Texas Performing Arts, part of the University of Texas at Austin but accessible to everyone, has announced its 2025-2026 season, featuring jazz greats, a banjo genius, playful avant-garde theater, and more. The season kicks off Sunday, November 2, and wraps up Sunday, May 2, 2026, comprising 17 events in total.

Opening the season — at the intersection of Latine musical traditions and vintage radio — are Carrie Rodriguez with the Laboratorio house band, plus singer-songwriters Gaby Moreno and Mireya Ramos with KUTX hosts Laurie Gallardo and Alex Marrero. The evening will be full of both original music and classic covers, plus a "radionovela" reading.

Closing the season is Rhiannon Giddens, one of the most important contemporary banjo players in the world thanks to her historical awareness and talent for teaching while entertaining. Giddens has won two Grammys, a Pulitzer Prize, and a MacArthur “Genius” grant. Her banjo work is full of nuance about slavery, racism, a multi-faceted Appalachia, influence from other cultures, and more.

Also representing America's colorful musical past is jazz trumpeter, composer, and nine-time Grammy-winner Wynton Marsalis. On November 15, he'll lead the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Like Giddens, Marsalis is known for actively promoting jazz and history through jazz, plus musical education, especially for young people. The night's repertoire will contain both new and classic compositions.

Further, the iconic Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater presents Revelations, a renowned history of African-American experience through spirituals, gospel, and the blues on March 3.

On the more explicitly classical side, Chinese pianist Lang Lang presents works by Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Enrique Granados, and Isaac Albéniz; the Miró and Isidore Quartets mark the 200th anniversary of Mendelssohn’s Octet; and Chicago’s Manual Cinema retells Macbeth in The 4th Witch.

As described in a press release, more highlights from the season are as follows:

• A legend of American dance, The Mark Morris Dance Group returns with a heartfelt tribute to the chart-topping songs of Burt Bacharach.
• Visionary artist Robin Frohardt follows up her acclaimed 2022 immersive art experience The Plastic Bag Store, with Shopping Center Parking Lot, finding unexpected beauty in overlooked cityscapes through her unique blend of exceptionally crafted miniature sets and humorous storytelling.
• Austin-based artists Rude Mechs will return to one of their most beguiling works, Not Every Mountain.
• Katie Bender will present her immersive theater work Instructions for a Séance, based on the Harry Houdini archive at UT’s Harry Ransom Center.
• Acclaimed pianist Jason Moran leads a powerful tribute to Duke Ellington at 125 with UT’s Jazz Orchestra, reimagining the jazz legend’s masterpieces with solo flair and big band fire.
• One of the world’s premier brass ensembles, Mnozil Brass brings Strauss to life with virtuosic flair and laugh-out-loud comedy in a brilliantly original tribute to the ‘King of the Waltz.’
• Audiences of all ages will find joy and wonder this season when Cirque Mechanics: TILT! whirls you into a high-flying, gear-turning adventure where acrobatics, invention, and imagination bring a whimsical theme park to life.
• Stuntboy, In the Meantime—a heartfelt family musical adapted from Jason Reynolds’s bestselling graphic novel—follows young Portico Reeves as he navigates friendship, anxiety, and the quiet power of courage and imagination.
• TPA and the Austin Chamber Music Center present the rising Balourdet Quartet—recipients of Chamber Music America’s 2024 Cleveland Quartet Award—for two performances featuring masterful interpretations of Bartók, Ravel, and Brahms.

“This season is a celebration of transformative performance and exceptional artistry,” said Texas Performing Arts executive and artistic Bob Bursey in the release. “We are proud to present artists who are challenging conventions, redefining genres, and offering bold, vital perspectives through music, theatre, dance, and multidisciplinary performance. Each work invites audiences into powerful, immersive experiences that reflect the world in fresh and meaningful ways. We’re especially excited to foster and help develop innovative original works—supporting trailblazing contemporary artists as they bring new ideas to life on stage.”

General ticket sales will begin Friday, June 13, at 10 am at texasperformingarts.org. A presale for Texas Inner Circle members begins Monday, June 9, at noon.