Kronos Quartet, Silkroad Ensemble, and more as the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts announces 2024-25 season highlights
A first peek at the shows in three series, including the all-new Chan Centre Director’s Cut programmed by director Pat Carrabré
Silkroad Ensemble
Kronos Quartet. Photo by Lenny Gonzalez
THE CHAN CENTRE for the Performing Arts has unveiled a first look at some of the performances that will take place as part of its 2024-25 season at UBC, spanning such highlights as the Kronos Quartet and YAMATO Drummers of Japan.
Acts announced across three programming streams include Chan Centre Presents, Chan Centre EXP, and the all-new Chan Centre Director’s Cut series, programmed entirely by Chan Centre director Pat Carrabré. The Juno Award–nominated Métis composer, educator, conductor, and former CBC Radio host’s picks will be hosted in small, intimate venues.
General-public subscriptions will be on sale here as of June 12, and single tickets will be available from June 25 onward.
The majority of the Chan Centre Presents series is programmed by curator-in-residence Jarrett Martineau, with contributions from guest curators David Fung and Dinuk Wijeratne. Leading the series on October 26 is the innovative Kronos Quartet, a U.S. ensemble with over 50 years of performances, 70 albums, and 40 awards under its belt. In a return to the Chan Centre since its last concert here more than a decade ago, the triple-Grammy Award-winning string quartet will perform a brand-new program that highlights its cutting-edge sound. The concert will be Canada’s first chance to hear the group’s new lineup starring violinist Gabriela Díaz and violist Ayane Kozasa.
Another equally anticipated performance this season is the YAMATO Drummers of Japan on March 29, 2025, with a celebration of Hito no chikara, which translates from Japanese to “The power of human strength”. Founded in 1993 by artistic director Masa Ogawa, the renowned taiko group will showcase a reflection on the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence to Vancouver audiences as part of its larger world tour.
On April 6, 2025, Chan Centre Presents will continue with Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali, a Punjabi-Urdu band helmed by brothers Rizwan and Muazzam, nephews to the late master Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The siblings draw upon family legacy and more than three decades of performance history together as the basis for their group’s rich, intense sound that centres on Islamic and Sufi poetry.
In celebration of Black History Month, Grammy-winning saxophonist Ravi Coltrane and Grammy-nominated harpist Brandee Younger will lead Translinear Light: The Music of Alice Coltrane on February 28. The ensemble performance is part of the Year of Alice, honouring the life, legacy, and spiritual jazz accomplishments of pianist-harpist-composer Alice Coltrane.
Yet more shows that will be presented as part of the Chan Centre Presents series include the famed Silkroad Ensemble on March 30 with its Uplifted Voices program, plus Conrad Tao and Caleb Teicher’s exhilarating tap-dance-piano show Counterpoint on February 12.
In Carrabré’s inaugural Chan Centre Director’s Cut series, audiences can look forward to performances by Montreal-based quartet Amir Amiri Ensemble on November 9, and rudra veena (plucked string instrument) player Bahauddin Dagar alongside pakhavaj drummer Tejas Tope, presented in partnership with Early Music Vancouver and the Indian Classical Music Society of Vancouver.
A first peek at the Chan Centre EXP series, programmed by Martineau, promises Inuk musician Elisapie with her immersive multimedia performance Uvattini on September 28. Winner of Contemporary Indigenous Artist of the Year at this year’s Juno Awards, the artist weaves together music, narration, performance, and film to offer insights on both her personal story and her Salluit community in this copresentation with the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Keep an eye out over the next month for the Chan Centre’s full 27th season lineup announcement, which will also include details on the third annual Indigenous festival ʔəm̓i ce:p xʷiwəl (Come Toward the Fire). 
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