Saturday night’s program opens with Rachmaninoff’s warm and melodious Symphony No. 2, a lush and sentimental work of immense power and beauty that has not been performed on a UMS program in over 30 years. The program also features Florence Price’s Symphony No. 4, which incorporates melodies from spirituals, including a beautifully-orchestrated theme from “Wade in the Water”; The Philadelphia Orchestra’s Grammy-winning record of Price’s first and third symphonies (2022 “Best Orchestral Performance”) helped spark intense global interest in the Arkansas-born composer.

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The Philadelphia Orchestra in two different programs

University of Michigan

The Takács Quartet, a perennial UMS favorite, returns with a program that nods to the natural world, opening with Haydn’s “Sunrise” quartet and closing with Beethoven’s second Razumovsky quartet, the slow movement of which was inspired by Beethoven’s contemplation of the starry sky. In between, the Quartet performs a new UMS co-commission by Nokuthula Endo Ngwenyama. Born in Los Angeles of Zimbabwean-Japanese parentage, Ngwenyama attended the Colburn School in Los Angeles and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, in addition to receiving a Master of Theological Studies degree from Harvard. Her new work, co-commissioned by UMS and a group of eight other presenters, brings a deep sense of awe and wonder to the quartet repertoire.

Takács Quartet

Hailing from a family of musicians in the Bronx with roots in gospel, Joy began her journey with jazz at age 17, winning the vocal honors at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington competition. She went on to study with the great Barry Harris and win the 2019 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition.

Samara Joy

Local jazz bassist Marion Hayden leads this exploration of women who have made their name in this uniquely American art form. This 90-minute workshop complements UMS’s presentation of Samara Joy on Wednesday, March 27.

UMS 101: Dynamic Ladies of Jazz: An Evening of History and Appreciation

Cahoots

During his 15-year career, Akinmusire has paradoxically situated himself in both the center and the periphery of jazz, most recently emerging in both classical and hip-hop circles. He masterfully weaves inspiration from other genres, arts, and life in general into compositions that are as poetic and graceful as they are bold and unflinching.

Weather Bird

At 27, the young Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä already has an impressive resume: chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic, music director of the Orchestre de Paris, and artistic partner of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, a role that will turn into chief conductor when his other music directorships expire in 2027.

Orchestre de Paris

The New York City-based Isidore String Quartet was formed in 2019 with a vision to revisit, rediscover, and reinvigorate the repertory. The quartet is heavily influenced by the Juilliard String Quartet — in fact, it takes its name from JSQ founder Isidore Cohen — and the idea of “approaching the established as if it were brand new, and the new as if it were firmly established.” In this program, they move seamlessly from the great musical innovator of the 18th century to a trailblazer of the 21st: Billy Childs, whose String Quartet No. 2 (“Awakening”) was composed in the wake of his wife’s emergency hospitalization 10 years ago due to a pulmonary embolism. It takes the listener through the shock and chaos of the emergency room, the disembodied sonic experience of machines during an extended hospitalization, and subsequent recovery and healing.

Isidore String Quartet

In this return engagement after his 2016 UMS debut, Igor Levit performs transcriptions of Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony and the Adagio from Mahler’s unfinished 10th symphony, as well as Paul Hindemith’s Suite “1922,” written for solo piano with several movements based on popular dances of the day, including the shimmy, Boston, and ragtime.

Igor Levit, piano

Martha Graham is recognized as a primal artistic force of the 20th century, alongside Pablo Picasso, Virginia Woolf, Igor Stravinsky, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Graham radically expanded the dance vocabulary, rooting it in social, psychological, and sexual ideas and forever altering the scope of the art form. These performances will include a new work choreographed by Jamar Roberts, resident choreographer for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and set to music by Rhiannon Giddens. The dance will be paired with Agnes de Mille’s 1942 classic Rodeo; its iconic score by Aaron Copland has been reorchestrated for a bluegrass ensemble, offering an expanded view of our cultural history and the influence of Black artists on American music and dance forms. Martha Graham’s final complete work, Maple Leaf Rag, rounds out the program.

Martha Graham Dance Company

University Musical Society

Critics laud the violinist’s rare combination of stunning virtuosity, serene lyricism, and an unfaltering musicality: “Ehnes, who has the silkiest tone in the business, achieves a level of perfection, full of feeling but without show, that puts him in a class of his own. … He gave a poetic performance, bringing out the music’s wistfulness as well as its fury and dazzle.” (The Guardian) UMS audiences enjoyed one of Ehnes’s Bach/Ysäye digital recitals filmed from his living room during the pandemic, but this is the first opportunity to hear him live. Program to be announced.

