ARTS

Trevor Noah, Wynton Marsalis set to play Ann Arbor in University Musical Society series

Duante Beddingfield
Detroit Free Press
Trevor Noah

Ann Arbor’s University Musical Society (UMS) revealed its lineup for the 2022-23 season Thursday, announcing some big names slated for live performances and educational engagements.

The season will kick off in September with comedian Trevor Noah’s “Back to Abnormal” stand-up show.

After a pared down 2021-22 season amid the COVID-19 pandemic, UMS’ 144th season returns with a full docket of music, dance and theater offerings.

“After a year in which many artists and large ensembles were rightly cautious about touring, we are excited to announce that our 2022/23 season showcases a scale of season that feels more familiar, including the return of our popular genre-based fixed packages,” said UMS President Matthew VanBesien. “No fewer than six great orchestras will appear on the Hill Auditorium stage, including orchestras whose leaders are all taking an exciting, thoughtful, active approach to reshaping much of their programming, charting a more inclusive future that is long overdue.

Following Noah's widely viewed virtual talk with University of Michigan students in 2020, the “Daily Show” host will bring his “Back to Abnormal” stand-up set to Hill Auditorium on Friday, Sept. 16.

“We’re also thrilled to be in partnership once again with our longtime friends Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra," VanBesien said, "this time in a week-long residency that will include both his symphonic masterpiece ‘All Rise’ and a big band concert by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, as well as a featured appearance during a Michigan Marching Band halftime show.”

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Marsalis will return to Ann Arbor in October for a week-long residency that will include two public concerts on Oct. 14 and 16, a school day performance for K-12 students, connections with students at the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance and a halftime appearance with the Michigan Marching Band during an Oct.15 football game against Penn State.

Six visiting orchestras will play as part of the Choral Union Series, including the Berlin Philharmonic with new chief conductor Kirill Petrenko (in a weekend-long stay that includes Mozart and Mahler concerts (Nov. 18-19); the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and featuring cello soloist Sheku Kanneh-Mason (Oct. 19); the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra on its 25th anniversary tour with conductor Tito Muñoz and soprano Aundi Moore (Jan. 29); the Brno Philharmonic, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies (Feb. 10); Daniel Hope with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra (Mar. 17), and England’s Chineke! Orchestra, with conductor Andrew Grams and violinist Elena Urioste (Mar. 25).

Featured recitalists include pianist Sir András Schiff (Oct. 7); violinist Itzhak Perlman along with Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Emanuel Ax, and the Juilliard String Quartet (Dec. 10); and violinist Joshua Bell (Feb. 7).

The six-concert Chamber Arts Series will feature three string quartets, including the farewell tour of the Emerson String Quartet (Oct. 1), and the return of the Danish String Quartet as part of its Doppelgänger initiative (Oct. 28) and the Takács Quartet with pianist Jeremy Denk (Jan. 18).

A partnership with Detroit Opera will see the two organizations co-presenting a reinvention of Tchaikovsky’s classic “Swan Lake” in February 2023, helmed by Ballet Preljocaj artistic director Angelin Preljocaj. Step Afrika!, the country’s first professional dance company dedicated to the tradition of stepping, will make its UMS debut March 12.

Included in the season’s jazz series, along with Marsalis, are composer and jazz orchestra leader Maria Schneider (March 11), vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant (April 14) and pianist Aaron Diehl (Jan. 27), who will explore the connections between J.S. Bach and bebop.

Season Tickets will be available to the public beginning Tuesday, May 10. Tickets to individual events will go on sale on Tuesday, Aug. 2.

Visit ums.org for the complete season listing.

Contact Free Press arts and culture reporter Duante Beddingfield at dbeddingfield@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @DBFreePress.