2025–26 Prior Presents Season

Bestselling authors. Genre-bending chamber ensembles. Rising stars of contemporary dance.

The internationally acclaimed artists of the 2025–26 Prior Presents Season embody our vision for artist residencies at The Prior Performing Arts Center. Defined by exceptional artistic quality, interdisciplinary impulses, and the potential to spark both wonder and reflection, this annual series celebrates artistic risk-taking and the exchange of ideas and perspectives from around the globe.

Tickets on sale August 12, 2025. Read below for a short preview of each confirmed presentation.

Schedule of Presentations

Sep 16, 2025 @ 6 p.m.
Luth Concert Hall

MacArthur Fellow Hanif Abdurraqib is an award-winning poet, essayist, and music and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His newest release, There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension (Random House, 2024), was a New York Times Bestseller and longlisted for the National Book Award in nonfiction. His 2021 book, A Little Devil In America: Notes on Black Performance, placed as a finalist for the National Book Award.

Sep 25 & 26, 2025 @ 7:30 p.m.
Boroughs Theatre

How do we experience loss? How can we hold and appreciate what has been left to us? A new program from the Papermoon Puppet Theatre Company of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Puno, Sewing Memories tells the story of Tala, a young girl coping with her father’s passing, through a poignant performance with astonishing modernist puppets.

PRIVATE EVENT FOR HOLY CROSS COMMUNITY
Oct 20, 2025 @ 6 p.m.
Luth Concert Hall

From Grammy- and MacArthur-winner Osvaldo Golijov, The Prior’s Composer-in-Residence, comes a thrilling new work-in-progress on the creation of the universe. At this special sneak peek, audiences will hear selections performed by three of Golijov’s closest collaborators, each of whom embody entire cosmogonies in their music-making: Iranian kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor, who harvests endless melodies from the remote past; legendary percussionist Cyro Baptista, who channels the rhythmic universes of Africa and Brazil; and electronic artist Jeremy Flower, whose music speaks of the future.

Nov 14, 2025 @ 7:30 p.m.
Luth Concert Hall
Co-presentation with Music Worcester

A potent symbol of unity in diversity, the American Patchwork Quartet draws influences from American folk, jazz and country as well as West African and East Asian styles to blend tradition and innovation in a celebration of America’s cultural mosaic. A co-presentation with historic local arts presenter Music Worcester.

Nov 21, 2025 @ 7:30 p.m.
Luth Concert Hall

Rooted in the rhythms of Senegal and Mali, Djapo combines traditional West African dance with contemporary African club culture, Afrobeats, and live percussion shaped through the intergenerational collaboration of celebrated dance artists and mother/son duo Marie Basse-Wiles and Omar Wiles.

Feb 19, 2026 @ 6 p.m.
Luth Concert Hall
Co-presentation with the Department of Visual Arts

Christine Sun Kim is a Berlin-based artist who works with sound, language, and the complexities of communication. She uses musical notation, infographics, and language—both in her native American Sign Language (ASL) and written English—to create drawings, site-specific murals, paintings, video installations, and sculptures. In her lecture-performance Deaf Death, Kim explores the frequent autocorrection of “deaf” to “death” in text-based technologies. 

Mar 12, 2026 @ 7:30 p.m.
Luth Concert Hall
Co-presentation with the Department of Music

Composer, drummer and dhol player Sunny Jain celebrates cultural diaspora and the interconnectedness of global styles with his band in Wild Wild East, a raucous, powerful, and jubilant recognition of a truly American spirit.

Mar 19, 2026 @ 7:30 p.m.
Luth Concert Hall

Acclaimed choreographer Caleb Teicher brings the best of the swing dance world to The Prior, with live music by the Eyal Vilner Big Band. Conceived by Caleb Teicher alongside collaborators Evita Arce, LaTasha Barnes, Nathan Bugh, Macy Sullivan, and Eyal Vilner, SW!NG OUT features exciting Lindy Hop choreography and improvisation. Each performance concludes with an on-stage jam session, inviting audiences to join in the fun!

Mar 29, 2026 @ 6 p.m.
Luth Concert Hall

yMusic is a genre-leading American chamber ensemble renowned for its innovative and collaborative spirit, working on both sides of the classical/popular music divide without sacrificing rigor, virtuosity, charisma or style. Praised by NPR Music as “deeply, profoundly skilled,” yMusic has been tapped to lend their orchestral sound and instantly-recognizable style to recordings and concert projects by a dizzying array of popular artists from John Legend to Paul Simon.