“My hope is that in silence, we can find peace. And in that peace, we might be able to ignite some light and hope. Wishing you a deep sense of peace as we go into the New Year.” —JoyceDiDonato

Enjoy this very special arrangement of “Silent Night” performed by Joyce DiDonato and Àlex Garrobé. Joyce’s #SingForToday series is co-produced by UMS and Princeton University Concerts.

While our iconic venues at the University of Michigan are silent, we are here for you online. Enjoy our 60-second video tribute to our performance spaces, and sign up for updates on exciting UMS Digital Presentations, new events, and changes to the season.

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UMS’s Michael Kondziolka (VP, Programming and Production) and Mary Roeder (Programming Manager) joined No Safety Net artists Javaad Alipoor, Lee Minora, and Tina Satter at the Trotter Multicultural Center at the University of Michigan, for a discussion of theater as an artistic medium for social change.

UMS and the DTE Energy Foundation are pleased to honor Scarlett Middle School band teacher Caroline Fitzgerald as the 2019 DTE Energy Foundation Educator of the Year!

The award recognizes and celebrates educators who value the importance of arts education and create a culture for the arts to flourish in their school communities. Ms. Fitzgerald’s focus on the arts has extended beyond her work in the music classroom with a passion that permeates throughout the entire school, the Ann Arbor Public School system, and the greater community. She demonstrates an incredible investment in her students and believes that through music she can support her students becoming confident, self-assured young adults. Her work at Scarlett highlights the important role of music instruction in supporting students’ overall engagement and academic success.

Ms. Fitzgerald was nominated through a public nomination process. As part of the award, UMS will provide complimentary tickets and transportation for Ms. Fitzgerald to bring one class to a UMS School Day Performance next season, additional complimentary tickets to a mainstage UMS performance, and a $200 award honorarium. UMS will also work with Ms. Fitzgerald to bring a UMS touring artist to Scarlett for a class visit or school assembly.

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“UMS’s 2019/20 season was conceived with an eye toward the familiar and the disruptive, the traditional and the uncommon, and the emotional and the provocative — sometimes even within a single work or performance.”

— UMS President Matthew VanBesien

Welcome to UMS’s 141st season

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2019/20 Season Tickets

Press Resources

View Full Press Release (PDF)

View Chronological List of Events (PDF)

Season Highlights

No Safety Net 2.0 is three-week festival of four provocative theater productions that foster timely conversations around topical social themes.

Yo-Yo Ma returns in a program with Emanuel Ax and Leonidas Kavakos, performing Beethoven Piano Trios.

The season launches with a performance by jazz/funk collective Snarky Puppy.

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra and UMS Choral Union will perform the live film score to a screening of Amadeus.

Starting in 2019/20 and for the next few seasons, UMS is pleased to renew a focus on artists, institutions, and ensembles from the Arab World — including Tania El Khoury’s As Far As My Fingertips Take Me and a performance by the Tarek Yamani Trio.

Two Swan Lakes. American Ballet Theatre returns to the Detroit Opera House in a co-presentation with Michigan Opera Theatre, and Irish dance-theatre company Teaċ Daṁsa makes its UMS debut in an acclaimed contemporary and dark deconstruction of the classic tale.

The biennial UMS Song Remix series returns with a focus on the art of the song in its diverse forms — including a co-commission of Zauberland with international partners.

UMS will present a co-commissioned work by Andrew Norman in a “composer’s evening” with yMusic, also featuring music by contemporary luminaries such as Caroline Shaw, Michigan natives Andrew Norman and Shara Nova (also known as My Brightest Diamond), Missy Mazzoli, and Gabriella Smith.

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How to Order Season Tickets

Current season ticketholders can renew their series with priority seating starting Monday, April 15 at 9 am.

Season Tickets go on sale to the general public Monday, April 22 at 9 am. Choose five or more concerts and save when you create your own Series:You package, or select from one of UMS’s 10 fixed series packages, specially curated by genre.

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Individual event tickets will go on sale Wednesday, August 7.

Performance and live webcast from March 16, 2019 in Hill Auditorium.

