2025-2026 Season

UMS’s 25/26 Season opens with Verdi’s monumental Requiem, performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the UMS Choral Union, and DSO music director Jader Bignamini, with a stellar international cast of soloists.

Interweaving immersive performance and audio documentary with Indigenous knowledge and voices, this mesmerizing new theatrical work invites audiences into ritualized listening, and to feel the sound vibrations emitted by the surrounding water, stones, copper, and tree trunks.

The prolific Chicago-based drummer, composer, and producer Makaya McCraven is a cultural synthesizer with a unique gift for blending past, present, and future into jazz-rooted 21st-century folk music.

The company creates dance at its most essential: visceral, powerful, thought-provoking, and transformative. Their meticulous performances, unmatched for precision, innovation, and inspiring beauty, will be on display in two different programs for their UMS debut. Each performance features a company of 20 dancers in works by some of today’s leading contemporary dance-theater choreographers.

Friday Program

Pieces of Tomorrow (Medhi Walerski)
PASSING (Choreography by Johan Inger)

Saturday Program

Obsidian (Bobbi Jene Smith / Or Schraiber)
Silent Tides (Medhi Walerski)
BOLERO X (Shahar Binyamin)

The Belcea Quartet performs in Ann Arbor for the first time in more than a decade, opening the 25/26 Chamber Arts Series with an evening of masterworks by Webern, Mozart, and Beethoven.

Program

Anton Webern Five Movements for String Quartet, Op. 5
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Quartet No. 19 in C Major, K. 465 (“Dissonance”)
Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet No. 16 in F Major. Op. 135

London’s Philharmonia Orchestra returns to Hill Auditorium, with both the exciting young Finnish conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali and Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson making their UMS debuts.

Program

Gabriela Ortiz Si el oxígeno fuera verde
Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 73 (“Emperor”)
Dmitri Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 in d minor, Op. 47

One of the most celebrated artists in American history, the brilliant and always innovative Herbie Hancock returns to Hill Auditorium in a limited tour that promises to bring his signature mix of freewheeling, thought-provoking, and mind-expanding jazz and funk.

The Imani Winds have led both a revolution and an evolution of the wind quintet through their dynamic playing and adventurous programming. This collaboration features composer and percussionist Andy Akiho, a trailblazing Pulitzer Prize finalist and five-time Grammy-nominated composer whose bold works surpass preconceived boundaries of Western classical music.

Boz Scaggs continues to captivate audiences with his polished yet gritty voice, nearly 50 years after his hit 1976 album Silk Degrees became part of the decade’s musical fabric.

One of the foremost violinists of our time, Gil Shaham returns to UMS for the first time in a decade,  performing an all-Beethoven program with his longtime recital partner Akira Eguchi.

Program

All-Beethoven Program
Violin Sonata No. 4 in a minor, Op. 23
Violin Sonata No. 5 in F Major, Op. 24 (“Spring”)
Violin Sonata No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47 (“Kreutzer”)

One of the world’s most adventurous and versatile chamber ensembles, the Danish String Quartet returns with a unique program that includes works by Stravinsky, Beethoven, and film composer and Radiohead founding member Jonny Greenwood, plus arrangements of traditional folk tunes and original compositions that trace musical pathways across the North Sea.

Program

Igor Stravinsky Three Pieces for String Quartet
Jonny Greenwood Suite from There Will Be Blood
Danish String Quartet Traditional arrangements and compositions
Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major, Op. 130 with the Große Fuge

Start the holiday season with an unforgettable Thanksgiving weekend concert featuring GRAMMY-winning quartet Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.

Handel’s timeless masterpiece has enraptured audiences for centuries with its sublime beauty and profound spirituality. Led by conductor Scott Hanoian, Messiah is brought to life each year by friends and colleagues from the community who perform with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra and the UMS Choral Union.

Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in an all-Brahms program, joined by violinist Veronika Eberle and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras.

Program

All-Brahms Program
Tragic Overture, Op. 81
Double Concerto in a minor, Op. 102
Symphony No. 1 in c minor, Op. 68

Two award-winning Belgian companies come together for this stunning visual performance combining puppetry, video, mime, and clowning. Between dreamlike fiction and stark reality, Dimanche paints a witty and tender portrait of humanity surprised by the uncontrollable forces of nature, observing the absurdity of keeping up appearances amidst an ecological collapse.

Martha Graham is recognized as a primal artistic force of the 20th century. Her company celebrates its milestone 100th anniversary season with three unique programs that exemplify Graham’s timeless and uniquely American style of dance.

After their roaring UMS debut in 2023, México’s Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería and conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto return with trumpet soloist Pacho Flores.

Program

Silvestre Revueltas Sensemayá
Franz Joseph Haydn Trumpet Concerto in E-flat Major
Paquito D’Rivera Venezuelan Concerto
Alberto Ginastera Suite from Panambí, Op. 1a
Alberto Ginastera Ollantay, Op. 17
Alberto Ginastera Dances from Estancia, Op. 8a

Led by the celebrated vocalist Julia Keefe (Nez Perce), this 16-piece ensemble of Native musicians highlights an often overlooked but rich history of Indigenous bands that existed on reservations across the country in the early 20th century, and it both deepens and challenges our understanding of the “uniquely American” art form known as jazz.

