Jeremy Geffen Introduces the 2025–26 Season
A Letter from Executive and Artistic Director, Jeremy Geffen
By Jeremy Geffen, Executive and Artistic Director of Cal Performances
Welcome to Cal Performances’ 2025–26 season, the Bay Area’s most wide-ranging selection of music, dance, and theater. This season, we’re thrilled to bring you more than 80 events featuring some of the world’s most acclaimed performers—a reflection of the adventurous spirit that Berkeley audiences are famous for.
Our ambitious Illuminations theme of “Exile & Sanctuary” focuses on 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—an idea I hope will ring true for each performance you experience this season.
Of the seven distinct Illuminations programs in our new season, I’d like to draw particular attention to Sarabande Africaine, a thrilling collaboration between superstars Angélique Kidjo and Yo-Yo Ma that explores the intersections between African and European music traditions, to be performed at the Greek Theatre on our season’s opening weekend.
We also welcome the return of Víkingur Ólafsson as our 2025–26 Artist in Residence. This masterful and ever-insightful pianist appears this fall as soloist in two concerts with London’s extraordinary Philharmonia Orchestra under the baton of principal conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali, and returns to our stage for a solo recital in the spring.
Our acclaimed dance series is distinguished by genre-defining artists and major new productions, including the renowned Paris Opera Ballet, making its Cal Performances debut in the North American premiere of a new work by boundary-breaking choreographer Hofesh Shechter; the legendary Martha Graham Dance Company celebrating its centennial; The Joffrey Ballet in an ecstatic and otherworldly celebration of the traditional Scandinavian summer solstice festival; and the long-awaited Cal Performances debut of A.I.M by Kyle Abraham.
All of this, and so much more! As you explore our season calendar, I hope you discover events that offer fresh perspectives, challenge and reward your spirit, and bring you joy. I look forward to seeing you in the audience!