James Ehnes, violin

Martha Graham, the company’s founder, is recognized as a primal artistic force of the 20th Century. Graham radically expanded the dance vocabulary, rooting it in social and psychological ideas, forever altering the scope of the art form. As the company approaches its 100th anniversary, it continues to exemplify its founder’s timeless and uniquely American style of dance, one that has influenced generations of artists and continues to captivate audiences worldwide.

School Day Performance for Grades 5-12: Martha Graham Dance Company

This 90-minute workshop complements UMS’s presentation of Martha Graham Dance Company Saturday & Sunday February 17-18. Discover the movements and history of the Graham technique, its importance, and how the movement style became a cornerstone of modern dance.

UMS 101: Reshaping American Movement: The Graham Technique

This collaboration between UMS and the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance features a new commission and world première by American composer Nkeiru Okoye. When the Caged Bird Sings fuses elements of oratorio, theater, and opera in a multi-movement musical ceremony of sorts, which Okoye describes as “a gathering” that invokes the ritual of the concert experience as a ritual of community.

Nkeiru Okoye’s When the Caged Bird Sings

Nkeiru Okoye is an American-born composer of African American and Nigerian ancestry. After studying composition, music theory, piano, conducting, and Africana Studies at Oberlin Conservatory, she pursued graduate studies at Rutgers University and became one of the leading African American women composers. An activist through the arts, Okoye creates a body of work that welcomes and affirms both traditional and new audiences.

Penny Stamps Speaker Series: Nkeiru Okoye

Michigan Theater

In the 18th and 19th centuries, composers often created — or allowed others to create — chamber arrangements of their orchestral works so that more people could hear their music. In this program, the celebrated trio performs both works originally written for piano trio as well as an arrangement of one of Beethoven’s iconic symphonies, maintaining the power and immediacy of his orchestral work in an intimate arrangement. “One could only marvel at how intuitive and spontaneous these performances were,” raved the Chicago Tribune, “with each player kindling immediate responses from his colleagues. … Chamber music doesn’t get any better than this.”

Emanuel Ax, piano Leonidas Kavakos, violin Yo-Yo Ma, cello

Simultaneously honoring the past, celebrating the present, and creating the future of mariachi music, Mariachi Herencia de México presents a bilingual repertoire that blends genres like bolero, cumbia, tango, swing, and more, with lyrics that speak of the Latino and immigrant identity. The group emerged in 2016 from a program in the Chicago Public Schools and has gone on to record five albums, with hits topping the Latin streaming charts.

School Day Performance for Grades K-12: Mariachi Herencia de México

Simultaneously honoring the past, celebrating the present, and creating the future of mariachi music, Mariachi Herencia de México brings an unforgettable night of Mexican music and culture with a bilingual repertoire that blends genres like bolero, cumbia, tango, swing, and more, with lyrics that speak of the Latino and immigrant identity. The group emerged in 2016 from a program in the Chicago Public Schools and has gone on to record five albums, with hits topping the Latin streaming charts.

Mariachi Herencia de México featuring La Marisoul

Supported by a live music ensemble, including a DJ/Turntablist, the all-star powerhouse cast of Explorers brings mind-bending musicality, spectacular athleticism, and boundless joy to each offering. This interdisciplinary and intergenerational experience investigates the energetic relationships and throughlines from Jazz and Lindy Hop to vibrant contemporary styles such as House, Hip-Hop, and more that developed from them. Each offering is also curated to amplify the cultural contributions of the local geographic area to the continuum.

LaTasha Barnes’ The Jazz Continuum

Hélène Grimaud is a deeply passionate and committed musical artist with multiple talents that extend far beyond the instrument she plays with such poetic expression and peerless technical control. A committed wildlife conservationist, she is also a compassionate human rights activist and a writer; but it is through her thoughtful and tenderly expressive music-making that she most deeply touches the emotions of audiences. After her UMS debut in 2015 as featured soloist with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, she was due to return in March 2020 for her UMS recital debut. Four years later, we look forward to bringing her back to the Hill Auditorium stage at last.

Hélène Grimaud, piano

Relive this chilling portrait of the Sicilian clan’s rise and near fall from power as the Grand Rapids Symphony performs Nino Rota’s Oscar®-nominated score live to picture: The Godfather Live in Concert. This three-time Academy Award® winning film features Marlon Brando as the Corleone family patriarch, accompanied by career-making performances from Al Pacino, James Caan, and Robert Duvall. A concert experience you can’t refuse!

The Godfather Live

Shimabukuro combines the qualities of a long line of virtuoso ukulele players with modern rock musicians to create a sound that’s uniquely his own but still firmly grounded in Hawaiian tradition. He has redefined the ukulele, incorporating elements of thoughtful, sophisticated arrangements with spontaneous improvised passages. His seemingly limitless vocabulary, on perhaps the unlikeliest of instruments, has brought new appreciation to the four-string instrument, causing many to call him “the Jimi Hendrix of the ukulele.” Get ready for some holiday fun sprinkled with a little Hawaiian tradition.