Wynton Marsalis and his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will be joined by orchestral musicians from the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance, in a preview performance of Marsalis’s new Symphony No. 5.

Step into a world of rhythm and soul as the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, led by the iconic trumpeter and cultural ambassador Wynton Marsalis, brings their unparalleled mastery to Hill Auditorium. The venerable ensemble takes the stage for a journey through the heart of jazz, blending classic big band energy with bold, fresh improvisation.

Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti makes her UMS debut with an ensemble featuring guitar, accordion, and cello performing arrangements of popular classical works.

Program

Ernest Bloch “Prayer” from From Jewish Life
Manuel Ponce Estrellita
Pablo de Sarasate Carmen Fantasy, Op. 25
Peter Maxwell Davies Farewell to Stromness
Additional works to be announced

Violinist James Ehnes is joined by pianist Inon Barnatan, violist Jonathan Vinocour, and cellist Raphael Bell for a program of Gabriel Fauré’s piano quartets. Among his best-known chamber works, Fauré’s piano quartets are exquisitely crafted and ideal vehicles for these four superb artists and musical soulmates.

The esteemed Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, under the direction of Tõnu Kaljuste, celebrates the famed Estonian composer Arvo Pärt and the indelible mark he has left on choral singing and classical music over his 90 years.

The year 1926 saw the birth of two towering figures who reshaped the landscape of modern music: Miles Davis and John Coltrane. In this limited tour, two of today’s most visionary musicians come together to honor their legacies in a concert that is more than just a centennial tribute, but a living, breathing continuation of their spirit.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra returns to Hill Auditorium for the first time in more than a decade, under the leadership of their new music director, Klaus Mäkelä.

Program

Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92
Hector Berlioz Symphonie fantastique

The Berliner Philharmoniker’s Karajan Akademie serves as the training ground for both the next generation of musicians for the Berliner Philharmoniker, but also for orchestras around the world. This concert, part of a larger residency that will include campus engagement and learning activities, will feature several Akademie scholars alongside Philharmoniker musicians in an evening of Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Bartók.

Program

Ludwig van Beethoven Septet in E-Flat Major for WInds and Strings, Op. 20
Dmitri Shostakovich Prelude and Scherzo for String Octet, Op. 11
Béla Bartók Divertimento for String Orchestra, Sz. 113

Legendary fiddler Martin Hayes leads a wide-ranging, family-friendly concert celebration a few days after St. Patrick’s Day, featuring an exciting variety of special guests, traditional sean-nós singing and dancing, and modern takes on Irish traditions.

Siblings Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Isata Kanneh-Mason bring their extraordinary musical chemistry to a program that bridges Romantic lyricism and 20th-century innovation. 

Program

Felix Mendelssohn Cello Sonata No. 1 in B-flat Major, Op. 45
Nadia Boulanger Three Pieces for Cello and Piano
Robert Schumann Five Pieces in Folk Style, Op. 102
Rebecca Clarke Sonata for Viola (or Violoncello) and Piano

Five-time Grammy Award winner Angélique Kidjo returns to Ann Arbor for the first time since 2020 with her powerhouse voice, electrifying stage presence, and joyous music.

A century after the publication of The Great Gatsby, Elevator Repair Service’s GATZ comes to Ann Arbor after its sold-out run at New York’s Public Theater in November 2024. Told over a single 6½-hour production (plus dinner break), GATZ is not just a retelling of the Gatsby story, but an enactment of the novel in which Fitzgerald’s masterpiece is cleverly delivered word for word.

Brooklyn-born, Basel-based choreographer Jeremy Nedd delves into the complexities of dance ownership and cultural appropriation, taking inspiration from a rapper’s copyright infringement lawsuit against a video game company.

The superlative ensemble returns in a program that includes a UMS co-commission by University of Michigan alumna Clarice Assad, plus works by Franz Joseph Haydn and Claude Debussy.

Program

Franz Joseph Haydn String Quartet No. 59 in g minor, Op. 74, No. 3 (“Rider”)
Clarice Assad New Work (UMS co-commission)
Claude Debussy String Quartet in g minor, Op. 10 (L.91)

In a rare concert performance and evening of master piano works for the 21st century, 10 outstanding pianists will perform all 20 of Philip Glass’s études on the Hill Auditorium stage.

MacArthur Genius Grant recipient and Pulitzer Prize winner Rhiannon Giddens has made a singular, iconic career out of stretching her brand of folk music into just about every field imaginable. Join us as the U-M Arts Initiative’s inaugural artist-in-residence takes the Hill Auditorium stage with her latest musical exploration.

Short in length but limitless in imagination, all 24 of Claude Debussy’s magical Preludes for piano are performed by one of their supreme living interpreters, Jean-Yves Thibaudet.