Hill Auditorium
Joyce DiDonato in Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas
Individual event tickets available 7/28
The always-inventive American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato made her UMS debut in 2017 with a concert opera performance of Handel’s Ariodante, and subsequent appearances have included song recitals, separate appearances with both Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the gospel quartet Kings Return, and a creative program titled Eden with Il Pomo d’Oro, a renowned chamber orchestra that specializes in historically informed performances of Baroque and Classical music.
DiDonato returns with Il Pomo d’Oro and conductor Maxim Emelyanychev for a concert performance of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. While Dido’s famous lament “When I am laid in Earth” has long been featured in Joyce DiDonato’s repertoire, she did not perform the complete opera in its entirety until 2024. This limited concert tour also features American tenor and U-M alumnus Nicholas Phan in the role of Aeneas. The first half of the program features Giacomo Carissimi’s Jephte, a rarely performed Baroque masterpiece for tenor, soprano, continuo orchestra, and choir.
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Joyce DiDonato in Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas
Hill Auditorium
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Individual event tickets available 7/28
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Maxim Emelyanychev inspires a true spirit of adventure among his collaborators, shaping performances that pulse with shared energy, spontaneity, and imagination. Renowned for his infectious enthusiasm, he brings out the individuality of each musician while forging a distinctive and compelling collective sound.
Since 2019, Maxim has served as Principal Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He is also Chief Conductor of the period-instrument ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro and, from the 2025/26 season, takes up the position of Principal Guest Conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
His artistic partnership with Joyce DiDonato has been widely acclaimed and has received several major awards, including the Gramophone Award 2017 for their recording In War and Peace: Harmony through Music, as well as the Gramophone Opera Award 2020 for their recording of Handel’s Agrippina.
Multi-Grammy Award winner and 2018 Olivier Award winner for Outstanding Achievement in Opera, Kansas-born Joyce DiDonato entrances audiences across the globe, and has been proclaimed “perhaps the most potent female singer of her generation” by The New Yorker. With a voice “nothing less than 24-carat gold” according to The Times, Joyce has towered at the top of the industry both as a performer, a producer, and a fierce advocate for the arts. With a repertoire spanning over four centuries, a varied and highly acclaimed discography, and industry-leading projects, her artistry has defined what it is to be a singer in the 21st century.
Recent highlights include Handel’s Theodora for the Teatro Real in Madrid and a highly acclaimed European recital tour with performances at Teatro alla Scala, Staatsoper Berlin, Athens Megaron, and Palau de la Música de Valencia. Joyce continued her celebrated musical partnership with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and made debut appearances with the Norwegian National Opera Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In December 2024, Joyce toured the United States with Dallas-based a cappella group Kings Return with a festive programme entitled ‘Kings Re-Joyce’. An intensive spring residency at the Konzerthaus Dortmund featured the world premiere of ‘Another Eve’, a song cycle by Rachel Portman, as well as her concert debut in Handel’s Jephtha alongside Il Pomo d’Oro.
Nicholas Phan is a Grammy Award-winning lyric tenor, curator, and educator, celebrated for his expressive artistry and versatility across a wide-ranging repertoire spanning 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. In 2010 he co-founded Art Song Chicago to promote art song and vocal chamber music, where he serves as artistic director.
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, which has been awarded by the Recording Academy since 1959. His other solo albums Illuminations, A Painted Tale, Still Fall the Rain, and Winter Words, made many “best of” lists, including those of The New York Times, New Yorker, Chicago Tribune, WQXR, and the Boston Globe. Phan’s continually growing discography also includes Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with Pierre Boulez and the Chicago Symphony, as well as recordings of the complete songs of Rebecca Clarke, Berlioz’ Roméo et Juliette and Stravinsky’s Canticum Sacrum with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, Joel Puckett’s There Was A Child Went Forth with the London Symphony Orchestra and Joseph Young, Scarlatti’s La gloria di primavera and Handel’s Joseph and his Brethren with Philharmonia Baroque and Nicholas McGegan, an album of Bach’s secular cantatas with Masaaki Suzuki and Bach Collegium Japan, Bach’s St. John Passion (in which he sings both the Evangelist and the tenor arias) with Apollo’s Fire, and the world premiere recordings of two orchestral song cycles: The Old Burying Ground by Evan Chambers and Elliott Carter’s A Sunbeam’s Architecture.
Lauded by The Guardian for her “dark and focused” voice, “sensational coloratura” and “spectacular singing” and by The Times for her “fierce, indeed terrifying, cane-swishing” characterisations, Beth Taylor is one of today’s most electrifying young mezzo-sopranos.
Over the last several years, the mezzo has made a number of important debuts. In summer 2022, Beth made her acclaimed debut at the Glyndebourne Festival as Bradamante in a new production of Alcina and as Cornelia in the well-loved revival of Giulio Cesare. Following her Deutsche Oper Berlin debut as La Cieca in La Gioconda, she returned to this theatre to make her role debuts as Arsace in in a new production of Rossini’s Semiramide, as Erda in Das Rheingold, Erste Norn in Götterdämmerung and Schwertleite in Die Walküre in Stefan Herheim’s new Ring cycle under the musical direction of Sir Donald Runnicles. Her recent debut in the title role of Cenerentola with the Opéra de Lorraine received huge accolades for her “bold, unique and polished interpretation of an otherwise not immediately obvious role for her voice-type” and “radiant coloratura”.
Celebrated for the expressive power of his voice and adventurous musical choices, British countertenor Hugh Cutting is redefining the possibilities of his voice type on both opera and recital stages. A BBC New Generation Artist (2022–24) and the first countertenor to win the Kathleen Ferrier Award, he combines luminous vocal artistry with an instinct for musical storytelling. In the 2025/26 season, he makes house debuts as Arsace (Partenope) at English National Opera, Unulfo (Rodelinda) at Santa Fe Opera, and Tolomeo (Giulio Cesare) at The Grange Festival. He received the Rising Star Award at the 2025 International Opera Awards, and has been shortlisted for the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award.
Korean soprano, Song Hee Lee, is an Artist Diploma candidate at The Juilliard School, studying under Darrell Babidge.
In the 2025–26 season, Song Hee made her debuts with Les Arts Florissants in concerts led by William Christie, as well as with Les Musiciens du Louvre under the direction of Marc Minkowski, both on tour throughout France and Spain. Additional concert engagements include her debut with the Cecilia Chorus of New York in Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall and with the American Classical Orchestra in Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate. She will also make her North Carolina Opera debut as in Cendrillon (La Fée). She looks forward to her debut with Il Pomo d’Oro on a North American tour with Joyce DiDonato.
Winner of the First Prize at the “Cavalli–Monteverdi” International Competition in Cremona (2023) and at the 13th “Provenzale” Competition of the Pietà de’ Turchini Association in Naples (2024), as well as the Second Prize at the 15th edition of the “Cesti” International Baroque Opera Competition of the Innsbruck Festival (2024), where she also received the Special Prize “Accademia in Concerto.”
She began her Baroque career in 2022 with a concert alongside Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante, a debut that immediately attracted the attention of the musical world. Since then, she has performed on numerous prestigious stages. In 2024 she collaborated with Il Pomo d’Oro under the baton of Francesco Corti, singing Euridice and La Musica in Monteverdi’s Orfeo at the Monteverdi Festival in Cremona.
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