All events on sale Thursday, August 7 at 10 a.m.
New Fine Arts Center website and online purchase portal launches Monday, August 4.
Performing Arts
Fall 2025
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
Afro!
with Shenel Johns and Weedie Braimah
Wednesday, September 17, 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
Join us as we open our fiftieth anniversary season with a truly special performance by the most celebrated and prestigious ensemble in American classical music. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will be joined by extraordinary vocalist Shenel Johns and Ghanaian djembe virtuoso Weedie Braimah for Afro!, an exploration of jazz’s deep roots in African music. This will be the first ever live performance of this new commission by Wynton Marsalis as the Fine Arts Center collaborates on a two-day world premiere event that will conclude at Lincoln Center on September 18.
Ballet Hispánico
Thursday, October 2, 7:30 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 $2
0
We kick off an incredible dance series with an engaging, uplifting, and awe-inspiring performance from a company that has been part of the Fine Arts Center’s programming since our inaugural season in 1975-1976. The largest Latino cultural organization in the United States, Ballet Hispánico engages audiences with the work of Latino and Latina choreographers, opens a platform for new cultural dialogue, and nurtures inspiring young dancers of all ages.
Hamed Sinno: Poems of Consumption
Thursday, October 9, 7:30 p.m.
Bowker Auditorium
General admission
Total price: $35 advance, $40 at the door
Total price for Five College students: $20 advance, $25 at the door
Total price for youth 17 and under: $20 advance, $22.50 at the door
Lebanese-American singer-songwriter Hamed Sinno’s R&B-tinged compositions, lush arrangements, and mellifluous vocals evoke artists ranging from Morcheeba and Massive Attack to Lambchop and Raphael Saadiq. Accompanied by Sinno’s electronic music and a string quartet, their impassioned lyrics speak truth to power and question the foundations of empire. Projected video helps drive home the message.
Paul Beaubrun
Tuesday, October 14, 8 p.m.
The Drake
General admission
Total price: $35 advance, $40 at the door
Total price for Five College students: $20 advance, $25 at the door
Total price for youth 17 and under: $20 advance, $22.50 at the door
The son of Haitian music stars Lolo and Manze Beaubrun (of Boukman Eksperyans), Paul Beaubrun is a magnetic performer who sings in Haitian Creole, French, and English; draws musical influence from across the Caribbean, the United States, and throughout the African diaspora; and plays guitar like a cross between Ali Farka Touré and Jimi Hendrix.
Words and Music
An evening with singer-songwriter and author Bill Janovitz
Wednesday, October 22, 7:30 p.m.
Bowker Auditorium
Reserved seating
Total price starts at $27
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students starts at $1
5
Join the Fine Arts Center and the UMass Amherst Libraries in welcoming UMass alumnus Bill Janovitz back to campus. Best known as the frontman for the iconic alt rock band Buffalo Tom, Janovitz also is the author of four books, including the forthcoming The Cars: Let the Stories Be Told (Da Capo, September 2025). He’ll discuss his work, share stories, and play a few songs.
Wicked
Immersive sing-along film screening and cOZplay event
Friday, October 24, 7 p.m.
Randolph W. Bromery Center for the Arts
General admission
Total price $20
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students $15
This event’s gonna be pop-U-lar! Join us for a sing-along screening of the 2024 blockbuster movie Wicked. And start your evening by getting your Oz on at our third-annual cosplay event featuring food, music, games, and prizes! Emceed by the wicked awesome Monte Belmonte, host and executive producer of New England Public Media’s The Fabulous 413.
George Clinton in conversation with Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky
with a post-talk DJ set by Spooky
Wednesday, October 29, 7:30 p.m.
