, transforming Mozart’s music into part of the film’s darkly comic atmosphere.

Mozart’s music knows how to make us feel something immediately, from impending catastrophe (with the pounding rhythms of the “Dies irae”) to physical grief (the “Lacrimosa”). The grandeur of the chorus suggests something larger than any individual character or story.

Experience True Surround Sound

Hollywood didn’t invent those emotions. Mozart did.

There is a limit to what a soundtrack can convey. Hearing a great choral work live is surround sound! The Requiem was written for human voices filling a physical space, and feeling the sound of the orchestra and voices moving through the hall around you.

Yes, you may recognize Mozart’s Requiem from a movie. You may know the opening notes, the “Dies irae,” or the “Lacrimosa” without knowing exactly where you’ve heard them before. But on November 13, you can hear them in full force…and the way they absolutely were intended. Come experience it for yourself!

Buy Tickets

Starting at $36 (+ fees). $15-20 student tickets available

Classical guitarist Jason Vieaux

What happens when an Italian composer, a Spanish dance, a classical guitar, and a string quartet meet?

In the hands of composer Luigi Boccherini, the answer is one of the most irresistible pieces of 18th-century chamber music.

On November 8, Grammy-winning guitarist Jason Vieaux joins the Escher Quartet at Rackham Auditorium for an afternoon of music that explores the colorful possibilities of guitar and strings. The program ranges from Prokofiev and Castelnuovo-Tedesco to music by Jorge Morel, J.S. Bach, Agustín Barrios, and Vieaux himself. One work in particular promises to take listeners on a remarkable journey: Boccherini’s Guitar Quintet in D Major, G. 448, better known as the “Fandango.”

Vieaux and the Escher Quartet have performed and recorded this music together, so their UMS performance offers a chance to hear a work they know intimately — and to experience its extraordinary transformation from quiet pastoral beauty to exuberant Spanish dance.

What is a fandango?

So what exactly is a fandango? And how does Boccherini get us there?

The fandango is a lively Spanish dance that emerged in the 18th century. Traditionally associated with two dancers, it is characterized by an infectious rhythmic pulse and a sense of increasing intensity. Guitar playing, singing, hand-clapping, and castanets can all be part of the tradition.

Composer Luigi Boccherini

For Boccherini, the fandango offered a way to bring the sounds and rhythms of his adopted country directly into the concert hall.

Born in Lucca, Italy, Boccherini spent much of his career in Spain, where he worked as a cellist and composer for Spanish nobility. He was deeply immersed in the musical culture around him, and the influence of Spanish dance and guitar music can be heard throughout his later works.

The Guitar Quintet in D Major dates from 1798 and was created for François de Borgia, Marquis de Benavente, an amateur guitarist. Rather than composing an entirely new work, Boccherini adapted movements from two of his earlier string quintets, replacing the second cello with guitar. The result is a fascinating meeting of old and new: music originally conceived for strings is transformed by the distinctive color, articulation, and rhythmic possibilities of the guitar.

And that transformation becomes especially dramatic as the piece reaches its famous finale. Preview the journey, one movement at a time.

I. Pastorale: A gentle beginning

The quintet opens with a Pastorale—and the name tells us a lot about what to expect.

Pastoral music traditionally evokes an idealized countryside: peaceful, spacious, and uncomplicated. Boccherini creates precisely that atmosphere with a graceful, flowing melody and muted strings. The guitar slips into the texture almost like another voice, gently rippling beneath and around the quartet.

There is no sense yet of the fiery dance that awaits us at the end of the piece. Listen for the delicate sound of the muted strings and the guitar’s gentle accompaniment.

II. Allegro maestoso: The energy rises

The mood changes considerably in the second movement.

The Allegro maestoso is more animated and expansive, with a greater sense of momentum. The cello takes on a particularly prominent role, including passages that climb into its upper register, while the other instruments provide a rich backdrop.

The guitar remains an important part of the ensemble, but again, Boccherini isn’t simply setting up a competition between guitar and strings. Instead, the instruments continually trade roles and colors. Listen for the contrast between the strings’ singing quality and the guitar’s crisp, rhythmic articulation.

