Performances

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 trio Adam Rosenblatt, John Corkill, and AJ Morrissey, straddles the disciplines of music, theater, and science through gesture and ingenuity.

The Cleveland Orchestra and music director Franz Welser-Möst return to Ann Arbor for the first time in 15 years, opening the 26/27 season with works by Liszt, Martinů, and Brahms.

Program

Franz Liszt Orpheus
Bohuslav Martinů Symphony No. 2, H. 295
Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73

Experience the musical legend’s brilliant piano playing and electrifying, genre-blurring sound that moves effortlessly between rock, jazz, folk, and beyond.

After the jaw-dropping 2025 presentation of BLACK HOLE, Shamel Pitts | TRIBE returns with its newest work, Marks of Red, an Afrofuturistic meditation dance piece on featuring the viewpoints of six women.

Jazz sensation and six-time Grammy award winner Samara Joy returns to Hill Auditorium after her sold-out 2024 UMS debut.

Mexican American singer Lupita Infante brings a fresh, modern voice to traditional mariachi and ranchera, carrying forward the legacy of her family while redefining it for a new generation.

The Sphinx Virtuosi celebrate our country’s ever-evolving story through newly commissioned works and reimagined classics that give voice to our shared ideals and diverse perspectives. American mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges joins the Sphinx Virtuosi for a bold, new song cycle by Damien Geter.

As part of the leadup to our 150th season in 28/29, UMS is commissioning a new, evening-length dance collaboration with New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns and co-choreographers and dancers Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber.

2021 International Chopin Piano Competition winner Bruce Liu makes his UMS debut with a powerful recital program that includes masterworks by Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Debussy, and more.

György Ligeti Etude No. 4: Fanfares
Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 14 in c-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2 (“Moonlight”)
Frédéric Chopin Nocturnes, Op. 27, Nos. 1 and 2
Maurice Ravel Alborada del Gracioso (from Miroirs)
Claude Debussy Rêverie, L. 68
Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 21 in C Major, Op. 53 (“Waldstein”)
Federico Mompou Glossa sobre Au clair de la lune
Isaac Albéniz “El Puerto” from Iberia
Franz Liszt Rhapsodie espagnole, S. 254, R. 90

Acclaimed guitarist Julian Lage joins forces with bassist Jorge Roeder, keyboardist John Medeski, and drummer Kenny Wollesen for a dynamic quartet that blends jazz, folk, and beyond into spontaneous, deeply collaborative music.

Jason Vieaux joins the Escher Quartet for a program of rarely heard music written for string quartet and guitar.

Sergei Prokofiev String Quartet No. 2 in F Major, Op. 92
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco Guitar Quintet, Op. 143
Jorge Morel Danza Brasilera
Jason Vieaux Tidal Pools
J.S. Bach Prelude in E-flat Major, BWV 998
Agustín Barrios Vals No. 4 in G Major
Luigi Boccherini Guitar Quintet in D Major, G. 448 (“Fandango”)

The Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, UMS Choral Union, and outstanding soloists perform Mozart’s final composition, his Requiem Mass, widely considered one of his most sublime achievements.

Following his UMS debut last season alongside the Imani Winds, composer and percussionist Andy Akiho returns with his steelpan and the Brooklyn-based ensemble Sandbox Percussion.

Equal parts parody, performance art, and masterclass in comedic tension, the Jack Tucker Comedy Standup Show is the misguided brainchild of Zach Zucker, a performer who is celebrated for blending virtuosic clowning with razor-sharp satire.

Led by conductor Scott Hanoian and brought to life each year by friends and colleagues throughout the community who perform with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra and the UMS Choral Union, Handel’s Messiah returns to celebrate the season’s true meaning.

Legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma reunites with pianist Emanuel Ax for an evening of masterful collaboration, celebrating decades of shared artistry and musical connection.

Isidore String Quartet and clarinetist Anthony McGill return together to perform quintets by Brahms and Mozart, and a new piece by U-M alumnus James Lee III.