School Day Performance for Grades K-12: Holidays in Hawai’i

Known for his lightning-fast fingers, Shimabukuro saw his career skyrocket two decades ago when his video of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” was posted on YouTube without his knowledge and became one of the first videos to go viral on the platform. His seemingly limitless vocabulary, on perhaps the unlikeliest of instruments, has brought new appreciation to the four-string instrument, causing many to call him “the Jimi Hendrix of the ukulele.” Beloved for his open, magical, and transcendent connection with audiences, Shimabukuro draws on a vibrant catalog of holiday classics for this return appearance, performing alongside Jackson Waldhoff (bass), and Justin Kawika Young (vocals and guitar).

Holidays in Hawai’i Jake Shimabukuro, ukulele

People say that in a time long, long ago, animals walked on two feet and spoke with words, like we do. And it was known that the cleverest of all the animals in the kingdom was a spider — the infamous Anansi — a trickster, a mischief maker, and the master spinner of yarns. Produced by London’s Unicorn Theatre, these classic West African and Caribbean tales come to life through the magic of digital storytelling.

Anansi The Spider: Re-Spun

This 90-minute workshop led by Mike Brooks and featuring members of Ann Arbor’s popular Brain Plasticity Ukulele Collective, will provide some background and context for Jake Shimabukuro’s Holidays in Hawai’i on Friday, December 8. Participate in activities and make music together in a fun, casual setting. Feel free to bring your own ukulele if you have one.

UMS 101: All About the Uke

Handel composed his oratorio Messiah over the course of a single month in 1741, six months before its triumphant premiere at a new concert hall in Dublin. Nearly 300 years later, Handel’s Messiah fills Hill Auditorium with its ravishing beauty brought to life by friends and colleagues from the community. Music director Scott Hanoian conducts the UMS Choral Union and the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra in this annual holiday tradition.

Handel’s Messiah

Scott Hanoian, Music Director of the UMS Choral Union, in conjunction with the annual Handel’s Messiah performances, presents a pre-performance talk about the Saturday evening concert. He gives a conductor’s inside look at Handel’s treatment of the Charles Jensen libretto.

Fortunate the Eyes that See and the Ears that Hear

The U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance Department of Voice, in conjunction with UMS, is pleased to present three Master Classes, each led by a soloist from this year’s UMS presentation of Handel’s Messiah.

Messiah Soloist Master Classes

Earl V. Moore Building

Maxim Vengerov is considered one of the greatest violinists of all time, marrying a flawless technique acquired early in life to broad musical curiosity. His radiant and dramatic interpretations, the intensity of his sound, and the exuberant musicality of his playing are rooted in the great tradition of the Russian violin school. With his public debut at the age of 5 and a performance of the Mendelssohn Concerto at age 7, Vengerov’s career has been marked by dozens of awards, honors, and recordings. Born in Siberia to two musicians, he studied throughout Europe before moving to Israel as a teenager.

Maxim Vengerov, violin

Blending together “the quiet authority of the murder mystery podcast, the intimacy of autobiographical storytelling, and the visual spectacle of multimedia performance” (The Guardian), Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World is a meditation on the life and death of Fereydoun Farrokhzad an actor, showman, and chart-topping pop singer of the 1970s whose music and television programs were heard and viewed by millions of Iranians. Living in political exile in Germany a decade later, he still performed to sold-out audiences in Europe. That changed on August 7, 1992, when he was found brutally murdered in his apartment in Bonn.

School Day Performance School Day Performance for Grades 9-12: Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World

The University of Michigan

In the 1970s, Fereydoun Farrokhzad was a significant cultural icon, a sex symbol, and a chart-topping pop singer whose music and television programs were heard and viewed by millions of Iranians. A decade later, living in political exile in Germany, he still performed to sold-out audiences in Europe. That changed on August 7, 1992, when he was found brutally murdered in his apartment in Bonn. Neighbors said his dogs had been barking for two nights.

Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World

Ann Arbor’s own Akropolis Reed Quintet — composed of clarinet, oboe, saxophone, bass clarinet, and bassoon — joins forces with Grammy-nominated composer and jazz pianist Pascal Le Boeuf and celebrated drummer Christian Euman. Le Boeuf’s composition is inspired by his musical “ancestors” — Geri Allen, Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus, and Leonard Bernstein — representing a variety of perspectives concerning the unity of the American experience. His composition asks: Are we really dreaming the same American dream, or is our consumer culture overshadowing our own sense of belonging?

Are We Dreaming the Same Dream?

Born of a serendipitous encounter where the two musicians discovered their common love for two-piano music and the Gershwin era, this event showcases each artist’s unique gifts for creativity, virtuosity, and joy. Feinstein is one of the leading authorities on the Great American Songbook, and he and Thibaudet dig deep into the extraordinary heritage of music from the 20th century that straddles the worlds of classical and popular, connecting the two with rich anecdotes and incredible musicality. The concert features piano duos, solos, and vocals, with Gershwin’s beloved Rhapsody in Blue, arranged for two pianos, as a centerpiece.