III. Grave assai: Everything changes

The third movement, marked Grave assai, slows the music down dramatically. After the brightness of the opening movements, we enter a darker, more reflective world. This movement is particularly important because it acts as a bridge to the Fandango. The music begins in the major mode that has characterized the earlier movements, but gradually darkens as it moves toward the minor.

Listen closely, and you can almost feel Boccherini preparing the stage. The music becomes increasingly expectant. The guitar’s plucked sounds take on a different character in the quieter atmosphere, while the strings create an almost theatrical sense of anticipation.

IV. Fandango: Let the dance begin

And then: the Fandango! This is the moment that has made Boccherini’s Guitar Quintet famous.

The music pulses as a rhythmic pattern repeats. The guitar becomes more prominent. The strings start to sound less like a conventional classical string quartet and more like a miniature Spanish ensemble.

The fandango was a dance of passion and movement, and Boccherini captures that energy through repetition and accumulation. Rather than racing immediately toward the finish, he builds the excitement layer by layer. Listen for the guitar’s rhythmic drive, and the castanet-like rhythms and percussion effects that make the finale so unmistakable.

From Italy to Spain—and from 1798 to today

More than two centuries later, Boccherini’s music still feels fresh because its appeal isn’t confined to a particular musical era. There is the elegance of the Classical style, the intimacy of chamber music, the distinctive voice of the guitar, and the sheer physical pleasure of rhythm.

Escher Quartet

It’s also a perfect showcase for the partnership between Jason Vieaux and the Escher Quartet. Vieaux, praised by NPR as “perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation,” makes his UMS debut alongside the quartet, which made its own UMS debut in 2024.

And, by the time the dance arrives on November 8, you’ll understand exactly why this piece has remained Boccherini’s most famous musical calling card.

Buy Tickets

Starting at $36 (+ fees). $15-20 student tickets available

Dancer Sara Mearns, playwright Jessica Dickey, and composer Carlos Simon.

As the UMS prepares to celebrate its 150th season in 2028/29, the organization is investing in the future with three major commissions in dance, theater, and music.

The projects bring together internationally acclaimed artists, University of Michigan students, faculty, and alumni, and interdisciplinary university research partners to create new works that reflect the possibilities of artistic collaboration and the enduring importance of live performance.

The first commission, The Rose Sonata, premieres this month (on October 23-24) and features internationally-acclaimed dancers and choreographers Sara Mearns, Bobbi Jene Smith, and Or Schraiber.

A new full-length theater work by playwright Jessica Dickey, developed in partnership with the U-M Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD), and the U-M Arts Initiative, will premiere during UMS’s 150th season in 2028/29 and feature SMTD theater students. The third commission, a work for orchestra and chorus by composer and U-M alumnus Carlos Simon, will premiere in late fall 2029, bringing the 16-month 150th anniversary celebration to a close.

“An anniversary of this scale is an opportunity to reflect on what UMS has meant to generations of artists and audiences, and to consider what we want the next 150 years to look like. These commissions are a true leadership moment for UMS that embodies our longstanding commitments to artists and investing in new works, to meaningful and innovative collaboration across disciplines here at the University of Michigan, and to the idea that the performing arts both celebrate our humanity and open up new ways of seeing and understanding our complex world. We’re enormously proud to celebrate this milestone by catalyzing these three ambitious new works into being.” — Matthew VanBesien, UMS president

Dance

The Rose Sonata by Lisa Spindler (@lisaspindlerstudio)

The first commission, The Rose Sonata, brings together three distinctive artistic voices: acclaimed New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns, and choreographers and performers Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber. The production will feature six dancers, including Mearns, Smith, and Schraiber, as well as two pianists who will perform live and be integrated into the choreography.

Premiering in October 2026, The Rose Sonata launches UMS’s 150th-season commissioning initiative, looking ahead to the anniversary through the creation of new work. Future tours of the work will carry UMS’s name on it in perpetuity.

