We invite you to join us for the UChicago Presents 2024-2025 season of extraordinary performances. We are thrilled to bring you several Chicago debuts, world premieres, as well as return visits from UChicago Presents favorites. Every performance this season has been carefully chosen with you, our audience, in mind.
This season’s artists offer bold and innovative programs, from AGAVE featuring countertenor Reginald Mobley offering their uniquely American take on early music to phenomenal pianist Michelle Cann highlighting the women of Chicago’s Black Renaissance. Two Jazz at the Logan favorites return with rich new programs, including a commission of Tomeka Reid’s Stringtet and Gerald Clayton’s homage to visual artist Charles White in “White Cities,” a co-presentation with Hyde Park Jazz Festival and South Side Community Arts Center. We’re also delighted to share the return of our popular series CSO Chamber Music at the University of Chicago, this year exploring “Music in Times of Crisis.”
Throughout the year we’ll feature exciting new voices as well as returning favorites. Chief Adjuah’s innovations and Melanie Charles’ new jazz groove will have you on your feet. Owls, Leonkoro, Turtle Island, and Takács quartets (with Julien Labro in a UCP debut) will all expand your idea of what a string quartet can be. Solo performances will shine a spotlight on virtuoso performers, including legendary bassist Edgar Meyer and lute master Thomas Dunford. We’re delighted to welcome back 2023 GRAMMY®-winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth and former Don Michael Randel Ensemble-in-Residence Imani Winds, who will be performing alongside the inimitable Boston Brass for a concert sure to fill the eaves of Rockefeller Memorial Chapel. The 2024-25 Don Michael Randel Ensemble is none other than the boundary-breaking, contemporary South Asian dance company inDANCE. And, of course, the season would not be complete without the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition’s Grossman Ensemble, who will be returning with another exciting slate of world premieres.
If that’s not enough, this season we are adding a whole new genre to our offerings! We’re excited to partner with the Logan Center for the Arts on Blues@Logan — make sure to check out Southern Soul Celebration and Griot Creole Rendezvous. Whether you are seeking to get your blood pumping with a new musical adventure, or to revel in an enduring favorite performed in an intimate setting, there’s something for everyone in the season ahead. We can’t wait to gather and share the joy of live music with you this year.
Sincerely,
Sarah Curran
Executive Director