UMS Will Host Project with Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and Composer Kayhan Kalhor

The University Musical Society (UMS) will host a special project with Yo-Yo Ma, Kayhan Kalhor, Carlos Miguel Prieto, and The Orchestra of the Americas in June 2024 on the University of Michigan campus. Joined by a group of students from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD) and Mexico’s Escuela Superior de Musica y Danza Monterrey, the week-long residency will culminate in a public preview performance of Kalhor’s new Double Concerto for Cello and Kamancheh, which will receive its world premiere at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Germany next year. The concert will also feature additional works performed by the orchestra.

UMS was invited to partner with The Orchestra of the Americas both because of its role as a leading university-based presenter in the United States and because of its longstanding relationship with cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The collaborative project is focused around a new concerto for cello and kamancheh by Iranian-American musician Kayhan Kalhor.

The concerto will be workshopped and rehearsed with Ma and Kalhor on the University of Michigan’s (U-M) campus with The Orchestra of the Americas, an international ensemble of university-level musicians from across the Americas and beyond, and on whose Artistic Advisory Council he serves. The residency week in Ann Arbor (June 5-11, 2024), will allow Kalhor, Ma, and the musicians to refine and rehearse the concerto with UMS serving as a convener, partner, and cultural resource by hosting 60 international musicians on U-M’s campus for a week. The musicians will live in U-M residence halls, rehearse at Hill Auditorium, and afford themselves additional opportunities on the U-M campus and in Southeast Michigan.

The residency culminates in a performance on Tuesday, June 11 in Ann Arbor’s Hill Auditorium on the University of Michigan campus. The program will include a preview of the Kalhor Double Concerto, as well as Respighi’s Roman Festivals and Pines of Rome, and Gabriela Ortiz’ Téenek. 

Tickets for the Ann Arbor concert will go on sale Wednesday, January 24 at 10 am at ums.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.