“We’re thrilled to launch our commissioning initiative with a new dance work. One of UMS’s strategic goals has been to become more active in the producing space and to provide creative support directly to artists. With The Rose Sonata, UMS provided space on campus for the creative team to explore ideas and develop this new work during a three-week creative residency in Ann Arbor in June 2026 that brought together the performing company of six dancers and two pianists. Following the incubation period, the bespoke company continued to refine the work through two week-long intensive rehearsal periods in New York before setting the piece in the Power Center. It’s been exciting to watch the process of bringing together diverse yet complementary artistic perspectives and discovering what can happen when artists who work at the highest level in their respective fields collaborate to create something entirely new.” — Mark Jacobson, UMS vice president of programming & production

The Rose Sonata receives its world premiere Friday-Saturday, October 23-24 at Ann Arbor’s Power Center for the Performing Arts. The work is directed and choreographed by Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber in collaboration with dancers Jonathan Frederickson, Jessie Kovarsky, Sara Mearns, and Dan Santiago, and pianists/composers Mikael Darmanie and Yonatan Daskal. Lighting design is by Chris Gilmore, costume design by Victoria Bek, and sound design by Justin Saylor.

The production is possible thanks to support from presenting sponsors Alec Gallimore and Reates Curry, Mike and Kristie Martin, and Jon and Sandy Willen; principal sponsors Brian Willen and Monica Hakimi; and supporting sponsors David and Kiana Barfield Family Foundation, Marvin and Betty Danto Family Foundation, Steve Stancroff and Tamar Springer, and an anonymous donor.

Theater

Playwright Jessica Dickey

The second commission will bring playwright and performer Jessica Dickey to Ann Arbor to create a new full-length theater work that contends with the complex nature of firearms and gun violence in America.

The co-commission brings together UMS, the U-M Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention (U-M IFIP), U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance, and U-M Arts Initiative in an ambitious collaboration connecting artistic creation, academic research, and public engagement.

The work will premiere at the University of Michigan in the 2028/29 season as part of both the UMS mainstage season and the SMTD performance season, featuring SMTD theater students in the cast. The project will also include opportunities for student and community engagement, contextual learning, and dialogue informed by the university’s research and expertise.

The collaboration emerged from a conversation initiated by a family of UMS and University of Michigan supporters who recognized the need for greater academic and community engagement around firearm injury and prevention in America. Despite the profound impact of firearm injury on individuals, families, and communities, relatively few theatrical works have explored the subject’s complexity, particularly for adult audiences.

Rather than wait for such a work to emerge, UMS and University of Michigan partners chose to commission one. Jessica Dickey, whose acclaimed play The Amish Project explored a schoolhouse shooting in an Amish community, was selected as playwright. Her creative process will draw on U-M’s research resources to help inform the work while placing artistic expression at the center of the project. Performances and related learning opportunities will invite audiences to engage thoughtfully with the human experiences, social realities, and questions surrounding firearm injury and prevention.

“Some of the most difficult subjects are also the ones we most need ways to talk about together. Theater can hold complexity in a way that makes room for many human experiences at once. I’m excited to explore this subject through the creative process, working with students and drawing on the knowledge of the University of Michigan community. My hope is to create a work that invites audiences to listen, question, and think more deeply — not to prescribe a single answer, but to open up a meaningful conversation.” — Jessica Dickey

The project builds on UMS’s history of bringing artists and audiences together around challenging contemporary questions. By connecting the creative process with U-M’s research expertise and opportunities for community participation, the partners hope to foster thoughtful, nonpartisan discourse and a deeper understanding of firearm injury and prevention in America.

Lead funding for this commission is provided by Neil and Annmarie Hawkins.

Music

Composer and U-M alumnus Carlos Simon

The third commission will feature a new musical work by composer Carlos Simon, a University of Michigan alumnus whose work spans orchestral, chamber, vocal, and multimedia composition.

After receiving his doctoral degree from the University of Michigan in 2017, Carlos Simon has become one of today’s most in-demand classical composers, serving as composer-in-residence for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (21/22 through 26/27), the Boston Symphony Orchestra (24/25 through 26/27), and the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam (26/27).

