Penn Live Arts Announces Music, Dance, and Theatre Lineups for 2025-26 Season

Penn Live Arts, known for its presentation of thought-provoking and transformational performances across multiple genres, has announced its 2025-26 season, curated by Executive and Artistic Director Christopher A. Gruits.

The season celebrates America’s 250th birthday with a robust slate of world and U.S. premieres, newly commissioned works, and a spectrum of new and returning artists who reflect the enormous range of perspectives, cultures and lived experiences that define our country.

“As our nation marks this milestone anniversary, we’ve taken our inspiration for Penn Live Arts’s 2025-26 season from the Declaration of Independence, looking at the aspirational aspects of our democracy through the lens of music, dance, and theatre,” said Gruits. “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—what do these foundational ideals mean in a 21st century context? Experiencing the arts is one of the most profound ways that we as human beings interpret and respond to the world around us. Our season showcases a vibrant tapestry of perspectives, cultures, and lived experiences. From voices that reflect on ongoing struggles to those that envision a future full of promise, we offer a multifaceted view of American life in our ever-evolving democratic experience.”

Subscriptions are on sale now at PennLiveArts.org; single tickets go on sale in early August.

Ten artists from PLA’s 2025-26 season have been invited to specifically respond to the theme of America Unfinished in their programs. Mark Morris Dance Group opens the season with choreography set to iconic American composers including Samuel Barber and George Gershwin; New York Stage and Film partners with PLA for the first time for Plays in Progress; Ephrat Asherie and Arturo O’Farrill collaborate on the world premiere of Shadow Cities; the iconic Dance Theatre of Harlem, led by Philadelphia native Robert Garland, returns; boundary-pushing bass-baritone Davóne Tines joins early music ensemble Ruckus for a reimagining of America’s musical history; violinist and MacArthur Fellow Johnny Gandelsman debuts a world premiere by Tyshawn Sorey, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, MacArthur Fellow and Penn faculty member; Alarm Will Sound returns with Bora Yoon in American Stories, a collection of contemporary works; artist-in-residence Rennie Harris completes the third year of his artist residency with the world premiere of Losing My Religion; Native American jazz trumpeter Delbert Anderson and his quartet blend traditional Diné and contemporary music for the world premiere of Beyond Belief, a PLA commission; and Martha Graham Dance Company collaborates with dancers from  PHILADANCO! for the world premiere of in case of fire, speak, a commissioned piece by Tommie-Waheed Evans.

Dance

As one of America’s foremost presenters of contemporary dance, Penn Live Arts has forged relationships with the most important and innovative dance companies of our time. The 2025-26 season brings return visits from Mark Morris Dance Group with the program Dances to American Music: Soul of America, featuring the Philadelphia premieres of Excursions and two new works set to music by James P. Johnson and Louis Moreau Gottschalk; Dance Theatre of Harlem performing cutting-edge new works and timeless masterpieces; MOMIX, with a reprise of their smash hit Alice; and, Ephrat Asherie Dance and Latin pianist Arturo O'Farrill collaborate to create the world premiere of Shadow Cities, a PLA co-commission exploring how we are all an amalgam of cultures, identities, and generations.

Also returning, audience favorite Paul Taylor Dance Company will perform Speaking in Tongues and Esplanade, celebrating its 50th anniversary; Martha Graham Dance Company performs Night Journey, the Philadelphia premiere of Frontier, and the world premiere of in case of fire, speak, a new commission from Tommie-Waheed Evans featuring guest dancers from PHILADANCO!; and Rennie Harris Puremovement will perform the world premiere of Losing My Religion. Choreographed by PLA Artist-in-Residence Rennie Harris, the work is a personal exploration of the world’s constant social, economic and political turmoil through the lens of street dance and hip hop.  

Dance companies debuting this year are UK-based Indian dancer and choreographer Aakash Odedra Company, whose work is known for its mythological themes and juxtaposition of ancient and modern movement; and the French-Canadian Compagnie Virginie Brunelle, lending their intensely physical and cinematic choreography to the U.S. premiere of Fables.