Eric Owens, bass-baritone
Lawrence Brownlee, tenor
Myra Huang, piano

Full Program

Mozart “Se vuol ballare” from Le Nozze di Figaro (Mr. Owens)
Mozart “Il mio tesoro” from Don Giovanni (Mr. Brownlee)
Verdi “Infelice! E tuo credevi” from Ernani (Mr. Owens)
Donizetti “Voglio dire, lo stupendo elisir” from L’elisir d’amore (Mr. Brownlee, Mr. Owens)
Donizetti “Una furtiva lagrima” from L’elisir d’amore (Mr. Brownlee)
Faust “Le veau d’or” from Faust (Mr. Owens)
Donizetti “Ah! mes amis, quel jour de fête!” from La fille du regiment (Mr. Brownlee)
Bizet “Au fond du temple saint” from Les Pêcheurs de Perles (Mr. Brownlee, Mr. Owens)

— Intermission —
(featuring interviews with great American tenor George Shirley and the evening’s soloists)

Traditional Spirituals
arr. Damien Sneed “All Night, All Day” (Mr. Brownlee)
arr. Hall Johnson “Deep River” (Mr. Owens)
arr. Damien Sneed “Come By Here” (Mr. Brownlee)
“Give Me Jesus” (Mr. Owens)
arr. Margaret Bonds/Craig Terry “He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands” (Mr. Brownlee, Mr. Owens)

American Popular Songs
Harold Vicars and Clarence Lucas, Arr. Terry “Song of Songs” (Mr. Brownlee, Mr. Owens)
Harry Warren and Al Dubin, Arr. Terry “Lulu’s Back In Town” (Mr. Brownlee)
Frank Loesser and Louis Alter, Arr. Terry “Dolores” (Mr. Brownlee, Mr. Owens)
Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard Rogers “Some Enchanted Evening” from South Pacific (Mr. Owens)
Vincent Youmans “Through the Years” (Mr. Brownlee, Mr. Owens)

Gospel Favorites
“I Don’t Feel No Ways Tired” (Mr. Brownlee)
“Every Time I Feel the Spirit” (Mr. Brownlee, Mr. Owens)

The University Musical Society (UMS) and the DTE Energy Foundation are pleased to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. High School Teacher Denise Allen and Thurston Elementary School Teacher Yael Rothfeld as the 2018 DTE Energy Foundation Educators of the Year.

The award recognizes and celebrates excellence in arts education, lifting up the importance of the arts as a way of teaching 21st-century knowledge and skills, including creativity, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and familiarity with local and global cultures. The recipients were nominated through a public nomination process. The DTE Energy Foundation is sponsoring the awards as part of its annual grant support for UMS Youth Education Programs.

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A dance educator at Martin Luther King, Jr. High School in Detroit, Denise Allen is a noted champion for the inclusion of the “A for Arts” in STEAM. Ms. Allen runs one of the few performing arts programs that has remained within Detroit Public Schools throughout its years of emergency management and one of just a handful of dance programs offered for credit at high schools throughout Southeast Michigan. She organizes after-school rehearsals, special evening and weekend performances, and master classes with guest artists, as well as student fundraisers that provide students with opportunities to develop leadership skills. Several of Ms. Allen’s students have gone on to study with professional dance companies, but the discipline, confidence, and focus instilled in learning the craft has also led her students to success in academics and other areas of life.

Ms. Allen’s commitment to inclusivity in her program is especially laudable. To allow any student who wishes to participate the opportunity to do so, she arranges transportation, provides healthy snacks, and purchases costumes and supplies for students who are in need. She also invites autistic students to her dance performances at no cost, encouraging the use of the movement, rhythm, and sound embedded in dance as both physical and communicative therapy. She has made a big difference in the lives of young male students, encouraging them to explore and enjoy their interest in dance and to enjoy it without fear of shame from their male peers.

Yael Rothfeld has been a vocal music educator at Thurston Elementary School in Ann Arbor for 15 years. Ms. Rothfeld works with students in Preschool through Fifth Grade, developing her curriculum in a way that demonstrates to her students the importance of music throughout the world, in her students’ own communities, and in the life of their school. She organizes regular performances for her students, giving them an opportunity to set and work toward specific goals, and to use music as a powerful tool to communicate around ideas and issues that are relevant to their everyday lives.

Ms. Rothfeld continuously develops new programs and ideas for her students so they can grow through hands-on experiences with different instruments and techniques. In 2015, she launched a successful fundraiser to purchase ukuleles — an instrument that lends itself particularly well to teaching melody, harmony, singing, improvising, and storytelling — for Thurston to add another layer of music to the school curriculum. She also leverages resources offered by regional arts organizations to further her own professional development, bringing new ideas and techniques back to her classroom and taking students out of the school to experience live performances by professional artists.