Two Pianos: Who Could Ask for Anything More?

Since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the world has become more attuned to the incredible bravery, resilience, and determination of the Ukrainian people. The folk-punk quartet DakhaBrakha embraces and reflects the fundamental elements of sound and soul, creating a world of unexpected new music. The group’s name is original, outstanding, and authentic at the same time, meaning “give/take” in the old Ukrainian language and signaling the group’s unique brand of musical “ethno-chaos.”

Dakhabrakha

Carlos Miguel Prieto, celebrated as a rising star both domestically and abroad, was named 2019 Conductor of the Year by Musical America and is the foremost Mexican conductor of his generation. He serves as artistic director of México City’s Minería Symphony, which was founded in the 1970s and is widely regarded as the leading musical institution in México — one that regularly supports and programs Mexican composers. Housed at the Academia de Música del Palacio de Minería, the name honors the period from the 18th century when mining was one of the region’s most important economic activities.

Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería

Sean O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars is a gripping portrayal of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, Ireland, a six-day conflict led by Irish Republicans who were attempting to establish an independent Ireland while the British were preoccupied by World War I. Set in a tenement house, the story follows the lives of ordinary citizens who are caught up in the tumultuous events of the rebellion. The tenement’s residents grapple with their own loyalties and beliefs as the rebellion unfolds, with their romanticized ideals clashing with the harsh realities of war.

DruidO’Casey: The Shadow of a Gunman

Leonardo is a terrible monster. He tries so hard to be scary, but he just…isn’t. Then Leonardo finds Sam, the most scaredy-cat kid in the world. Will Leonardo finally get to scare the tuna salad out of someone? Or will it be the start of an unlikely friendship? The plot thickens when this pair meets Kerry and Frankenthaler, an even scaredier-cat and her monster friend. Kerry and Sam need to make a big decision: will they just be scaredy cats or can they become friends?

Manual Cinema presents Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About a Terrible Monster

Ypsilanti Freighthouse

With passion, precision, warmth, and a gorgeous blend, the excellent Jerusalem Quartet returns for the first time in five years to Rackham Auditorium, performing Paul Ben-Haim’s rhapsodic quartet alongside a quartet by Haydn. Founded in 1993, the quartet’s wide repertoire and stunning depth of expression carries on the string quartet tradition with its warm, full, human sound.

Jerusalem Quartet Inon Barnatan, piano

Pianist Inon Barnatan performs a free recital for students and general public audiences on North Campus, including his own virtuosic solo piano arrangement of Rachmaninoff’s acclaimed Symphonic Dances.

Inon Barnatan: Rachmaninoff Reflections

Originating from the Malinke people of West Africa, Moribayassa is a traditional practice in which participants are invited to relieve their burdens through movement and music. The practice uses dance and live drumming as a way to offer thanks for overcoming obstacles or adversities within the context of community support. Participants will be invited to write, sing, and dance as a healing modality for their struggles.

West African Dance at the Freighthouse

Get ready to feel the heat, listen to the beat, and move your feet. Created especially for families, participants in this workshop will begin with a print-making workshop that explores the meaning and significance of Adinkra symbols in West African culture, then learn about and experience traditional West African Dance and contemporary AfroBeat dance moves.

For Families Moving to the Beat: West African Dance and Visual Art

Lightning rarely strikes in the same place twice, but UMS is delighted to collaborate with Heads Over Heels Productions and Chroma Productions for two different sets in this drag show extravaganza. This action-packed, special night celebrates queer performance art at the historic Ypsilanti Freighthouse.

Lighting: A One-of-a-Kind Drag Show Extravaganza

One of the most highly acclaimed singers of our time, Renée Fleming is a National Medal of Arts recipient who has sung for momentous occasions ranging from the memorial service at Ground Zero after 9/11 and the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to the soundtrack for The Lord of the Rings and the Super Bowl, where she was the first classical artist ever to sing the National Anthem.

Renée Fleming, soprano Inon Barnatan, piano

Soprano superstar Renée Fleming is a leading advocate for the study of powerful connections between the arts and health, and has worked with the National Institutes of Health and other leading organizations to bring attention to research and practice at the intersection of music, health, and neuroscience. The day before her performance in Ann Arbor, she will be joined by local researchers and medical practitioners for a public conversation exploring these important topics.

Panel Discussion: Renée Fleming’s Music and Mind

University of Michigan Hospital

Join us for an evening of Square Dancing with the Detroit Square Dance Society. We’ll start with light refreshments before heading to the dance floor as we bring the Southern Square Dancing tradition to the Ypsilanti Freighthouse, with live music, non-gender calling, and line dances for anyone and everyone to enjoy. Each dance will be taught, rehearsed, and then danced to live music.