Scheduled to premiere in late fall 2029, Simon’s new work will serve as one of the milestone performances that closes UMS’s 16-month 150th-season celebration. His return to the University of Michigan as a commissioned composer adds a meaningful dimension to the anniversary, connecting UMS’s history of artistic presentation with the creative lives of artists who have studied, worked, and developed their voices within the university community.

The new commission is a multi-genre musical exploration of different views of religious and spiritual perspectives that will feature a full orchestra, chorus, and vocal soloists. Inspired by UMS’s long-standing tradition of presenting Handel’s Messiah, Simon’s work will look to many numerous divine sources, including spirituals, poetry by Langston Hughes and Robert Service, and writings by Rumi, Gandhi, and others.

“Returning to the University of Michigan to create a new work for UMS is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the experiences and influences that shape an artist over time. Music allows us to bring different histories, perspectives, and emotions into a shared experience. I’m honored to contribute to this milestone in UMS’s history, and I look forward to creating something that speaks to this moment while becoming part of the organization’s continuing story.” — Carlos Simon

Lead funding for this commission is provided by Alec Gallimore and Reates Curry.

Looking Ahead to the Next 150 Years

Together, the three commissions reflect the range and ambition of UMS’s artistic vision. The Rose Sonata celebrates the creative possibilities that emerge when artists collaborate across individual practices and highlights UMS’s commission to contemporary dance. Dickey’s theater commission connects artistic expression with university research and civic dialogue around a complex contemporary issue. Simon’s new musical work brings the anniversary to a close through the voice of an artist whose own history is deeply connected to UMS and the University of Michigan.

While distinct in form and subject, the three projects share a commitment to creating something that does not yet exist — and to inviting audiences into experiences that can inspire, challenge assumptions, foster empathy, and deepen connections.

“UMS has spent nearly 150 years providing opportunities for artists and audiences to create and experience extraordinary, uncommon, and truly unique moments on our stages. These commissions are an expression of that continuing purpose. We’re not simply marking an anniversary; we’re creating and investing in new work, building new partnerships, and making space for the ideas and artists that will shape UMS’s future.” — Matthew VanBesien, UMS President

UMS’s 150th-season celebration will encompass 16 months of performances, events, and special projects, beginning in September 2028 and continuing through December 2029.

What does the night sound like?

For pianist Bruce Liu, it can sound like Beethoven’s famous “Moonlight” Sonata, the hushed poetry of Chopin, the shimmering dreamscape of Debussy, or the strange, hypnotic rhythms of Ligeti. It can be intimate and contemplative one moment, dazzling and explosive the next.

That idea is at the heart of Lunaris, Liu’s new album, which takes listeners on a journey through “moonlit reflection, imagination, and transcendence.” Lunaris places iconic masterpieces alongside lesser-known pieces, inviting us to hear connections between music written centuries apart.

Liu brings much of this musical world to Hill Auditorium for his UMS debut on Wednesday, October 28, 2026. His recital features five works from the album, along with three additional pieces that take the journey in new directions. The result is a program that moves effortlessly from the mysterious to the exuberant, from quiet introspection to breathtaking virtuosity.

And what a program it is! Preview each of these masterpieces below:

György Ligeti: Étude No. 4, “Fanfares”

The evening opens with a jolt. Ligeti’s “Fanfares” is built around relentlessly repeating rhythmic patterns that seem to accelerate, collide, and reshape themselves before our ears. Dazzlingly precise yet playful, it creates the sensation of a machine that has suddenly developed a mind of its own.

Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 2, “Moonlight”

Few pieces are as instantly recognizable as Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata. Its opening movement unfolds with an almost suspended quality, the melody emerging quietly above a steady, hypnotic accompaniment. Beethoven ultimately propels the piece toward a famously turbulent finale of extraordinary energy.

Frédéric Chopin: Nocturnes, Op. 27, Nos. 1 and 2

If Beethoven gives us the moonlit landscape, Chopin gives us the intimate interior world of the night.

These two nocturnes are among Chopin’s most expressive miniatures, balancing singing melodies with intricate ornamentation and harmonic richness. The first moves between dark, restless intensity and luminous lyricism, while the second is more serene, its melody unfolding with the effortless elegance of a nocturnal song.

