Cal Performances’ Expansive 2025–26 Season Invites Bay Area Audiences to Engage in World-Class Artistry

Cal Performances, the world-class performing arts presenter at UC Berkeley, this weekend will launch its ambitious and wide-ranging 2025–26 season. With a lineup of more than 80 performances, the new season is a compelling exploration of artistic expression across a multitude of genres, from classical music and contemporary dance to theater and global traditions.

Executive and Artistic Director Jeremy Geffen described the season as a reflection of the “curiosity and adventurous spirit” of the Berkeley community, emphasizing that the performing arts can and should provide a space for both comfort and revelation. 

Of the season’s more than 80 performances, there are many noteworthy highlights within the organization’s ambitious dance programming, which will showcase a mix of legendary companies, rising stars, and groundbreaking new creations. The season will mark the long-awaited return of the legendary Paris Opera Ballet, which will perform the North American premiere of Red Carpet, a new evening-length work by choreographer Hofesh Shechter. Red Carpet will bring together brilliant dancing, captivating staging, and unique costume collaboration with Chanel to “celebrate the confusion between glamour and art” (October 2–4).

Another major highlight of the dance series will be the Cal Performances debut of A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, the company of the MacArthur “genius” grant recipient and celebrated choreographer. As a gay Black man, Abraham’s work is deeply animated by Black and queer culture, often reflecting on themes of love, isolation, and personal and social change (February 21–22). 

The dance lineup also includes the centennial celebration of the Martha Graham Dance Company in GRAHAM100, two performance programs that will combine classic Graham works with newly commissioned dances from contemporary choreographers (February 14–15). Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will return for its 58th annual weeklong Berkeley residency, its first under the new artistic director Alicia Graf Mack (April 7–12). And The Joffrey Ballet will perform Alexander Ekman’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, which is an exuberant and surreal work inspired by the Scandinavian summer solstice festival (April 17–19).

The season’s music programming will be equally rich and broad-ranging. Classical aficionados will be pleased to learn that the season will feature two of the world’s most esteemed orchestras: the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Music Director Emeritus for Life Riccardo Muti (January 17), and London’s Philharmonic Orchestra in two concerts with Principal Conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali and Cal Performances 2025–26 artist-in-residence Víkingur Ólafsson (October 18–19). Ólafsson, an internationally acclaimed pianist, will additionally give a solo recital during the season that will explore Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Op. 109 as a jumping-off point for works by other composers (April 29). 

Expanding to broader musical genres, must-see performances will include Catalan viola da gamba virtuoso Jordi Savall, who will lead his ensembles Hespèrion XXI and La Capella Reial de Catalunya, the Mexico City’s Tembembe Ensamble Continuo, and an international cast of guest musicians from Canada, Guinea, Guadeloupe, Mali, Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, and Venezuela for Un Mar de Músicas (A Sea of Music) (April 21). Broadway star Kelli O’Hara will make her Berkeley debut in a cabaret-style evening (January 31); and jazz vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant will make her highly anticipated return to the campus (February 5).

Celebratory programming honoring seasonal traditions will include Mexican-American singer Lila Downs in a Día de los Muertos program (October 25) and the beloved San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus will present their annual Holiday Spectacular (December 20). The Soweto Gospel Choir will also help ring in the holiday season with their performance of Peace (December 14).

Cal Performances programming continues to be elevated by a season-long Illuminations theme—this year’s being “Exile & Sanctuary”—which is designed to connect the work of the most important artists of our time with research thriving on the UC Berkeley campus to provide perspective on big ideas affecting our world today. “Exile & Sanctuary” programming will include seven distinct performances that delve into how issues of displacement can inform bold new explorations of identity and community; how profound distillations of these complex movements can be found in the creative works that originate in their wakes; and how artistic expression can offer safe harbor during times of unrest or upheaval.

Performances will include the Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens in Sanctuary: The Power of Resonance and Ritual (March 19–20); Manual Cinema’s The 4th Witch, a performance that will use shadow puppetry actors in silhouette, sound design, and live music to tell the story of a girl orphaned by war who unwittingly becomes apprentice to the three witches from Shakespeare’s Macbeth (November 22); and Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band, which will celebrate and extend the contributions of Native musicians, composers, and bandleaders throughout jazz history (March 6).

Over the months of the 2025–26 season, Cal Performances will present these artists and many more, underscoring how the performing arts remain a vibrant and essential part of our ongoing cultural conversation. The new season invites audiences not just to witness great art, but also to engage with the emotions, ideas, and humanity that have the power to speak directly to each one of us. To explore the full season, visit calperformances.org

Arts & Entertainment
Published on August 28, 2025