Square Dance at the Freighthouse

Stories from this time, and other significant moments in the history of Ypsilanti, will inspire original music compositions that celebrate the bravery of those who sought freedom on the Underground Railroad, and honor the resilience that the African American community in Ypsilanti has shown throughout time.

Sonic Contributions: Honoring the Past, Present, and Future of the African American Community in Ypsilanti, Mi

Open Mic at the Freighthouse is back by popular demand! Singer, songwriter, and composer Shara Nova (My Brightest Diamond), who spent formative childhood years in Ypsilanti, hosts this open mic night and local artist showcase. Bring yourself, your friends, and whatever creative contribution you can offer! Registration will open at 7 pm for those who wish to perform and continue on a rolling basis through 8:30pm, with names randomly selected for a starring moment on stage.

Open Mic Night with Shara Nova

Born in the mid-1970s out of the deep artistic and spiritual connection bonding British guitarist John McLaughlin and Indian tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, Shakti’s cross-cultural musical conversation dissolved boundaries with uncommon passion, grace, and dexterity, awakening subsequent generations of musicians to the possibilities of new creative approaches in the process. The unprecedented transcontinental collaboration forged the template for what is often called “world music.” Together they honed an ecstatic new fusion, blazing uncharted pathways and demonstrating the potential of such global composites to generations of musicians and fans around the world.

Shakti: 50th Anniversary Tour

Empire Central is an homage to Dallas, with many of its songs inspired by the collective’s time in the city. And like the city, the eclectic 19-piece electric ensemble is big and bold, chill and laid back, rooted in its native culture while reaching forward. Led by Michael League on bass, Snarky Puppy was formed in 2004 by 10 friends who were enrolled in the jazz program at the University of North Texas. With 13 albums in 18 years that have garnered four Grammy Awards, Snarky Puppy has attracted international fandom for its detailed arrangements of fetching melodies, texturally layered harmonies, exciting solos, ear-candy synth effects, and propulsive beats. Its distinctly Southwestern influences — blues, hard rock, classic soul, modern gospel, percolating funk, new tech, fusion, and jazz — never sound derivative but conjure music that’s fresh and original.

Snarky Puppy Performance

Welcome back to another exciting school year! UMS and UMMA co-host our annual K-12 season opening party to launch the 23/24 Season. Please join us for drinks, hors d’oeuvres, and live music at this special event for educators and administrators. Information will be available for all our upcoming K-12 events. Volunteers and staff will be on hand for individual consultations. This event is free, but registration is required.

K-12 Season Opening Party

As many as 250 singers from southeastern Michigan, northern Ohio, and Canada have joined each session in singing through great choral repertoire with some of the nation’s most respected choral conductors and outstanding soloists. We rehearse portions of the score during the first half, break for refreshments, and then re-convene to sing through the entire work.

Summer Sings 2023: Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana

She’s a bright, headstrong daughter of a senator, elevated by her status but stifled by its expectations. He’s a refugee of slavery; having risen to the top of a white world, he finds love across racial lines has a cost. Wed in secret, Desdemona and Othello crave a new life together. But as unseen forces conspire against them, they find their future is not theirs to decide.

Othello

The New York Times writes, “In the bodies of these skilled performers, the beat is obviously unstoppable. Again and again, the dancers pick it up and pass it around with clapping hands and stomping feet, through the legs, behind the back, defiant and unified and inspiring.”

Step Afrika!

John E. Lawrence is a lifelong resident of Ypsilanti and one of Michigan’s most talented and respected guitarists. For 36 years, he served as Chair of the Performing Arts Department at Washtenaw Community College, as well as an instructor in the department and head of the music performance program.

John E. Lawrence & The Power Band

These workshops for families begins with the Detroit Puppet Company’s presentation of The Carnival of the Animals, a series of shadow puppet scenes depicting different members of the animal kingdom, from the majestic lion to the venerable tortoise, all set to music by classical composer Camille Saint-Saëns. The performance tells stories of love, hope, fear, and joy, all through the power of light, shadow, and your imagination.

Puppetry Workshop: The Power of Light & Shadow

This local artist showcase and open mic will be hosted by Ypsilanti resident and singer/songwriter Rochelle Clark. Those who wish to perform — music, dance, comedy, poetry, juggling, or whatever unique creative contribution you can offer — will sign up for a ten-minute slot upon arrival; names will be randomly selected for a starring moment on stage at the Ypsilanti Freighthouse. Registration will open at 7 pm and continue on a rolling basis through 8:30 pm.

Open Mic Night

Ghostly International artist Todd Osborn has been championed by everyone from Gilles Peterson to Aphex Twin…but he really just wants to have a little fun and get in some time on the dance floor. Break out a few moves in this late night DJ set!