Chopin’s music was central to Liu’s international breakthrough when he won First Prize at the 2021 International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, making these works an especially fitting part of his UMS debut.

Maurice Ravel: “Alborada del gracioso” from Miroirs

Then the mood changes completely. Ravel’s “Alborada del gracioso” is a brilliantly colorful portrait of Spain, filled with guitar-like textures, sharply etched rhythms, sudden contrasts, and flashes of humor. The title roughly translates as “Dawn Song of the Jester,” and the piece has all the theatricality its name suggests.

It is also an extraordinary showcase for the pianist’s technique. Ravel asks the piano to imitate everything from strummed strings to percussive dance rhythms, creating an almost orchestral range of sound from a single instrument.

Claude Debussy: Rêverie, L. 68

After Ravel’s brilliance, Debussy’s Rêverie turns inward. The title means “dream,” and the piece unfolds as a gently shifting stream of melody and harmony. Rather than driving toward a dramatic destination, Debussy allows the music to hover, shimmer, and drift.

It is one of the works that connects most directly with the atmosphere of Lunaris, where Liu describes his goal as creating a sense of “suspended time” and exploring the space between intimacy and distance.

Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 21 in C Major, Op. 53, “Waldstein”

If the “Moonlight” Sonata represents Beethoven in the quiet of night, the “Waldstein” shows us another side of the composer: brilliant, restless, expansive, and full of light.

The sonata’s opening movement is propelled by a relentless rhythmic energy, while its finale builds toward a radiant, exhilarating conclusion. The contrast between the two Beethoven sonatas is one of the program’s greatest strengths. We hear the same composer moving between shadow and brilliance, introspection and propulsion.

The “Waldstein” is also a cornerstone of Lunaris, sitting alongside the “Moonlight” Sonata as one of the album’s two central Beethoven works.

Federico Mompou: Glossa sobre Au clair de la lune

Mompou takes us somewhere much quieter. Starting with the familiar French children’s song “Au clair de la lune,” the Catalan composer transforms a simple melody into something mysterious and contemplative. The music seems to emerge from memory, gradually revealing itself before disappearing again.

Isaac Albéniz: “El Puerto” from Iberia

From moonlight, we head South. “El Puerto” is one of the pieces that gives Albéniz’s Iberia its vivid sense of place. Its rhythms and textures evoke a bustling Spanish port, painting a landscape with flashes of dance, guitar-like sonorities, and rapidly changing colors.

Franz Liszt: Rhapsodie espagnole

And what better way to close than with Liszt?

The Rhapsodie espagnole is a spectacular finale, combining Spanish melodies and dance rhythms with the kind of virtuosic piano writing for which Liszt became famous. The piece continually raises the stakes, transforming folk-inspired material into a dazzling display of color, speed, power, and imagination.

It brings together many of the qualities that define Liu as a performer: technical command, musical curiosity, and a willingness to take listeners somewhere they may not expect to go.

A journey through the night

Taken together, this recital program journeys through contrasting worlds: darkness and light, stillness and motion, intimacy and spectacle, dreams and reality.

That is what makes Lunaris such an intriguing starting point for Liu’s UMS debut. The album asks us to hear familiar music differently, and this live program expands that idea even further. We invite you to come and listen for yourself on Wednesday, October 28.

Buy Tickets

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

Bank of Ann Arbor has supported UMS for nearly three decades, and this season, BOAA is a principal sponsor of our upcoming presentation of Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers. At the helm of that partnership is Tim Marshall, Executive Chairman and CEO of Bank of Ann Arbor and current Chair of the UMS Board of Directors. We sat down with Tim to talk about how his love of music began, what draws BOAA to organizations like UMS, and the stories behind two of the bank’s most beloved local traditions: Sonic Lunch and its signature billboards.

How did your interest in the arts begin?

Growing up, my father had a record player, and he would listen to music while working in his office — music that I didn’t really connect with at the time. But it gave me the opportunity to use his record player occasionally, so I went out and bought 33s and 45s and got to listen to music he absolutely hated.

We had a mutual respect for each other — I didn’t like his music, and he didn’t like mine. I’ll never forget trying to introduce him to Pink Floyd, The Guess Who, and a number of other early bands I listened to growing up. My brother gravitated toward artists like Chicago and Loggins and Messina, while I leaned more toward the rock culture that was just developing at the time.