Bowker Auditorium
General admission (with a limited preferred section)
Total price starts at $40
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students starts at $15
George Clinton didn’t invent funk. But as the leader and center of gravity for the musical collective known variously as Parliament, Funkadelic, and P-Funk, Clinton has spent a lifetime reinventing (time and again) Black America’s other greatest music form. Here, Clinton will share stories and wisdom acquired over his eighty-four years. He’ll be joined in conversation by Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky, a musical visionary in his own right who is known for his work in electronic forms including trip hop and illbient. Miller also will deliver a post-talk DJ set sure to tear the roof off Bowker Auditorium.
The Horse of Jenin
a Troupe Courage production
by Alaa Shehada
Thursday, November 6, 7:30 p.m.
Bowker Auditorium
Reserved seating
Total price starts at $35
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students $2
0
Built from the debris of a major invasion, the Horse of Jenin sculpture became a constant presence in actor/comedian Alaa Shehada’s life as he grew up in occupied Palestine. It stood proudly in the center of the city for twenty years, symbolizing hope and resistance until an Israeli bulldozer entered the city, ripping the sculpture from its place — and from its people. Constructed from the fragments of Shehada’s memories, The Horse of Jenin is an ode to the power of imagination and the resilience it inspires.
Richard Thomas in
Mark Twain Tonight!
by Hal Holbrook
Sunday, November 9, 3 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 $2
0
Emmy Award-winning actor Richard Thomas brings to life “the nation’s one true comic genius” (The New York Times) in Mark Twain Tonight!, written and originally performed by Hal Holbrook. Holbrook retired from acting in 2017 and passed away in 2021. Thomas is the first and only actor authorized by Holbrook’s estate to perform the one-man show capturing the wit and wisdom of the iconic American author.
The Brandee Younger Trio
Thursday, November 13, 7:30 p.m.
Bowker Auditorium
Reserved seating
Total price starts at $35
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students: $2
0
Innovative jazz harpist Brandee Younger nods to Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane even while advancing her own expansive vision of jazz, which incorporates sounds from R&B, hip-hop, and other pop forms. Younger’s eighth and latest album, Gadabout Season, is her most personal to date. The album is gorgeous, rich, and engaging — much like Younger’s live sets.
Soweto Gospel Choir
Thursday, November 20, 7:30 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
Family pack: 25% off of up to two adult tickets with the purchase of at least one youth ticket
Three-time Grammy winners, the Soweto Gospel Choir return to our stage with a new live program, Peace, featuring South African freedom songs, traditional spirituals, and choir classics, alongside spirited selections from Aretha Franklin, Harry Belafonte, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, and Leonard Cohen among others.
¡Guitarra!
Peter Clemente
Saturday, November 22, 7:30 p.m.
Bezanson Recital Hall
General admission
Total price: $35
Total price for Five College students: $25
Total price for youth 17 and under: $20
Master class
Sunday, November 23, 10 a.m.
Old Chapel
Total price of observer tickets: $15
New England native Peter Clemente is an award-winning guitarist and committed music educator who was chosen by maestro Andres Segovia as a finalist in the Segovia Fellowship Competition held at New York University in 1984.
Lea Salonga: Stage, Screen & Everything In Between
Thursday, December 4, 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 $2
0
Broadway and West End megastar Lea Salonga — whose stage career has included lead roles in Miss Saigon, Les Misérables, Flower Drum Song, Allegiance, and Once on This Island; and who is known to Disney fans as the singing voice of the title character from Mulan and Mulan II and Jasmine from Aladdin — performs iconic songs from across her career along with pop hits and new favorites.
Spring 2026
Venice Baroque Orchestra
Chouchane Siranossian, violin
Andrea Marcon, conductor
Vivaldi, Tartini, Veracini, Locatelli: A Bows Duel in Venice
Wednesday, February 4, 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 $2
0
Chouchane Siranossian, who ranks among the world’s greatest violin virtuosos, takes the stage with a premiere period instrument ensemble for a program of compositions by four of the great violinist-composers of the Baroque era.
Cirque Flip Fabrique
Blizzard
Thursday, February 12, 7:30 p.m.
Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall
Reserved seating
Total price starts at $30
Total price for Five College students starts at $20
Total price for youth 17 and under starts at $17.50
Family pack: 25% off of up to two adult tickets with the purchase of at least one youth ticket
The family event you need to cure the midwinter blahs. Québec-based circus arts troupe Flip Fabrique is renowned around the world for its combination of astonishing feats and visual poetry. In Blizzard, Flip Fabrique takes you on a wild, poetic, and gentle journey and invites you to lose yourself in a moment of complete wonder.
Carsie Blanton
Wednesday, February 11, 8 p.m.
The Drake
General admission
Total price: $35 advance, $40 at the door
Total price for Five College students: $20 advance, $25 at the door
Total price for youth 17 and under: $20 advance, $22.50 at the door
Take a bit of Billy Bragg, some Michelle Shocked, Poly Styrene, and Kathleen Hanna — and you start to get a sense of Carsie Blanton. She’s a protest singer whose songs defy genre pigeonholing, whose melodies are straight-up pop, and whose lyrics are imbued with humor and insight, embracing the complexities of being human. She’s what you need, what we all need, right now.
Sunny Jain’s Wild Wild East
Thursday, February 19, 8 p.m.
The Drake
General admission
Total price: $35 advance, $40 at the door
Total price for Five College students: $20 advance, $25 at the door
Total price for youth 17 and under: $20 advance, $22.50 at the door
The latest project from the founder and leader of Brooklyn’s undefinable Red Baraat draws from Sunny Jain’s identity as a first-generation South Asian American and as a global musician. And it finds Jain sourcing musical inspiration from the scores of Bollywood classics and Spaghetti Westerns, Indian folk traditions, jazz improvisation, and rollicking psychedelic and surf guitar styles.
Paul Taylor Dance Company
Friday, February 27, 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 $2
0
One of the most revered and dynamic ensembles in modern dance, the Paul Taylor Dance Company has been innovating and transforming dance since 1954. For this performance, the company will bring us a classic work by its founder, Speaking in Tongues (1988), along with How Love Sounds, a 2025 commission by Hope Boykin.
Kris Davis Trio
Thursday, March 5, 7:30 p.m.
Bowker Auditorium
Reserved seating
Total price starts at $30
Total price for Five College students $20
Total price for youth 17 and under starts at $17.5
0
Prepare for an evening of jazz at its most exploratory and magical. Kris Davis has built her career on a commitment to group improvisation that is remarkable even within the context of jazz. A Grammy-winning pianist and composer, Davis has twenty-four recordings as a bandleader or co-leader to her credit. Her recorded material has won critical accolades and awards. But Davis is truly at her best when she’s onstage leading live collaborations between great musicians.
Homayoun Sakhi and Salar Nader
Friday, March 6, 8 p.m.
The Drake
General admission
Tickets via Music at Amherst | amherst.edu/go/music-at-amherst
Co-presented by Music at Amherst and the UMass Fine Arts Center.
Homayoun Sakhi is a master of the rubab, Afghanistan’s revered twenty-one-stringed lute, an instrument famous for its haunting, soulful timbre. A virtuoso of the tabla, Salar Nader fuses Afghan and Indian percussion, highlighting the musical parallels between two diverse yet harmonious traditions. Note: Tickets are available for purchase by the public through Music at Amherst. This program cannot be included in a Fine Arts Center subscription.
Hiroaki Umeda
Wednesday, March 11, 7:30 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 $2
0
UMass is one of just five stops on Japanese dancer/choreographer Hiroaki Umeda’s 2026 U.S. tour. Hioaki’s program includes two brand new works, Moving State 1, which will be performed by dancers from Umeda’s Somatic Field Project; and assimilating, Umeda’s own solo performance.
¡Guitarra!
Kevin Loh
Saturday, March 14, 7:30 p.m.
