Performing Arts Center at Purchase Announces 2025-26 Lineup

There’s a reason that Ian Driver, the British-born director of The Performing Arts Center (PAC) at Purchase College says he’s a baseball fan.

Just as a baseball team like his New York Mets must develop players to field a major-league operation, “The PAC presents artists at all stages of their careers,” including this season, which begins October 5 and runs through the spring.

The classical crossover Vitamin String Quartet opens the season, performing The Music of Taylor Swift, ‘Bridgerton’ & Beyond.  While some may not know the quartet, that’s part of Driver’s point. Audiences may not have heard yet of Endea Owens and The Cookout (10/12) either, even though the emerging Detroit-raised recording artist, jazz bassist and composer has already won Emmy, Grammy and Peabody awards.

However, most have certainly heard of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a live shadow cast performing the movie as it plays (11/1); saxophonist Branford Marsalis, who returns to the PAC with his quartet on November 14; and the Martha Graham Dance Company.

Graham’s troupe appears March 14 as part of its Graham 100 tour of works by the iconic modern dance choreographer, who blended a dramatic approach, American traditions, Greek mythology and 20^th-century music and art into a distinctive style. Her innovative, American works, Driver adds, encapsulate the qualities that run throughout the season.

Additional dance offerings include Compagnie Hervé Koubi, a mix of contemporary and urban dance and martial arts inspired by Algerian and Mediterranean cultures (10/18); Complexions Contemporary Ballet, led by Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson (11/1); and Ephrat Asherie Dance, a company rooted in African American and Latine street and club dances that collaborated with jazz musician Arturo O’Farrill for an original choreographic work and composition to be performed on February 28.

There’s also plenty of music, everything from a series with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to The PAC’s annual holiday concert with Rob Mathes (December 20 and 21), Great American Crooners (March 22) and Michael Feinstein and the Carnegie Hall Ensemble (April 18).

One musician audiences may recognize is Regina Spektor, the Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter and pianist who returns to Purchase College, her alma mater, for a benefit concert in support of ArtsWestchester on November 21. The benefit comes at a time when federal arts funding is being severely restricted, threatening the creative sector.

Speaking about The PAC’s own situation regarding cuts to federal arts funding, Driver says that there are some grants that are no longer available that The PAC would’ve otherwise applied for. On the bright side, such losses can spur opportunities for collaborations that are mutually beneficial. “It’s an exciting way to work,” he says, particularly with ArtsWestchester, which he adds has supported the ecosystem of artists in the county for 60 years.

Driver is also enthused by the idea that a student watching a performance at The PAC may become part of the college’s programs and, like Spektor, return one day as a professional to The Performing Arts Center.

“I’m proud of that legacy…proud that the center can play a role in that…. It’s all part of the creative continuum.”

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_{Photos (top to bottom): Vitamin String Quartet (photo courtesy of the PAC); production still from Rocky Horror Picture Show (photo courtesy of the PAC / photo credit: Criterion Pictures USA); Compagnie Hervé Koubi (photo courtesy of the PAC / photo credit: Mélanie Lhôte); Regina Spektor (photo courtesy of the artist)}