2026-2027 Season Preview

Friday, September 25, 7:30 p.m.
Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall
Reserved seating
Total price starts at $50
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students starts at $20

The Carpenters Songbook: A Live Celebration is a love letter to the quiet magic of Karen and Richard Carpenter from the creative team behind The Simon & Garfunkel Story. The show captures the emotion and musical brilliance of favorites including “We’ve Only Just Begun,” “Close to You,” and “Rainy Days and Mondays.” Featuring a full band and paired with heartfelt storytelling.

Thursday, October 1, 8 p.m.
The Drake
General admission, standing
Total price $35 advance, $40 at the door
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students $20 advance, $25 at the door

Insun Park & Generals blend Korean traditional music with a mix of contemporary pop forms — notably rock, funk, and hip-hop — with Park adding elements of Gangnyeong Talchum (mask dance) to deliver a visually entrancing, musically engrossing stage show.

Wednesday, October 7, 7:30 p.m.
Bowker Auditorium
Reserved seating
Total price starts at $37
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students starts at $20
 

The perfect opener for a fantastic jazz series. A performance by the Craig Taborn Trio is an evening-length conversation between musicians at the top of their artform, in which the only thing audience members can predict is that they’ll be swept away.

Saturday, October 17, 7:30 p.m.
Buckley Recital Hall, Amherst College
Tickets available through Music at Amherst (on sale August 11)

Hailed as one of America’s finest classical pianists, Jeremy Denk is known for performances of vast imagination, beauty, profundity, and wit. Co-presented with Amherst College's Music at Amherst program. This performance is not eligible for inclusion in Fine Arts Center subscriptions or discount programs.

Thursday, October 22, 7:30 p.m.
Bowker Auditorium
Reserved seating
Total price starts at $40
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students starts at $20

Eleven-time Grammy winner Christian McBride leads a band of rising star jazz musicians. Blending elements of R&B, soul, funk, and disco with energy and mastery, their sound is both joyful and jaw-dropping.

Thursday, November 5, 7:30 p.m.
Bowker Auditorium
General admission
Total price $35 advance, $40 at the door
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students $20 advance, $25 at the door

Extraordinary Filipino American rapper Ruby Ibarra hits UMass with a band that includes pioneering guitarist (and western Massachusetts resident) June Millington! If you've seen the 2025 championship Tiny Desk concert, you know.

Sunday, November 8, 3 p.m.
Bowker Auditorium
Reserved seating
Total price starts at $35
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students starts at $20

Keep the family fun of spooky season going for an extra week with this special family matinee event! Sugar Skull! A Día de Muertos Musical Adventure! is a bilingual/bicultural musical for young audiences and families featuring traditional music and dance from Mexico.

Tuesday, November 10, 8 p.m.
The Iron Horse
General admission, seated
Total price $35 advance, $40 at the door
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students $20 advance, $25 at the door

Launching a new partnership with Northampton's beloved club venue! Maryna Krut is a virtuoso of the sixty-five-string bandura, the national instrument of Ukraine. Her ethereal voice, moving songwriting, and impassioned advocacy for her homeland make her an extraordinary cultural ambassador.

Thursday, November 19, 7:30 p.m.
Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall
Reserved seating
Total price starts at $39
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students starts at $20

Philadelphia’s premier contemporary ballet company BalletX unites artistic innovation with technical excellence to forge new works of athleticism, emotion, and grace. Expected repertoire: Macaroni (Loughlan Prior, 2024), Scales on the Wings of a Butterfly (Noelle Kayser, 2025), and Big Wig (Marguerite Donlon, 2024). 

Saturday, November 21, 7:30 p.m.
Bezanson Recital Hall
General admission
Total price $35
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students $25

Best known as a member of the acclaimed Brasil Guitar Duo, João Luiz Rezende Lopes is a two-time Latin Grammy-nominated guitarist, educator, and composer. He will also offer a master class on Sunday, November 22, at 10 a.m.

Thursday, December 3, 8 p.m.
The Drake
General admission, seated
Total price $35 advance, $40 at the door
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students $20 advance, $25 at the door

Italian singer-songwriter Maria Mazzotta builds on a foundation of traditional music of her native southern Apulia, adding influences from across southern Europe and north Africa and layering on fuzzy post-rock experimentation. Her most recent solo album, 2024's Onde, is a triumph.

Wednesday, February 10, 7 p.m.
Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall
Reserved seating
Total price starts at $29
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students starts at $20

Yamato has been a leading force in Japanese taiko drumming for more than three decades. The troupe's performances incorporate more than forty taiko drums, ranging from the massive, stage dominating odaiko, to the hand-held shime-daiko. 

Thursday, February 18, 8 p.m.
The Drake
General admission, seated
Total price $35 advance, $40 at the door
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students $20 advance, $25 at the door

Mary Prescott is a Thai American interdisciplinary artist, composer, and pianist. The new work Prescott will develop during a residency with the Fine Arts Center, is expected to take the form of an evening-length interdisciplinary performance involving music, movement, text, video, and installation.

Thursday, February 25, 7:30 p.m.
Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall
Reserved seating
Total price starts at $39
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students starts at $20

Philadanco! is celebrated for its innovation, creativity, and preservation of predominantly Black traditions in dance. This performance will include a new work by hip-hop and street dance legend Rennie Harris, with music from the classic Philadelphia International Records soul catalog.

Thursday, March 4, 7:30 p.m.
Bowker Auditorium
Reserved seating
Total price starts at $30
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students starts at $20

Vocalist Michael Mayo has worked with Herbie Hancock, Christian Sands, and Nate Smith, to name a few. As a solo artist and bandleader, Mayo plies a style of jazz that draws influence from soul, R&B, and gospel, and makes the most of his crystalline voice with a command reminiscent of Al Jarreau, Bobby McFerrin, and Mel Tormé.