Bezanson Recital Hall
General admission
Total price: $35
Total price for Five College students: $25
Total price for youth 17 and under: $20
Master class
Sunday, March 15, 10 a.m.
Old Chapel
Total price of observer tickets: $15
Kevin Loh is one of the leading classical guitarists of his generation. Loh’s uncommon talent became evident at a young age; by the time he was twelve, videos of his performances had caught the eye of the prestigious Yehudi Menuhin School in England, and he was recruited to move to the United Kingdom from his home in Singapore. Over the ensuing fifteen years, Loh has toured the globe, playing with internationally celebrated orchestras and taking part in the world’s leading classical guitar festivals and competitions.
Hayato Sumino
Thursday, March 26, 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
Hayato Sumino almost certainly is the hottest classical pianist on the planet. Sumino has amassed nearly 1.5 million followers on YouTube (where he goes by “Cateen”). He’s preternaturally talented. He’s a risk taker and an improviser who brings both charm and humor to his work. And the result is that not only is he huge online, he has live audiences around the world clamoring to see him perform.
Chief Adjuah (formerly Christian Scott)
Saturday, March 28, 8 p.m.
Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall
Reserved seating
Total price starts at $35
Total price for youth 17 and under and Five College students $20
Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah (formerly Christian Scott) has never been content to stand still and inhabit only the present. Adjuah has developed custom brass and string instruments as part of an ongoing quest to explore new sounds. His work as a composer and bandleader rejects restrictive ideas of genre, shattering boundaries in pursuit of limitless innovation. And that pursuit has delivered awards and critical acclaim for his thirteen career albums.
Mystical Arts of Tibet
Monday, April 6 – Friday, April 10
Opening ceremony: April 6, 12 p.m.
Viewing: April 6, 7, and 9, 1–7 p.m.; April 8, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Closing ceremony: April 10, 12 p.m.
Old Chapel
Free admission. Registration required. Advance registration recommended for
opening and closing ceremonies.
Observe an ancient ritual of creation and impermanence as Tibetan Buddhist monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery create and then ritually destroy an intricate sand mandala painting. In keeping with centuries-old tradition the lamas begin by consecrating the site through chants, music, and mantra recitation. Over the days that follow, the lamas create a mandala by meticulously hand-placing millions of colored grains of sand on a wooden platform.
Lucía
Thursday, April 9, 8 p.m.
The Drake
General admission
Total price: $35 advance, $40 at the door
Total price for Five College students: $20 advance, $25 at the door
Total price for youth 17 and under: $20 advance, $22.50 at the door
Lucía is a twenty-six-year-old vocalist from Veracruz, México whose singular artistic vision bridges the gaps between jazz, Latin, and pop music. Winner of the 2022 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, Lucía is an enchanting live performer whose days of appearing in intimate settings like The Drake won’t last much longer.
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company
People, Places and Things
Friday, May 1, 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
We close our fiftieth anniversary season in much the same way we opened it, with an internationally renowned performing arts troupe presenting a new work for the first time outside of their home in New York City. People, Places and Things is a meditation in movement on self determination: living where one wants to live; loving whom one wants to love; and celebrating that youthful desire to be free and discover the world and oneself within it.
Larissa FastHorse and Michael John Garcés
April 2026
Details to be determined
Playwright Larissa FastHorse and director Michael John Garcés are celebrated for their examination of modern Indigenous culture, community, and perspectives through theater. This season, the Fine Arts Center is honored to host FastHorse and Garcés as they follow up on their successful 2022 community engagement residency at UMass. Please watch our website for details about the residency and its related engagement opportunities as they come together.
Visual Arts
Augusta Savage Gallery
Who Are You? Who Am AI? By Alex Leon Sherker
October 3 – October 31
Opening reception: October 3, 5-7 p.m.