You’re originally from Indianapolis. What brought you and your family to Ann Arbor?

Bank of Ann Arbor brought me here. I’d been in the banking business for years, running a bank headquartered in Indianapolis with a hub-and-spoke model, with locations in Lafayette, Kokomo, Logansport, Fort Wayne, and Columbus. The opportunity to come to Bank of Ann Arbor, with a more tightly focused geographic strategy, was appealing. I’d experienced significant growth in my previous role, and I was confident I could come to Ann Arbor and help assemble a strong team to grow the institution. That’s exactly what we’ve been able to accomplish. We’ve hit $3.5 billion in bank assets, our wealth group is now north of $3 billion in assets, and we’ve gone from 40 employees to 325. It’s been a great run since I joined Bank of Ann Arbor, 22 years ago now, in July 2004.

Bank of Ann Arbor has supported UMS and our performances since 1998. What’s your philosophy on how BOAA selects what to support?

It’s been a long history of commitment to the community. It’s not about any one organization or one decision — it goes back to the formation of the bank itself. The bank opened in January 1996, and just two years later, while we were still getting our footing, the commitment was made to UMS. That commitment has only grown since, alongside our support for organizations across health and human services, seniors, youth, homelessness, and healthcare — as well as arts and culture. We cast a wide net, supporting the organizations that help make the Ann Arbor region a better place to live, work, and play. We can use some of our success to support people seeking a better life. That’s part of the DNA of the bank and the people we hire. We’re a very altruistic organization, and our mission is to live by our tagline: “Bank of Ann Arbor Helps.”

Sonic Lunch has become such a beloved summer concert series in downtown Ann Arbor, and it began under your tenure. What inspired you to start it?

When I was at Salin Bank and Trust in Indianapolis, we had a series in a different genre, called Popfest, which was a collaboration between Salin Bank and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Every summer we’d take some of the orchestra members out to the various communities we did business in and put on a summer pops concert. It gave me the sense that a banking institution could give to many different organizations, but there was real benefit to being the presenting sponsor of one signature event or festival.

That was the starting point: Bank of Ann Arbor is an altruistic organization that supports many nonprofits, but I saw an opportunity to do something unique — something that would stand out in the community as a point of differentiation among other corporate citizens. Our management team got behind the idea in 2007, and this is now our 19th year of Bank of Ann Arbor Sonic Lunch. It’s been very successful, and it’s positioned the bank as a positive corporate citizen trying to help make this one of the best communities we can all enjoy.

Bank of Ann Arbor also distinguishes itself with its clever tongue-in-cheek billboards showcasing local organizations and businesses. What’s the process behind those?

That’s a good question — it all started back in 2005. I’d inherited a very generic advertising strategy: it featured bankers, it featured customers, and honestly, you could look at it and ask, is that Bank of Ann Arbor, or ABC Bank, or CDEF Bank? They all looked exactly the same. My friend Ernie Perich, of Perich and Partners — who I met over a hamburger at Knight’s Steakhouse on Dexter-Ann Arbor Road, and whose agency we’ve worked with ever since — brought me a Crain’s magazine where he’d cut out fifteen different bank ads and asked, “Can you tell any of these apart?” Of course, the answer was no. So he and I went on a mission to develop a brand that actually spoke to the community — one that never features a banker, never features a product, never features a rate, and never talks about how great we are.

The thought was simple is better. Everyone talks about being local and being a community bank, but you’ll never hear us say it. Our brand just shows it. That’s allowed us to have a lot of fun with the billboards and be opportunistic, taking advantage of what’s happening around the country, in the economy, or at the university. Every day, we try to bring a smile to somebody’s face. Life is hard and fast-paced, so getting people to read a bank ad and actually smile is really fulfilling.

You’re now Chair of the UMS Board of Directors, but you’ve been involved for many years. How have you seen UMS change and grow over that time?