Wednesday, March 10, 7:30 p.m.
Bowker Auditorium
Reserved seating
Total price starts at $45
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students starts at $20

More than sixty years after the group’s founding, Ladysmith Black Mambazo continues to represent the pinnacle of South African a cappella music. The group has performed for millions of people around the world, won five Grammy Awards, and been nominated for a total of nineteen Grammys.

Saturday, March 13, 7:30 p.m.
Bezanson Recital Hall
General admission
Total price $35
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students $25

Recognized as one of the world’s most exciting young classical guitarists, France's Virgile Barthe is acclaimed for the refinement of his musical interpretation and the breadth of his repertoire. He will also offer a master class on Sunday, March 14, at 10 a.m.
 

Thursday, March 25, 7:30 p.m.
Bowker Auditorium
Reserved seating
Total price starts at $37
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students starts at $20

Internationally renowned as a leading light of the Southern Indian classical dance form bharatanatyam, Mythili Prakash is celebrated for her innovative choreography and her powerful conviction as a dancer. In Jwala (Rising Flame), Prakash explores fire as a symbol of loss, hope, life, and death.

Thursday, April 1, 8 p.m.
The Iron Horse
General admission, seated
Total price $35 advance, $40 at the door
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students $20 advance, $25 at the door

Guitarist and composer Yasmin Williams’ songs cut across the breadth of American folk forms, here exploring their African and European origins, there visiting birthplaces that stretch through Appalachia and southward to the Mississippi Delta. Take this opportunity to see Williams in the intimate setting of a club while you still can.

Sunday, April 4, 3 p.m.
Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall
Reserved seating
Total price starts at $29
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students starts at $20

Special Sunday family matinee performance! Through breathtaking physical skill and theatrical staging, the Peking Acrobats bring centuries‑old Chinese traditions to life, pushing the limits of human ability and defying gravity with amazing displays of contortion, flexibility, and control.

A Celebration of the Music of Chick Corea and Beyond
Saturday, April 10, 8 p.m.
Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall
Reserved seating
Total price starts at $40
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students starts at $20

A truly special night of live music awaits! Two of jazz’s greatest living performers, bassist Stanley Clarke and pianist Hiromi, lead a tribute to their late, longtime friend and collaborator Chick Corea — with help from the innovative, genre-blending string ensemble PUBLIQuartet. 

Sunday, April 25, 3 p.m.
Bowker Auditorium
Reserved seating
Total price starts at $37
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students starts at $20

In this intimate solo recital, celebrated cellist Seth Parker Woods will embrace the spirit of the UMass Department of Music and Dance’s beloved Bach Festival and Symposium. The festival brings exceptional musicians and scholars of international stature to campus to connect with students, alumni, and faculty, in examination and celebration of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Thursday, April 29, 7:30 p.m.
Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall
Reserved seating
Total price starts at $45
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students starts at $20

Broadway’s all-time most decorated performer, Audra McDonald, whom Time magazine called “the greatest living stage actor,” closes out our season with a selection of beloved songs from the silver screen. This is a rare and special performance. Tickets will not last.

University Museum of Contemporary Art
September 15 – December 13
Reception: September 24

Athena LaTocha’s monumental sculptures and drawings are rooted in an emotional and sensorial response to place. Through physically demanding manipulations of earth, water, soil, minerals, and rock, her gestural works reveal deep connections between land, history, culture, and human experience.

University Museum of Contemporary Art
September 15 – December 13
Reception: September 24

Works from the museum’s permanent collection examine the American landscape as an active participant in artistic creation. With works from the 1960s land art movement, to outdoor projects in the 1980s, to contemporary art addressing the interconnectedness of ecological and social issues, the exhibition traces the evolving relationship between art and environment.

University Museum of Contemporary Art
September 15 – December 13
Reception: September 24

Through photography, film, sculpture, performance, and ritual, Dianne Smith honors Black women’s knowledge, beauty, and fashion while creating a space for healing and joy. As Smith puts it, “Sonic Futures, Radiant Bodies imagine futures shaped by Black creativity, care, and resonance, where bodies shine, histories speak, and sound leads us forward.”

Hampden Gallery
September 8 – December 15
Reception: September 17

Drawing from nearly four decades of dedicated engagement with the fragile ecosystems of rural New England, Anita S. Hunt remixes her extensive printmaking archive into new drawings, collages, and sculptural forms.

Hampden Gallery
September 8 – December 15
Reception: September 17

Álvaro Alejandro López’s digital photographs explore our relationship with books, highlighting their material presence, textures, and signs of use. His work invites viewers to consider the book as both an object and a living score shaped by personal experiences.

Augusta Savage Gallery
September 4–25
Reception: September 4

In his research-driven installation, Justin Randolph Thompson explores the life and legacy of his grandfather, Randolph W. Bromery, former UMass chancellor and a Tuskegee Airman, geophysicist, jazz musician, and educator. An interactive recreation of Bromery’s unfinished basement brings visitors directly into Thompson’s memories of his grandfather.

Augusta Savage Gallery
October 2 – November 13
Reception: October 2

Desmond Beach transforms the brutalities embedded in Black life into beauty, illuminating stories of resilience through intricate quilted portraits. His artworks are accompanied by cleansing rituals and performances native to African American spiritual practices.

Augusta Savage Gallery
November 20 – December 9
Reception: November 20

UMass graduate student Farihah Shah embarks on an exploration of cultural, land, and personal memory. Born in Canada and of Guyanese heritage, Shah uses photography, video, and sound installation to trace her connections to these places while engaging in postcolonial inquiry.