Music

From early music to cutting-edge jazz, world music and contemporary fare, the 2025-26 season artists transcend genres to offer an extraordinary range of styles and perspectives.

Returning jazz artists include the Branford Marsalis Quartet, performing music from their recording Belonging, a reimagining of Keith Jarrett’s 1974 album with his European Quartet; an evening with the brilliant and charismatic vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, a recent MacArthur Fellow; five-time Grammy® Award-winner and NEA Jazz Master Dianne Reeves in a special Christmas show; Penn professor of music Tyshawn Sorey and his band paying tribute to jazz pioneer Max Roach and his 1968 album, Members, Don't Git Weary; and, an evening with the legendary Arturo O’Farrill and his Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble.

Some of the hottest jazz artists of the next generation make their Penn Live Arts debuts: Montreux Jazz Piano Solo Competition winner Jorge Luis Pacheco (an Arturo O’Farrill protégé); a double bill with “scorching” trumpeter Keyon Harrold who returns to PLA with his sextet and “the heir apparent…to the John Coltrane tradition,” saxophonist Isaiah Collier (making his PLA debut) and his quartet (The New York Times); and Delbert Anderson and his quartet, who mix traditional Native American music with jazz and funk in Beyond Belief, a PLA commission.

Three early music ensembles make their Philadelphia debuts next season: Twelfth Night reimagines Baroque operatic and instrumental works by Handel and Vivaldi; intrepid early music ensemble Ruckus and boundary-pushing bass-baritone Davóne Tines fuse the Baroque band’s creative spirit with American roots music; and the Czech Republic’s Tiburtina Ensemble, an all-female collective of vocalists and a harpist, performs exquisite interpretations of medieval repertoire by Hildegard of Bingen.

Choral music offerings include the three-time Grammy® Award-winning Soweto Gospel Choir performing the Philadelphia premiere of Peace, an inspiring blend of South African freedom songs and traditional spirituals as well as classics by Aretha Franklin, Peter Gabriel and Leonard Cohen; and Choir! Choir! Choir!—an epic, participatory event led by directors Daveed Goldman and Nobu Adilman, who have traveled the world to create harmony and unite strangers through the power of communal music-making.

World music artists present programs encompassing a broad palette of influences and styles: the quartet DakhaBrakha returns with its powerful, sonic feast to plumb the depths of Ukrainian roots and contemporary music; Irish fiddler Martin Hayes and his quartet put “beguiling new angles” on the lyrical East County Clare style (The Irish Times); Loudon Wainwright III & Chris Smither, embrace folk, country, jazz, rock, folk and blues  in a co-presentation with World Cafe Live; and Irish Christmas in America makes its long-anticipated return to Penn Live Arts.

Johnny Gandelsman, a 2024 MacArthur Fellow and Grammy® Award-winning Silkroad Ensemble member, performs a solo violin program featuring the world premiere of a Penn Live Arts commission by Tyshawn Sorey; multiple Grammy® Award-winner and Silkroad Ensemble member Kayhan Kalhor, an internationally renowned virtuoso of the kamancheh (Iranian spiked fiddle), makes his PLA debut; Alarm Will Sound and multi-instrumentalist and composer Bora Yoon perform American Stories, a collection of bold, contemporary works exploring themes of heritage, memory, struggle and transformation; and, from ABBA to Tchaikovsky and bluegrass to Broadway, the quirky, fun, and wildly eclectic Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain tackles an unexpected menagerie of music with off-beat humor.

Theatre and Film

Penn Live Arts enters a special partnership with New York Stage and Film, presenting readings of in-progress, Broadway-bound plays by Colm Summers and C.A. Johnson, featuring talented casts of actors from across film, stage and TV; and, France’s Alcoléa & cie, in its Philadelphia debut, brings Right in the Eye, celebrating Georges Méliès, a pioneer of the cinema and inventor of special effects, by performing live musical accompaniment to twelve of his originally silent films.

Families and Students

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