The DTE Energy Foundation is sponsoring the awards as part of its annual grant support to UMS Youth Education Programs.

View Full Press Release

A star flutist only comes around once or twice in a generation — and it’s fair to say that this generation’s strongest candidate is the Swiss-born Emmanuel Pahud. We sat down with the Berlin Philharmonic principal flutist last year about his upcoming Ann Arbor recital.

Emmanuel Pahud performs in Ann Arbor on Wednesday, February 14, 2018.

Artists Becca Blackwell and Jennifer Kidwell chat with each other about their work and why they are excited to be part of No Safety Net.

Learn more about the No Safety Net theater festival, taking place in Ann Arbor January 16 – February 3.

As part of the UMS residency with New York Philharmonic, Jamie and Jessica, students from the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance, performed on stage with the orchestra at Hill Auditorium.

Go behind-the-scenes from audition to performance in this video.

Learn more about the 2017-18 season concerts and residency experience.

One celebration. 24 hours. One generous match.
Give to inspire students of all ages.

Today is Giving Blueday, and we’re seeking to raise $100,000 to support creative learning experiences at UMS that connect students of all ages with innovative performing artists from around the globe.

Make a Gift

For 24 hours, you can double the impact of your gift.

U-M alums, who support UMS, have made a generous commitment to match 1:1 all new gifts to support student experiences at UMS made online on Giving Blueday — not only new gifts from new donors, but also increased giving from those who already support UMS annually. And of course we welcome all gifts from loyal UMS supporters to help us reach our goal that day!

Join us and thousands across the University of Michigan community to support extraordinary student experiences at Michigan.

Your gift to UMS on Giving Blueday will support:

UMS 21st Century Artist Internships

Each summer, UMS offers paid summer internships that give undergraduate students real-world experience, working behind the scenes with professional artists and ensembles from around the world that UMS will present the following season. When students return to campus, they help welcome the visiting artists to Ann Arbor and host a variety of educational and community engagement activities for their peers on campus.

In this video, 21st Century Intern Johnny Mathews shares his experience with Urban Bush Women in New York City, which UMS presents in January, 2018.

Discounted Student Tickets

College students account for 20% of the UMS audience. To ensure they have access to the best and most innovative artists from around the globe, UMS provides $12, and $20 student tickets to our mainstage performances — reflecting a 67% effective discount and over $420,000 in generous ticket subsidies.

Pictured: students at a January dance performance with Igor & Moreno that surprised and delighted audiences.

UMS Engaging Performance Course

A unique undergraduate class where students from across campus attend UMS mainstage performances, connect directly with visiting artists in class, and get to explore a variety of art forms and themes, often around relevant social issues. Rave reviews highlight how the class has opened students to new ideas and given them the opportunity to connect and collaborate with peers from a wide range of academic disciplines.

UMS School Day Performances and In-School Workshops

Each season, thousands of young students from across Southeast Michigan have access to extraordinary learning experiences that inspire and motivate. They bring a contagious and joyful enthusiasm to UMS School Day Performances and participate in free pre- and post-show workshops back at school, where they have the chance to explore an artist’s work in more depth and try similar creations — all connected to what they’re learning in class.

Be a Victor for the Arts at UMS.

And give the gift of uncommon and engaging learning experiences. Join us for Giving Blueday.

Make a Gift

Bassem Youssef – Interview by Grace, 21st Century Artist Intern| UMS presents from UMS (University Musical Society) on Vimeo.

Grace Bydalek, UMS 21st Century Artist Intern, spent the summer in New York City as an intern with creative producers Pomegranite Arts. Grace interviewed Bassem Youssef, the political satirist exiled from Egypt, while doing handstands.

Bassem Youssef is at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor on November 6, 2017.

Last year, we worked with 400+ students and teachers during a residency with Ping Chong + Company. What happened may brighten your day.

UMS hosted Ping Chong + Company for an extended artistic residency during the 2017-18 performance season. This residency involved a diverse population ranging from public events, University groups, and seven high schools from throughout southeast Michigan.

What makes your life brilliant? – Every Brilliant Thing | Sept. 12-17 | UMS Presents from UMS (University Musical Society) on Vimeo.

We asked people to share with us what makes their life brilliant.

Every Brilliant Thing is in Ann Arbor September 12-17, 2017.