UMass Fine Arts Center continues its Performing Arts season in 2023 with an exciting slate of concerts, dance, and theater. Eleven stellar and conceptually far-ranging performances make up the Fine Arts Center’s ticketed programming for the winter/spring season, beginning February 10 with a special engagement with the renowned Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine featuring principal conductor Theodore Kuchar and violinists Vladyslava Luchenko and Andriy Tchaikovsky.
The inspiring performances don’t stop there! For the first jazz performance of the year, five-time Best Guitarist winner (DownBeat) Bobby Broom drops by with his quartet (February 16). UMass FAC’s popular ¡Guitarra! classical guitar series continues with William Kanengiser and his special multicultural program, Diaspona (February 25). Family programming kicks off with the puppet production and New York Times Critics Pick Paddington Gets in a Jam (March 12). The magnificent Martha Graham Dance Company presents Canticle for Innocent Comedians, which includes new material and a new score from Jason Moran (March 25). The gravity-defying Peking Acrobats are another can’t-miss family event (April 6). One of the hottest tickets in 2023 is sure to be Grammy-winning, genre-spanning instrumentalists Snarky Puppy (April 10). Latin Grammy-winner Gina Chavez shares her unique blend of queer, bilingual, genre-bending music (April 19). Co-presenters UMass Bach Festival and UMass Codemakers arts and activism series offer a one-of-a-kind event featuring dancer Georgina Pazcoguin, choreographer Donna Uchizono, violinist Hyeyung Sol Yoon, and composer Texu Kim (April 23). To close out the winter/spring season, perennial percussion sensation STOMP comes to Amherst for three performances (April 28-29).
UMass Fine Arts Center Full Winter/Spring 2023 Line Listings
- February 10 – Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine
- February 16 – Bobby Broom Quartet
- February 23 – Bright Moments Spoken Word Night*
- February 25 – William Kanengiser: Diaspora
- March 12 – Paddington Gets in a Jam
- March 25 – Martha Graham Dance Company: Canticle for Innocent Comedians
- March 30 – Bright Moments Spoken Word Night*
- April 1 – Sean Jones Quartet
- April 6 – The Peking Acrobats
- April 10 – Snarky Puppy
- April 19 – Gina Chávez
- April 23 – Codemakers: Donna Uchizono, Georgina Pazcoguin, and Hyeyung Sol Yoon
- April 27 – Bright Moments Spoken Word Night*
- April 28 – STOMP
* free admission (registration may be required)
More information about these shows and line listings for all 2023 programming follows below. For our up-to-date COVID policy, please click here. The most up-to-date schedule for the Fine Arts Center is available by clicking here.
Sunday, March 12, 3 p.m.
Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall
Reserved $30, $20 and $15
Youth under 17 and Five College students $10
Family pack: $65 (2 adult, 2 youth); Baby under 1 year, lap seats $5
The New York Times Critics Pick 2019! Michael Bond’s lovable, accident-prone bear, Paddington, has delighted readers and audiences of all ages for more than half a century. In this original slapstick comedy, Paddington only wants to help his neighbor, the ever-grumpy Mr. Curry, prepare for visitors: repairing pipes, vacuuming floors, installing wallpaper, baking a cake. But in typical Paddington fashion, nothing goes according to plan! Will Paddington be able to fix everything in time? Come find out!
Martha Graham Dance Company: Canticle for Innocent Comedians
Saturday, March 25, 8 p.m.
Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall
Reserved $55, $45 and $25
Youth under 17 and Five College students $30, $20, $10
“Her creativity still resonates and is relevant today.” — Star Tribune
We’re thrilled to continue the longstanding Fine Arts Center tradition of bringing the giants of the dance world to western Massachusetts with this performance by the Martha Graham Dance Company. Time magazine’s “Dancer of the Century” Martha Graham forever altered the landscape and very definition of Western modern dance. And Graham’s company has tirelessly continued that legacy worldwide for three decades. Now the ensemble has worked with a new generation of diverse, multicultural choreographers to re-envision Graham’s innovations with Canticle for Innocent Comedians, featuring elements of this lost masterwork with new material and a new score by jazz great Jason Moran. Graham created Canticle for Innocent Comedians in 1952, taking the title and inspiration from the 1938 poem by Ben Belitt, her old friend and colleague at the Bennington School of the Dance. The multifaceted work was built around eight virtuosic vignettes for the stars of the Graham Company, each celebrating a different element of nature: Sun, Earth, Wind, Water, Fire, Moon, Stars and Death. The work was well received and reputed to have been magical. But there is only a fragmented record remaining. This new Canticle for Innocent Comedians is a reimagining of the original. The choreography is completely new, but draws upon Graham’s stylistic blueprint. The vignettes have been re-made for today’s Graham stars by eight dance-makers from diverse backgrounds. Please join us for this once-in-a-lifetime event!
Thursday, April 6, 7:30 p.m.
Asian and Asian American Arts and Culture Program
Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall
Reserved $40, $35 and $20
Youth under 17 and Five College students $15, $12, $10
“The Peking Acrobats regularly passed from the seemingly impossible to the virtually unbelievable.” — Los Angeles Times
Perfect for the whole family! Since their founding in 1986, The Peking Acrobats have dazzled global audiences, pushing the limits of human ability, and defying gravity with amazing displays of contortion, flexibility, and control. Their spectacles mix time-honored Chinese folk music with high-tech special effects and awe-inspiring acrobatic feats, creating an exuberant entertainment event with the festive pageantry of a Chinese Carnival. Company artists also have been featured worldwide with symphony orchestras, on numerous television shows, and in Hollywood movies.
Friday, April 28, 8 p.m.
Saturday, April 29, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall
Reserved $55, $50 and $25
Youth under 17 and five college students $30, $20, $15
“A phenomenal show! Bashing, crashing, smashing, swishing, banging and kicking – a joyous invention!” — Chicago Tribune
STOMP is explosive, inventive, provocative, witty, and utterly unique — an unforgettable experience for audiences of all ages. The international percussion sensation has garnered armfuls of awards and rave reviews and has appeared on numerous national television shows. The eight-member troupe uses everything but conventional percussion instruments — matchboxes, wooden poles, brooms, garbage cans, Zippo lighters, hubcaps — to fill the stage with magnificent rhythms. Year after year, audiences worldwide keep coming back for more of this pulse-pounding electrifying show. As The Boston Globe says, “If you haven’t seen STOMP, GO! If you have seen it, take someone and share the pleasure!” STOMP. See what all the noise is about.
| About the UMass Fine Arts Center The UMass Fine Arts Center seeks to engage and inspire the campus and regional communities in the arts through a broad array of exemplary performances, exhibitions, and educational programs. Since our founding in 1975, the UMass Fine Arts Center has been a central force in the cultural, social and academic life of the university, the Five Colleges, and the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts. The Fine Arts Center’s combination of educational, visual, and performing arts programs not only makes us distinct, but also secures a vital and necessary position for us to meet the diverse needs of scholars, faculty, students, alumni and the broader community. We offer a variety of stellar arts and education programs that create a unique delivery service for the arts with many points of entry. We provide a variety and depth of experiences that touch the lives of students from the University of Massachusetts and the Five Colleges, as well as the campus and regional communities. Each program engages its audience with a curatorial vision appealing to individuals and groups both on and off campus. These programs fulfill the Center’s mission by providing affordable access to high quality arts programming and engaging in public service that advances knowledge and improves lives. For more information, visit https://fac.umass.edu. In a consultative and deeply collaborative process with respected advisors from local Tribal Nations, the UMass Native Advisory Council has co-developed a campus Land Acknowledgement. This Acknowledgement affirms our campus connection and relationship to the land the campus is built upon and our continued connection to the Nations who were the original inhabitants and caretakers of this land. Read the Land Acknowledgement. |