In an era during which personal and collective identities are increasingly mutable, Alex Leon Sherker explores tattoo imagery as a contemporary means of identity formation. Drawing on Sherker’s ongoing investigations into hybridized tattoo imagery, the exhibition transforms the gallery into an immersive environment where symbols, icons, and illustrations are presented on walls, screens, and mirrors.
Reserved Passages: Watercolors by Susan Montgomery and Richard Yarde
November 14 – February 26
Opening reception: November 14, 5-7 p.m.
Reserved Passages celebrates Richard Yarde’s exceptional legacy in watercolor and connects his artistic vision to the work of his former graduate student Susan Montgomery. A meditation on a shared passion for watercolor, the exhibition reaches beyond the medium itself. It reflects on the genuine dialogue, exchange of knowledge, and relationship between a teacher and student.
Crossing Narratives by Angel Abreu
March 27 – May 8
Opening reception: March 27, 5-7 p.m.
Angel Abreu embarks on an artistic exploration of the novel James, Percival Everett’s reimagining of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. As does the novel, Abreu’s work challenges dominant narratives around race, agency, and representation in American literature and culture. Crossing Narratives offers a bold counter narrative to traditional portrayals of Black figures in classic American texts.
Hampden Gallery
Reflecting on the Past/Dreaming the Future
Inaugural Hampden Gallery Triennial
Juried by Nick Capasso
Main Gallery: September 12 – December 3
Incubator Project Space: September 12 – May 8
Opening reception: September 12, 5-7 p.m.
Reflecting on the Past/Dreaming the Future is the inaugural Hampden Gallery Triennial. The juried exhibition showcases cutting-edge works by emerging and established artists working in all media. Works selected by juror Nick Capasso, director of the Fitchburg Art Museum, will provide the student body and community with exposure to thought-provoking and meaningful artistic expressions.
Fragile Connections by Sally Prasch
January 29 – May 8
Reception: April 23, 5-7 p.m.
Artist and master glassblower Sally Prasch transforms blown and recycled glass into intricate sculptures that address the climate crisis. Both visually striking and intellectually engaging, her pieces range from vivid, neon-lit forms that underscore the urgency of environmental issues to works delicately engraved with thought-provoking texts about climate change.
University Museum of Contemporary Art
Artist/Fabricator
September 12 – December 5
Opening reception: September 11, 5-7 p.m.
For the Fine Arts Center’s fiftieth anniversary celebration, Artist/Fabricator reinterprets the museum’s inaugural show, shifting the focus from artist-and-fabricator to artist-as-fabricator. With roots in the feminist movement, fabric serves as a medium through which artists innovate and address cultural and global themes, gender identity, maternal relationships and knowledge, concepts of home, and immigration.
Artistic Journey: Zea Mays Printmaking at 25 Years
September 12 – December 5
Opening reception: September 11, 5-7 p.m.
Artistic Journey presents acclaimed and emerging printmakers associated with the Florence, Massachusetts-based Zea Mays Printmaking. The exhibition celebrates the studio’s twenty-five-year legacy of commitment to safer printmaking and artistic growth. The exhibiting artists make sense of the world through unique creative expression, utilizing innovative and experimental printing methods.
Tammy Nguyen: The Political Uses of Madness
Dialogue with a Collection Exhibition
October 17 – May 8
Opening reception: October 16, 5-7 p.m.
Tammy Nguyen: The Political Uses of Madness features a new series of paintings in response to documents from the Ellsberg Papers, housed at UMass. In this exhibition, Nguyen weaves together elements of audio, video, and text alongside prayers, poems, and excerpts from archival materials, creating a complex dialogue between past and present.
Artist in Residence: Camille Turner
February 6 – May 8
Opening reception: February 5, 5-7 p.m.
Camille Turner is an artist and scholar whose work lives at the intersection of historical research and Afrofuturism, a movement that blends science fiction, fantasy, and Black history and culture. Turner will spend the fall semester at UMass researching and creating new work as part of her joint artist residency between the museum and the UMass research institute Slavery North.
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