A Message from the President for the 79th UCCA Season

It took patience, persistence, and a dose of good luck, but the booking for our 2026–27 season is a wrap and we are “over the moon” about the performers we will be bringing to the UCCA stage at Mendocino College Center Theatre from September to May.

To give you an idea about our lengthy artist selection process: with Alex de Grassi at the helm, the whole board participates in suggesting, viewing, vetting, voting, and ultimately choosing who we will present to our UCCA audiences. It is an exciting, breath-taking process with several months of maneuvering, negotiating, sitting on pins and needles, pivoting, and often facing seemingly impossible deadlines. But we never lose sight of our commitment to bringing you the best in talent, virtuosity, variety, and inspiring entertainment with each and every performance in each and every season.

Artists’ fees are increasing just like everything else in our world, and in order to stay apace while keeping ticket prices affordable, we gratefully rely upon the generosity of our donors to cover booking fees and operation costs and to continue our Educational Outreach Program (see below). Please donate to the UCCA! https://www.ukiahconcerts.org/donate

Whether you join us for a single concert or for the whole season, we appreciate your enthusiastic support and participation. The Community Concerts are a welcome opportunity to see old friends, meet new people, and bask in the warmth of social connection as you enjoy superb music in a variety of genres. As a special thank you to our season subscribers, we host a private catered reception at the college after our first and last concerts for members to have an opportunity to meet and mingle with the performers. This season, those two special events will take place on September 20th and May 9th.

We believe live music is more vital than ever in these challenging times and making it accessible to people of all ages is a big part of our mission. We aim to do just that by offering free concert tickets to high school students, younger children when accompanied by an adult, and full-time college students enrolled in 12 or more units. All you have to do is call 707-463-2738 to reserve them. Again relying on our donors, we hope to continue bringing artists into local schools for workshops, performances, and master classes. To see photos and read stories of our recent outreach programs, visit Educational Outreach Program on this website.

Live music is an essential part of our community cultural life, so do join as a season member or for individual concerts because . . . Live music makes life better!

Here’s to enjoying great music with you throughout the 2026–27 season

Susanna Janssen