Any organization that’s going to be successful has to keep evolving, and that involves some level of change. I think back to all the great work Ken Fischer did as the face and leader of UMS — an incredible spokesperson who created so much energy and excitement. Then came the transition to welcoming Matthew VanBesien from the New York Philharmonic, and Matthew’s ability to cultivate new relationships and push UMS into new avenues and new genres has taken things to a whole new level. He’s built a team that executes at an extremely high level. Neither Bank of Ann Arbor nor UMS can be run successfully by just one person. It takes a team that’s focused, aligned, and in sync, that gets out of bed every morning thinking about how to be more successful.

UMS has an incredibly strong foundation built over the years, but you can’t rely on the past. You’ve always got to have an eye to the future, and you’ve got to be willing to take risks. Not every risk pays off, but if you’re never taking one, you’re never really fulfilling the obligation of presenting the best. I could go on about the admiration and respect I have for this organization.

Tim Marshall with U-M President Domenico Grasso and UMS president Matthew VanBesien

Any favorite UMS performance memories you’d be willing to share?

Wow, that’s probably the hardest question — how do you pick one? One Yo-Yo Ma? One Wynton Marsalis? One New York Philharmonic? One Boz Scaggs — what a great show he put on last year at age 81. And now there’s the upcoming concert with Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers. I think back to my growing-up years and songs like “The Way It Is,” “Mandolin Rain,” “Every Little Kiss,” “Look Out Any Window,” and “The Valley Road” — and then the evolution Bruce has had across his career, moving through folk, jazz, bluegrass, and rock, playing with the Grateful Dead for over 100 shows. He’s got that jam-band spirit, right alongside one of my all-time favorites, Dave Matthews Band, and Phish, and that whole culture that Bruce helped craft going back to the mid-80s.

That kind of genre-spanning curiosity is exactly what speaks to UMS. If we only focused on orchestral music, or choral music, or dance, it would be a much more narrowly defined institution — but it’s not. Introducing artists like Boz Scaggs to the lineup in 2025, and now Bruce Hornsby in 2026, is another example of UMS continuing to grow and bring in genres that resonate with people across Southeast Michigan.

When your grandfather is Pedro Infante Cruz — “El Ídolo de México” and the definitive king of the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema — tradition isn’t just a concept; it is your DNA. For decades, the Infante name has carried massive nostalgic weight, evoking an era of sweeping romance, grand horn sections, and the iconic figure of the singing charro.

But regional Mexican music, particularly mariachi and ranchera, has historically been a man’s world. Its roots are firmly planted in machismo, with traditional lyrics that frequently romanticize male dominance, heavy drinking to numb a broken heart, and a distinct, hyper-masculine bravado.

Enter Lupita Infante.

When she makes her UMS debut at Hill Auditorium on Oct 17, she won’t be abandoning the classic song structures that her grandfather helped popularize. Instead, she is quietly flipping the script from the inside out, bringing a bold, female-forward millennial perspective to a genre built on male legacy.

Here is how Lupita Infante is commanding the stage:

Reclaiming the “Serenata”

In traditional Mexican culture, the serenata is a deeply entrenched romantic ritual: a man hires a mariachi band to stand beneath a woman’s window and woo her. In the titular track of her Grammy-nominated album La Serenata, Lupita completely subverts the female gaze. She sings from the perspective of a woman who takes the initiative, hires the musicians, and serenades her male beloved instead. It is a brilliant, joyful reclamation of romantic agency.

The Power Shift of La Corona es Mía

True revolution happens both on the stage and behind the scenes. With her studio album, La Corona es Mía (The Crown is Mine), Lupita stepped into the role of co-producer for the first time. In interviews, she noted that the project was about giving herself “full permission” to trust her own musical instincts rather than deferring to a historically male-dominated studio culture. The title track functions as an anthem of self-determination, proving she is more than ready to claim her own crown.

Rewriting the “Villainess” Narrative

Traditional ranchera songs love a tragic villain, frequently branding any woman who chooses independence or leaves a relationship as cold and unfaithful. Lupita’s songwriting directly challenges these emotional double standards. Tracks like “The Villainess” explore a woman’s right to emotional independence, calling out male hypocrisy with a sharp, modern wit that resonates deeply with a new generation of listeners.

