We can’t wait to welcome you inside the new Hancher Auditorium! Join us on September 9 for a ribbon cutting at 3:00 pm followed by tours of the new facility. The new Hancher Box Office will be open for the first time during this open house!
Past Season Events
We can't wait to welcome you inside the new Hancher Auditorium! The Hancher Showcase will also be open during the open houses.
Free
Music
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue and Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Friday, September 16, 2016
The music of New Orleans—both old school and of the moment—comes to Iowa City in this free outdoor event.
Music | Comedy
Steve Martin and Martin Short
An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life
Saturday, September 24, 2016
Music | Comedy
Steve Martin and Martin Short
An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life
Saturday, September 24, 2016
Two comedy legends will keep you laughing all night in a performance that—despite its title—we suspect you’ll always remember. Joined by Steve Martin’s bluegrass band, the Steep Canyon Rangers, Martin and Martin Short will blend banter and banjos on an historic night for Hancher.
Music
David Sanborn Electric Band
A collaboration with the UI School of Music
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Music
David Sanborn Electric Band
A collaboration with the UI School of Music
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Saxophonist David Sanborn studied jazz at the University of Iowa in the early days of the program before going on to fame. In this special concert, Sanborn returns to play not only with his own band, but with fellow alumni of the UI jazz program.
Theater
Puppet State Theatre Company of Scotland
The Man Who Planted Trees
Sunday–Thursday, October 2–6, 2016
Theater
Puppet State Theatre Company of Scotland
The Man Who Planted Trees
Sunday–Thursday, October 2–6, 2016
Walk the countryside with a man and his dog, changing the world with every step. The Puppet State Theatre Company of Scotland brings Jean Giono’s classic environmental tale to life in this funny and heartwarming performance that offers delights for everyone in your family.
Known as “the people’s diva,” Renée Fleming possesses one of the most beautiful and beloved voices in the world. As one of the first performers on the new Hancher stage, she will enchant you with her peerless soprano voice in this recital performance.
The New York Times calls it "the best musical of this century." The Washington Post says, “it is the kind of evening that restores your faith in musicals.” It’s The Book of Mormon, the nine-time Tony Award®-Winning best musical.
Dance | Storytelling
Dance | Storytelling
Step Afrika!
The Migration: Reflections of Jacob Lawrence
Thursday, October 20, 2016
The Migration, Step Afrika!’s new signature work, is based on Jacob Lawrence’s iconic series of paintings charting the African-American movement from south to north in the early 1900s.
Sold Out
Hancher's Culinary Arts Experience
Hancher’s Culinary Arts: Pullman Bar & Diner
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Hancher's Culinary Arts Experience
Hancher’s Culinary Arts: Pullman Bar & Diner
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Join your family and friends for a unique dining experience in a beautiful setting. Pullman Bar & Diner will offer an amazing dinner in the Stanley Café.
Cellist Maya Beiser’s art has always been about breaking and blurring boundaries, from her years with Bang on a Can All-Stars to her commissioned solo work. Beiser will perform music by Pulitzer Prize winner and UI alumnus David Lang.
Laurie Lewis embodies music. Sing Out! puts it this way: “It’s not too much of a stretch to suggest that if the ‘Americana’ format wasn’t invented for her, it should have been.”
Music | Comedy
Pomp, Brass, and Lunacy!
Tomáš Kubínek with Orchestra Iowa, University Choirs, and Very Special Guest Wycliffe Gordon
Saturday, November 5, 2016
Music | Comedy
Pomp, Brass, and Lunacy!
Tomáš Kubínek with Orchestra Iowa, University Choirs, and Very Special Guest Wycliffe Gordon
Saturday, November 5, 2016
Neo-vaudevillian and Hancher favorite Tomáš Kubínek returns to wrestle with Maestro Timothy Hankewich and Orchestra Iowa in this Hancher-commissioned collision of classical music and comedy.
You could call it post-bop Latin jazz. Or you could just call it perfect. Saxophonist Joe Lovano and pianist Chucho Valdés—revered jazz elders who remain at the forefront of the music—come together for a concert that combines their sensibilities.
Hancher's Culinary Arts Experience
Hancher’s Culinary Arts: Atlas & Basta
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Hancher's Culinary Arts Experience
Hancher’s Culinary Arts: Atlas & Basta
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Join your family and friends for a unique dining experience in a beautiful setting. Atlas serves up a local organic menu while Basta is an energetic Italian restaurant featuring pizza and pasta.
Hancher is proud to present special preview performances of the Joffrey Ballet’s new rendition of The Nutcracker. Featuring choreography by Christopher Wheeldon and an updated story and art by Brian Selznick, this Nutcracker is set in Chicago during the 1893 World’s Fair.
When it came time to choose a piano for the new Hancher facility, we invited Emanuel Ax—one of the world’s finest musicians—to help us make the selection.
Asleep at the Wheel will boogie into the holiday season with its Western swing sound—a sound Benson calls “jazz with a cowboy hat.” Or perhaps a Santa hat.