Late Night DJ Set With Todd Osborn

This interactive event invites the local community to reconnect with freshwater sources such as the Huron River, as well as one another through reflection, restoration, and jubilation. Audience members are invited to both witness and engage in rituals of reconnection.

Reconnecting Currents: a Healing at the Huron

The ensemble’s sixty-five musicians, many from Ypsilanti and the surrounding area, will play music that is part symphony, part jam session, part group meditation. The audience will be invited to cultivate a peaceful internal space, be present with their community, and tune in to the cycles of nature that shape our lives.

The Generate Orchestra

A map is a place which we all operate within, but it is only part of the narrative. The bulk of the story is stored somewhere invisible to us but within us. Oral tradition and bodily remembrance keep the ever-evolving story alive. The story we hold in us is unafraid of what cuts the map makes next…

Kaleigh Wilder Trio:

Audra McDonald has secured her place atop Broadway’s pantheon with a record-breaking six Tony Awards, the only actor ever to achieve the Tony Grand Slam. Blessed with a luminous soprano and an incomparable gift for storytelling, she is equally at home on Broadway and opera stages and in roles on film and television (Private Practice, The Good Fight). A 2015 National Medal of Arts recipient, she was a founder of Black Theatre United in 2020 and is also a committed advocate for at-risk youth and LGBTQ equality, among other causes.

Audra McDonald

Hill Auditorium’s Frieze Memorial Organ, named in honor of Henry Simmons Frieze, a professor of Latin and the founding president of UMS, is the focal point of the auditorium’s unique parabolic interior and one of the first great organs to rely on electrical connections from its keys. Frieze believed the shared experience of music was essential to a liberal education and to community life. Today, the organ is available to the University of Michigan students and faculty for teaching, practice, and performances to continue celebrating the beauty and diversity of the instrument.

UMS Live Session: Christian Schmitt, Organ

Led by Dr. Waddles, and featuring four solo singers and piano, keyboard, and electric bass, this event brings the community together to sing both familiar and new songs. The house will open at 6:30 for participants to enjoy food and social interaction before the Community Sing.

Come Together An Evening Community And Song

American composer, pianist, vocalist, and dancer Julius Eastman was young, gay, and Black when it was even more difficult to be young, gay, and Black in America. He died in 1990 at age 49, less than a decade after the New York City Sheriff’s Department evicted him and threw most of his scores and belongings into the winter snow of the East Village.

Julius Eastman’s Femenine

The singer, composer, and visual artist has a passion for storytelling and finding the connections between blues, folk traditions from around the world, theater, jazz, and Baroque music. She is an eclectic curator who unearths rarely recorded, forgotten songs with interesting power dynamics and unexpected twists; a composer of new songs; and a visual artist who works in the medium of textile drawings. Each of her past three recordings has won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album, and in 2020 she was named a MacArthur fellow. The New York Times called Ghost Song, released in March 2022 “her most revealing and rewarding album yet.”

Cécile McLorin Salvant

Facilitated by artists from across the Midwest, these 60-minute workshops are ideal for movers seeking to deepen their awareness of movement and music through fun and engaging experiences. Recommended for participants ages 12 and up; little to no dance experience is required. Tap shoes are welcome, but also not required.

You Can Dance

Riverside Arts Center

A new work by Carlos Simon, a U-M alumnus and Kennedy Center composer-in-residence, opens the concert. Fate Now Conquers was inspired by a journal entry in one of Beethoven’s notebooks and is based on the same harmonic structure as the second movement of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.

Chineke! Orchestra

Prelude Dinners are back in 2023! Join us at the Michigan League for an opportunity to park early, gather with friends, enjoy a meal, and learn more about the evening’s performance. Your $75 ticket includes a wine reception, a three-course buffet, and a lively and interesting talk from Mark Clague, Associate Dean for Collaborations and Partnerships at the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance – all just a short walk from Hill Auditorium.

Prelude Dinner: Daniel Hope with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra

Vandenberg Room

Facilitated by artists from across the Midwest, these 60-minute workshops are ideal for movers seeking to deepen their awareness of movement and music through fun and engaging experiences. Recommended for participants ages 12 and up; little to no dance experience is required. Come solo or with a partner!

You Can Dance!

The group of visionary instrumentalists delivers her work with fire and swing. Formed as a tribute to Gil Evans, who orchestrated many of Miles Davis’s charts, Schneider’s band tackles lush and complex works that bring new energy to the jazz orchestra landscape.

Maria Schneider Orchestra

Join us for this 90-minute workshop that complements UMS’s presentation of Step Afrika! on Sunday, March 12. Familiarize yourself with and deepen your understanding of stepping tradition. Facilitated by Jack Williams III, this UMS 101 will offer background and contextual learning, live demonstrations, and participatory activities in a fun, casual environment.