Dressing the Part on Her Own Terms

The revolution is as visual as it is sonic. The traditional traje de charro (the embroidered mariachi suit) is historically rigid and masculine. Lupita has masterfully modified this uniform into elegant, fluid expressions of modern femininity. By taking a suit designed for the patriarchy and tailoring it into a celebration of female power, she challenges visual gender norms the second she walks into the spotlight.

Lupita Infante proves that you can deeply revere your heritage while firmly asserting your own voice. She makes room for the women who have always listened, and who are finally ready to sing along on their own terms.

Experience the future of mariachi live.

Buy Tickets

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

Vocalist Samara Joy made a dazzling sold-out UMS debut in 2024, fresh off her Grammy Win for Best New Artist. Now, we’re delighted to welcome her back on October 9 in our first jazz presentation of the 26/27 performance season.

What inspires Samara Joy? In an interview with Questlove, Samara talks about the artists she studies to the albums she knows by heart. Samara’s musical influences span generations of jazz, soul, gospel, and beyond. As she returns to UMS, here are the songs, singers, and performances that have shaped her artistry.

Her Inspirations

For Samara Joy, inspiration can change “from phrase to phrase.” Sometimes she wants to sing “really legato and dramatic and sort of operatic,” while other moments call for something more on the powerful side. Then there’s the “sophisticated and elegant” quality of her sound.

Those different approaches lead her to a wide range of singers: Sarah Vaughan and Jessye Norman for drama, Aretha Franklin and Mahalia Jackson for power, and Nancy Wilson, Abbey Lincoln, and Betty Carter for elegance.

But when it comes to the singer she most closely patterns her style after, there’s one name that stands above the rest: Carmen McRae.

Samara says McRae “just kind of gets right to the heart of a song,” something she continues to learn from by listening to her “over and over again.” She admires not only McRae’s choices as a vocalist, but also her background as a pianist and her ability to find “the pretty notes” to improvise on a melody without disrupting the song.

The Ultimate Roadtrip

If Samara Joy were making you a mixtape for the open road, what would make the cut? Her picks span jazz, funk, soul, and everything in between.

Best Live Performances

Some of Samara Joy’s favorite live performances go all the way back to childhood. Her first pick is Aretha Franklin at New Jersey Performing Arts Center, which she saw when she was just 11 years old. She remembers sitting “right next to the spotlight”—a nosebleed seat that, in her words, put her close enough to take in the whole experience.

Another standout was the Reunion Tour at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, featuring Kirk Franklin, the Clark Sisters, Yolanda Adams, Marvin Sapp, and more. It was a lineup packed with powerhouse voices, bringing together some of the artists who helped shape gospel and contemporary Christian music. Her most recent pick takes her to one of jazz’s legendary rooms: Christian McBride’s two-week residency at the Village Vanguard.

Across these performances, one thing stands out: Samara is drawn to artists who know how to make a room come alive.

The Album Committed to Memory

For the album Samara Joy has committed to memory from start to finish, she chose Betty Carter’s The Audience with Betty Carter. Recorded live with John Hicks on piano, Curtis Lundy on bass, and Kenny Washington on drums, the album brings together many of the qualities Samara admires most in a musician: strong arrangements, thoughtful song choices, and the freedom to make each performance its own.

There’s a particularly meaningful connection for Samara in hearing Washington on the recording. He was her professor in college, and she has since had the opportunity to perform with him herself. That connection makes an already influential recording feel even closer to home.

Samara says she loves what Carter does with “the arrangements, the songs, the compositions,” and her admiration for Carter is reflected in her own approach to singing. Like Carter, Samara pays close attention to the details of a song while leaving room for improvisation, rhythmic play, and discovery.

From Carmen McRae to Betty Carter, Aretha Franklin to Miles Davis, these are just a few of the sounds that have shaped Samara Joy’s artistry.

Hear her bring those influences to life when she returns to UMS on October 9 at Hill Auditorium.

Buy Tickets

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

Watch Samara’s full interview with Questlove.

Following the raw intensity of BLACK HOLE in UMS’s 24/25 season, dance collective 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’s 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. Pitts’s 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