Known for its superb concert programming, The Cleveland Orchestra will perform Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Major, Opus 44 and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Opus 43.
Dancer and choreographer Kyle Abraham employs a movement vocabulary both sensual and provocative to engage with issues of identity and social justice. The program will include three recent works.
The hills are alive! A brand new production of The Sound of Music, directed by three-time Tony Award® winner Jack O’Brien, is now on tour across North America.
Dance
Dance
Soil
Conceived, co-written, and directed by Michael Sakamoto
Wednesday–Thursday, February 8–9, 2017
World Premiere. Co-choreographed by its performers, Soil investigates crises in three Southeast Asian cultures while exploring transnational, East-West identities via personal narratives and choreography. Co-creator Michael Sakamoto is a Professor of Dance at the University of Iowa.
Music
The Ying Quartet with Billy Childs
A collaboration with the UI String Quartet Residency Program
Saturday, February 11, 2017
Music
The Ying Quartet with Billy Childs
A collaboration with the UI String Quartet Residency Program
Saturday, February 11, 2017
The Ying Quartet—longtime Hancher favorites—come together with pianist and composer Billy Childs, an artist who fashions a distinctly American voice from diverse musical materials.
Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq will perform a live accompaniment to the silent movie Nanook of the North, a film rife with stereotypes of native people in Northern Quebec. Tagaq’s haunting vocal expression is unnerving, exquisite, and authentic.
MAMMA MIA! is the ultimate feel-good show that has audiences coming back again and again. Now it's your turn to have the time of your life at this smash-hit musical.
Australia’s National Circus infuses Down Under energy into a high flying art form. Upending expectations while delivering a mesmerizing evening of entertainment, Circus Oz breaks down the fourth wall and invites everyone into its big tent of delights.
A longstanding Hancher tradition returns with The Hancher Guild Youth Art Show! The opening reception for this celebration of the young artists in our community will include light refreshments, a performance by a visiting Hancher artist, and the announcement of award-winners.
Join your family and friends for a unique dining experience in a beautiful setting. Owners and friends Naftaly Stramer and Ofer Sivan created Oasis—The Falafel Joint in the summer of 2004 when they noticed a lack of falafel and Mediterranean food in the Iowa City community.
In 2015, Club Hancher audiences were treated to stirring performances by Las Cafeteras, the East LA band steeped in music, community activism, and the connection between the two. The band returns for a mainstage performance.
Founded in 2011, Jessica Lang Dance has rocketed to prominence with its contemporary work fueled by classical ballet and striking design elements.
Music
Music
The Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra
By George! The Pops Plays Gershwin
Saturday, March 25, 2017
The Boston Pops celebrates one of the key composers of the Great American Songbook. Enter a world of speakeasies and bathtub gin, of flappers and Tin Lizzies, of jazz and a man named George Gershwin.
Leslie Odom Jr. had his Broadway debut in 1998 at age 17 in Rent. But his Tony Award-winning portrayal of Aaron Burr— “the damn fool who shot him”—in Hamilton shot him to fame as he and his castmates shined a new light on America’s founding figures.
Free
Lecture
David J. Skorton
Education and What We Value: How STEM and the Liberal Arts Nourish Each Other
Thursday, March 30, 2017
Lecture
David J. Skorton
Education and What We Value: How STEM and the Liberal Arts Nourish Each Other
Thursday, March 30, 2017
Currently the 13th Secretary of the Smithsonian, Doctor David J. Skorton served as the 19th president of the University of Iowa from 2003–2006 and was a member of the UI faculty for 26 years before becoming the 12th president of Cornell University.
Short story writer Kelly Link invites readers into the slipstream with stories of the fantastic. Link has collected a Hugo Award, three Nebula Awards, and a World Fantasy Award. Her most recent collection, Get In Trouble, was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize.
Music | Literature
Music | Literature
Andrew Bird
and My Brightest Diamond
Part of Mission Creek Festival
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
In collaboration with the festival and SCOPE Productions, Hancher will present singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bird. “Here I am with my most unguarded, direct, relatable album to date,” Bird says of his latest record, Are You Serious. “Go easy on me.”
Fred Hersch’s acclaimed trio will take to the Club Hancher stage for four concerts, each sure to highlight the chops and creativity that led Downbeat to call the pianist “one of the small handful of brilliant musicians of his generation.”
Hancher's Culinary Arts Experience
Hancher Culinary Arts Experience: Share
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Hancher's Culinary Arts Experience
Hancher Culinary Arts Experience: Share
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Join your family and friends for a unique dining experience in a beautiful setting. All of the signature items at Share, located in the Sheraton Iowa City Hotel, are prepared using fresh ingredients that are sure to fulfill a variety of culinary cravings.
“My love of soccer is a heritage story.” So says poet and performer Marc Bamuthi Joseph, and his new multi-disciplinary work considers the game as a conduit for both joy and corruption around the globe.