Johannes Brahms Clarinet Quintet in b minor, Op. 115
James Lee III Humanity’s Essential Gems
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K. 581

Watch Me Walk is a hilarious dark, biting, and compassionate new play about disability, pity, injustice, family mythologies, and the absurdities of the American health care system.

The C4 Trío, a groundbreaking Venezuelan ensemble, redefines the cuatro. Led by virtuoso Héctor Molina, the group blends folk roots with jazz, Latin, and pop influences to create a uniquely rich and versatile sound.

Created by Ali Chahrour and inspired by true stories of survival and resistance, When I Saw the Sea is a powerful new theater work that confronts Lebanon’s kafala system — a structure that binds migrant domestic workers to their employers and enables widespread exploitation, abuse, and erasure.

Members of the Berlin Philharmonic brass section join together with celebrated American organist Paul Jacobs for a special Hill Auditorium concert.

With its new cellist, Mihai Mirica, joining the ensemble following the retirement of founding member András Fejér, the Takács Quartet returns with pianist Jeremy Denk.

Joyce DiDonato returns with Il Pomo d’Oro and conductor Maxim Emelyanychev for a concert performance of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, also featuring tenor and U-M alumnus Nicholas Phan 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.

Gregory Porter and his unique blend of jazz, soul, and gospel return to Ann Arbor for the first time since his 2014 debut.

Conductor Scott Hanoian leads two works by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams that have not been performed on a UMS program in over 50 years. Soprano Christine Goerke and baritone Norman Garrett join for Britten’s Sea Symphony, inspired by the sea poems from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.

Australian comedian Sam Kissajukian transforms a deeply personal journey into 300 Paintings, a critically acclaimed show blending comedy and visual art to explore Bipolar disorder, creativity, and recovery.

Bach specialist Masaaki Suzuki returns to conduct one of the composer’s great masterpieces with the English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Choir.

Oscar nominated filmmaker Sam Green joins forces with environmentalist Rebecca Solnit for a study of humankind’s relationship to our Earthly cohabitants, with live narration and music.

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

Program

Ludwig van Beethoven Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61
Dmitri Shostakovich Symphony No. 8 in c minor, Op. 65

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

Program

Elizabeth Maconchy Nocturne
Edward Elgar Cello Concerto in e minor, Op. 85
Richard Strauss Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40

Pianist Seong-Jin Cho returns to Ann Arbor following his remarkable all-Ravel performance in 2024. This wide-ranging program includes two works by Prokofiev, whose ten pieces from Romeo and Juliet were arranged for piano even before the full ballet premiered.

Program

Jörg Widmann Sonatina facile
Sergei Prokofiev Ten Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75
W.A. Mozart Fantasia in c minor, K. 396 (completed by Maximilian Stadler)
Sergei Prokofiev Piano Sonata No. 8 in B-flat Major, Op. 84

Violinist and early music specialist Théotime Langlois de Swarte returns with lute player Thomas Dunford, celebrating Baroque works from their album, The Mad Lover.

A founding member of the experimental 1960s collaborative Judson Dance Theater, choreographer Lucinda Childs is known for her close association with composer Philip Glass, including his monumental Einstein on the Beach. This exciting performance features a landmark new work for 10 dancers, with music that was originally composed for but never used in Einstein, and is being created in celebration of Philip Glass’s 90th birthday.

Piano superstar Yuja Wang returns to UMS for the first time in nearly a decade with her charismatic artistry, emotional honesty, and captivating stage presence.

Unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of her artistry as both a singer and an actress, Audra McDonald returns to UMS for her ninth appearance since her debut in 2000.

An all-star quartet of top orchestral musicians—including members of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and New York Philharmonic—unites to bring world-class artistry and a shared passion for chamber music to audiences.

Acclaimed actor Wendell Pierce narrates Wynton Marsalis’s 2019 masterpiece The Ever Fonky Lowdown, combining droll commentary with soulful, big band-backed vocals.

The 26/27 season comes to a close with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and his final as artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, the end of an era.

“This could be the definition of leaving it all on the floor … a shatteringly powerful show of street dance choreography and techno beats.” (The Guardian)