Performances

The Karajan-Akademie of the Berliner Philharmoniker 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
Julia Wolfe Big Reeling
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.

We regret to inform audiences that concert has been canceled. We are in the process of notifying ticket buyers with options to refund or donate their tickets.

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 8-hour production (including 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.

Texas-based songwriter and guitarist James McMurtry is a supremely insightful and inventive storyteller who crafts searingly honest lyrics set against a rock/Americana backdrop. His Ypsilanti Freighthouse debut draws from his 2025 album The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy.

This special interactive performance for families invites you to explore music and dance from the Arab World. Led by Chloé Gray of Ypsilanti’s Fun Girl Dance Company and music educator and oud player Raphique Barakat, the event will focus on the dabke, a traditional line-and-circle folk dance featuring energetic stomping, jumping, and kicking to rhythmic music.

In this collaboration with iFFY, filmmakers who live or work in Washtenaw County will be invited to create a series of short silent films, all of which will be set to live, improvised music.

Known as “Detroit’s Queen of the Blues,” Thornetta Davis has captivated audiences across the United States and abroad for over 30 years, sharing stages with legendary Blues and R&B greats including Ray Charles, Etta James, and Buddy Guy.

The spring concert of the U-M Life Sciences Orchestra will feature the 150-member UMS Choral Union, and special guest solo vocalists, performing a stirring oratorio by English composer Edward Elgar.

Ypsilanti, it’s time to take the stage! Open Mic Night at the Freighthouse is back, and we want to hear from you.

Nidia Góngora brings the soul of Colombia’s Pacific coast to the stage, with a powerful, earthy, and luminous voice that carries centuries of Afro-Colombian tradition in this dance floor-ready event performed with marimba and percussion.

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 NEXUS (UMS co-commission)
Claude Debussy String Quartet in g minor, Op. 10 (L.91)

Joe Reilly is a singer/songwriter, social worker, and Michigan educator who writes songs from his heart. The Italian, Irish, and Native American (Cherokee) singer draws from his children’s albums of environmental and community songs in this concert for families. After the performance, families are invited to stay for a hands-on activity.

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.

At this free community event, meet the moment through music by composers Jessie Montgomery, Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, and more. Voce Velata — a local youth-led chamber ensemble — joins professional musicians to explore cultural idioms that are in dialogue with both our past and present.

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.

Join us at the Freighthouse for two hours of beginner line dancing with Ashley, set to country hits.

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.

Detroit’s Ian Fink brings a next-gen jazz combo to the intimate Ypsilanti Freighthouse.

Beyond This Point, composed of Chicago-based collaborative percussion/arts duo Adam Rosenblatt and John Corkill, straddles the disciplines of music, theater, and science through gesture and ingenuity.

One of the most respected and creatively insatiable musicians performing today, Bruce Hornsby has continually redefined his sound since his breakthrough album The Way It Is.