UMS 101: We Came to Step

Combining Tchaikovsky’s musical masterpiece with contemporary arrangements, he reinvents the timeless tale of love, betrayal, seduction, and remorse into a contemporary ecological tragedy. The evil sorcerer von Rothbart is portrayed as an industrialist who wants to exploit fossil fuels against a backdrop of unbridled capitalism, while Siegfried and Odette are the two eco-conscious heroes who try to thwart his plans.

Ballet Preljocaj: Swan Lake

Detroit Opera House

Facilitated by artists from across the Midwest, these 60-minute workshops are ideal for movers seeking to deepen their awareness of movement and music through fun and engaging experiences. Recommended for participants ages 12 and up; little to no dance experience is required.

In 2020, conductor Dennis Russell Davies became chief conductor of the Brno Philharmonic, which was founded in 1956 and serves as a living tribute to Leoš Janáček’s music. Janáček was educated in Brno and spent most of his life there, and his extensive experience working with and composing for choirs was evident in his compositions.

Brno Philharmonic Performance

Prelude Dinners are back in 2023! Join us at the Michigan League for an opportunity to park early, gather with friends, enjoy a meal, and learn more about the evening’s performance. Your $75 ticket includes a wine reception, a three-course buffet, and a lively and interesting talk from one of our expert guest speakers – all just a short walk from Hill Auditorium.

Joshua Bell

The Bloomington, Indiana native has served as music director for Academy of St. Martin in the Fields since 2011 and maintains an active interest in music education and technology, partnering with an instrument sampling company and creating a VR experience for the Sony PlayStation. Bell returns for his fifth recital program and ninth appearance under UMS auspices since his 1989 Hill Auditorium debut with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

Joshua Bell, violin

UK-based theater and performance artist Rachel Mars developed the wickedly funny show as a gleeful and thrilling rummage through our darkest instincts, creating a space where our inner voices are given a megaphone and our competitive spirits are on display. A hit at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Our Carnal Hearts features Mars and four female singers in an ode to the humblebrag and other forms of jealousy, proving that the spirit of envy runs through all of us — and we wouldn’t want it any other way. “Not just honest…very funny, too, and streaked with regret.” (The Guardian)

Our Carnal Hearts

The intrepid ensemble shines a light on the sole string quartet written by Fanny Mendelssohn, an active 19th century composer whose works were largely unrecognized during her lifetime. Jeremy Denk joins the group for the second half with Schumann’s ebullient piano quintet, one of the very first works to pair the traditional string quartet configuration with piano. Dedicated to Clara Schumann, the fiendishly difficult piano part was first performed by Fanny Mendelssohn’s brother, Felix, when Clara fell ill, though she was at the keyboard for the first public performance a month later.

Takács Quartet with Jeremy Denk, piano

The band of virtuosi known as Punch Brothers has spent more than a decade changing the face of acoustic music, stretching the limitations of their instruments and influencing a generation of young musicians. Some of those musicians will appear with Béla Fleck as part of his set based on his 2022 Grammy-winning album My Bluegrass Heart. Over the past four decades Fleck has expanded the banjo field, earning 15 Grammys in nine different categories. But his roots are in bluegrass, and his first bluegrass tour in 24 years features some of the best of the new generation of players.

Béla Fleck My Bluegrass Heart and Punch Brothers

Join us for this 90-minute workshop that complements UMS’s presentation of Béla Fleck My Bluegrass Heart and Punch Brothers on Friday, December 16. Familiarize yourself with and deepen your understanding of bluegrass. Facilitated by professional, community-based practicing artists/educators, UMS 101 workshops offer background and contextual learning, live demonstrations, and participatory activities in a fun, casual environment.

UMS 101: Bluegrass

Beloved for his charm and humanity as well as his talent, he is treasured by audiences throughout the world who respond not only to his remarkable artistry, but also to his irrepressible joy for making music. For this special performance in Hill Auditorium, he brings together pianists Emanuel Ax and Jean-Yves Thibaudet and the Juilliard String Quartet for a mixed chamber music program.

Itzhak Perlman and Friends

Handel's Messiah

The group, founded as a student group at The Juilliard School in 1976 and named for the transcendentalist poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, has performed 17 concerts in Rackham Auditorium since their UMS debut in 1989.

Emerson String Quartet

Shakespeare’s rom-com on sun, sea, and mistaken identity takes place at the family-run Hotel Messina on the Italian Riviera, a legendary spot that has been visited by artists, celebrities, and royalty. But when the owner’s daughter weds a dashing young soldier, not all guests are in the mood for love. A string of scandalous deceptions soon surrounds not only the young couple but also the adamantly single Beatrice and Benedick.

Much Ado About Nothing

Michigan Theatre

Observe members of the internationally renowned Berlin Philharmonic interacting with students from the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance for a series of master classes on North Campus. View details below, including class location and links to watch live online (if available; select classes only).

