In the face of economic uncertainties and changing international relations, Cal Performances is persisting in presenting large-scale shows and top-notch artists from around the world next season.
Along with star-studded chamber concerts and recitals, the 2025–2026 lineup offers dance companies, visiting orchestras, new music, and theater presentations.
In its season announcement — released today, April 15 — the organization calls its upcoming year of more than 80 performances “expansive and eclectic … showcasing the artistry of a wide range of the world’s most acclaimed creators and performers.”
True to its academic connections with UC Berkeley, Cal Performances is also continuing its Illuminations programming with seven events in 2025–2026 that explore the season’s theme of “Exile & Sanctuary” and feature artists and scholars investigating how experiences of displacement and refuge can shape narratives, identities, and communities.
Cal Performances Executive and Artistic Director Jeremy Geffen said, “It is more important than ever to create opportunities for thoughtful and civil discussion about the most pressing issues of our day. The arts can and should provide a safe haven for the exchange of ideas and the affirmation of community values.”
Some of the biggest names of the season are involved in Illuminations. These include singer Angélique Kidjo and cellist Yo-Yo Ma in the Bay Area premiere of their program “Sarabande Africaine” (Aug. 30), the Kronos Quartet and pipa virtuoso Wu Man in the multimedia work Beyond the Golden Gate (Oct. 11), and pianist Lara Downes, singers Judy Collins and Tarriona “Tank” Ball, the Invoke Quartet, and the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir in an evening titled “This Land: Reflections on America” (May 9, 2026).
Cal Performances is keeping up its tradition of presenting major dance companies of all kinds next season. The Paris Opera Ballet performs the North American premiere of a new work by Hofesh Shechter (Oct. 2–4), the Mark Morris Dance Group presents the Bay Area premiere of Morris’s latest work, MOON (Jan. 23–25, 2026), and The Joffrey Ballet dances Alexander Ekman’s Midsummer Night’s Dream (April 17–19, 2026).
Also coming to Berkeley: MOMIX dancing the Bay Area premiere of Moses Pendleton’s family-friendly Alice (Nov. 29–30), the Martha Graham Dance Company celebrating its centennial (Feb. 14–15, 2026), Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre performing choreographer Samar Haddad King’s Gathering (Feb. 27 – March 1, 2026), and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returning for its annual weeklong residency, its first here under new Artistic Director Alicia Graf Mack (April 7–12, 2026).
And dance is just one component of two larger collaborations at Cal Performances next season: the Sadler’s Wells and Shaolin Temple presentation of Sutra, a project from choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, sculptor Antony Gormley, and composer Szymon Brzóska (Nov. 8–9), and a program from Kyle Abraham’s A.I.M. that sees the company performing works inspired by music that is here heard live (Feb. 21–22, 2026).
Orchestras visiting Zellerbach Hall in the company year include London’s Philharmonia Orchestra with Principal Conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali and pianist Víkingur Ólafsson (Oct. 18–19) and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Music Director Emeritus for Life Riccardo Muti (Jan. 17, 2026).
Ólafsson, Cal Performances’ artist-in-residence for the season, is acclaimed by Geffen as “both a piano virtuoso and a keen musical mind … that rare musician who values history and tradition but is also unafraid to question orthodoxy in the pursuit of his own artistic truth.”
Ólafsson’s programs with the Philharmonia spotlight Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto and Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major; he also gives a recital of works by Beethoven, J.S. Bach, and Franz Schubert (April 29, 2026).
An activity that’s becoming increasingly difficult for all arts organizations to maintain in the face of uncertainty is major support for the creation of new works.
That said, several regional premieres stand out on the 2025–2026 schedule, among many other Cal Performances co-commissions: a new string quartet by Clarice Assad, performed by the Takács Quartet on a program that also features works by Haydn and Claude Debussy (Feb. 22, 2026), and Julia Wolfe’s Italian Lesson, performed by Copenhagen-based Theatre of Voices (April 26, 2026).
Some additional co-commissions: Third Coast Percussion and tablaist Salar Nader in Zakir Hussain’s Murmurs in Time (Nov. 1), Manual Cinema with the Macbeth-inspired The 4th Witch (Nov. 22), and mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato with Time for Three in Kevin Puts’s new song cycle Emily — No Prisoner Be (Feb. 7, 2026).
The classical recital lineup includes star vocalists — countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen (Sept. 27), mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter (Oct. 5), and mezzo–soprano Samantha Hankey (Jan. 18, 2026) — and leading pianists — Daniil Trifonov (Sept. 28), Nobuyuki Tsujii (Oct. 30), and Jeremy Denk (Nov. 14).
San Francisco’s Opera Parallèle, under conductor and Artistic Director Nicole Paiement, brings Philip Glass’s La Belle et la Bête to Berkeley, merging Jean Cocteau’s 1946 film with Glass’s 1994 score (March 13–14, 2026).
Broadway, jazz, and folk are also represented, with Kelli O’Hara making her Cal Performances debut in a cabaret-style program (Jan. 31, 2026), Cécile McLorin Salvant returning to Zellerbach Hall for an evening of jazz (Feb. 5, 2026), and mandolinist Chris Thile playing a solo recital of selections from his album Laysongs (Feb. 27, 2026).
Subscription packages go on sale to the general public on April 22, and single tickets go on sale Aug. 5.