Berlin Philharmonic Master Classes

North Campus at the University of Michigan 

For his debut concert, he conducts Andrew Norman’s 10-minute orchestra joyride, Unstuck, which brims with invention and energy. The orchestra’s first concertmaster, American Noah Bendix-Balgley, takes the stage for Mozart’s first violin concerto before the orchestra concludes its program with Erich Korngold’s only symphony — a work that the composer never heard performed live. Completed in 1952 and dedicated to the memory of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the work had a radio premiere in 1954 and was not performed live until 1972, 15 years after the composer’s death. Korngold’s sweeping orchestrations and brilliant orchestral color made him a huge success in Hollywood as a film composer, all of which are on display in this insightful and dramatic score.

Berliner Philharmoniker

Based on Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The Rivals, Jack Absolute Flies Again is a rollicking new comedy that The Guardian called “one of the funniest productions in the National’s history.” After an aerial dog fight, Pilot Officer Jack Absolute flies home to win the heart of his old flame, Lydia Languish. Back on British soil, his advances soon turn to anarchy when the young heiress demands to be loved on her own, very particular, terms.

NT Live: Jack Absolute Flies Again

Join us for this 90-minute workshop that complements UMS’s presentation of Aida Cuevas with Mariachi Aztlán on Friday, November 4. Familiarize yourself with and deepen your understanding of Mariachi music. Facilitated by professional, community-based practicing artists/educators, UMS 101 workshops offer background and contextual learning, live demonstrations, and participatory activities in a fun, casual environment.

UMS 101: Viva La Ranchera

Beginning as students at a summer music camp before they were even teenagers, the members of the Danish String Quartet have an extensive history of musical collaboration. For their third UMS appearance, they bring their Doppelgänger project, an ambitious four-year international commissioning project in which four composers create new works in response to a masterwork by Franz Schubert. In this program, they pair Schubert’s famous “Death and the Maiden” quartet with Pige (Danish for “girl”) — a new work by Finnish composer Lotta Wennäkoski, who has been praised for her mastery of color and musical textures.

Danish String Quartet: Doppelgänger

The late choreographer Pina Bausch asked her dancers this question in 1975, when she created her vision of The Rite of Spring, where a young woman is sacrificed so spring can arrive. Her pioneering work, one of the first that established her iconic approach to dance theater, is now being danced by a newly assembled company of dancers from more than a dozen African countries.

The Rite of Spring / common ground[s]

Her tenure has been one of unqualified success, generating excitement among live audiences and critics worldwide. She brings the CBSO to Ann Arbor as part of a limited US tour with cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason performing Elgar’s Cello Concerto, composed in the aftermath of World War I. The orchestra had a close association with Elgar, who conducted the ensemble’s very first concert over a century ago, in 1920. The program also includes an abbreviated orchestral rendering of Thomas Adès’s third opera, based on Luis Buñuel’s 1962 surreal film about a collection of society characters who find themselves inexplicably trapped together at a post-opera party. The CBSO “brilliantly captured the profound, uncanny disquiet that makes [the film] so unforgettable.” (Bachtrack)

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Since 1988, Wynton Marsalis has led the 15-piece Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, which simultaneously honors the rich heritage of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong while presenting a stunning variety of new works from illustrious names, many of whom perform regularly with the ensemble. Don’t miss this dynamic School Day Performance favorite!

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra With Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis’s massive jazz symphony All Rise (Symphony No. 1) was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for the millennium and had its world premiere in December 1999. Blending influences from African chant, New Orleans parade music, gospel, symphonic modernism, and Latin-based music, All Rise is a 12-movement arc built on the structure of the Blues that moves from uplifting and energetic to dark and distressing to Marsalis’s vision of the “togetherness and ascendance” of humanity.

Wynton Marsalis’s All Rise

Join an evening of experimental theatre, dance, and live music that explores themes of agency, power, and teleportation. Featuring unreleased music from Chaotic Good, Tunde Olaniran’s forthcoming third studio album.

Tunde Olaniran: Everything is a Portal

Andy Arts

A pianist, conductor, and lecturer, he brings masterful and intellectual insights to his performances which have inspired audiences and critics alike. He will draw from his vast classical repertoire, brilliantly uniting performance and pedagogy as he brings his role as a master educator to the stage, allowing audiences to experience both his artistry and the thinking behind it. The program will include works by Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, with each selection introduced from the stage.

University Musical Society

20 - 21 Apr, 2024

The Philadelphia Orchestra in two different programs

Apr 12, 2024

Takács Quartet

Mar 27, 2024

Samara Joy

Mar 26, 2024

UMS 101: Dynamic Ladies of Jazz: An Evening of History and Appreciation

Mar 22, 2024

Weather Bird

University Musical Society

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