We’re kicking off our 50th anniversary season with a splash! Actually, with a lot of splashes! Round up your family and friends to take in amazing feats of high dive derring-do.
Celebrating 50 Years: 1972–2022 – Hancher's Golden Anniversary – We All Rise
Past Season Events
The members of Too Many Zooz call their music “brasshouse.” And the name is apt because Too Many Zooz is raucous, brassy, and more than able to bring the house down.
With three Olympic Gold medals and three World Championship medals under her belt, Gabby Douglas has been the most loved gymnast of this decade.
Theirs are perhaps the most famous names in American journalism. From their famed Watergate reporting for The Washington Post to their individual careers , Woodward and Bernstein are more than Pulitzer Prize winners. They are legends.
Free
Literature | Lecture
Nabil Ayers & James Spooner: Reading and Q&A
Moderated by UI professor Deborah Whaley
Friday, September 23, 2022
Literature | Lecture
Nabil Ayers & James Spooner: Reading and Q&A
Moderated by UI professor Deborah Whaley
Friday, September 23, 2022
Nabil Ayers is a music industry executive, writer, and musician as well as CEO of Beggars Group USA, one of the preeminent global music labels. James Spooner is a revered tattoo artist who just released The High Desert, a new coming-of-age graphic memoir.
Leslie Odom, Jr. is a multifaceted, award-winning vocalist, songwriter, author, and actor. Odom most recently starred in the critically acclaimed Amazon film adaptation of One Night in Miami… in which he performed the songs of legendary singer Sam Cooke.
A Hancher commission and world premiere. HOPE: It’s Been a Long Time Coming commemorates and celebrates South Africa’s Freedom Movement and the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.
Music
Aaron Diehl (piano) and Brandon Patrick George (flute)
Songs of Black America
Friday, October 14, 2022
Music
Aaron Diehl (piano) and Brandon Patrick George (flute)
Songs of Black America
Friday, October 14, 2022
Two of today’s most exciting musicians come together to explore the rich culture of music, both traditional and classical, by Black American composers. The program includes compositions by William Grant Still, Valerie Coleman, and traditional spirituals.
Music
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
All Rise – Symphony No. 1 by Wynton Marsalis
Saturday, October 22, 2022
Music
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
All Rise – Symphony No. 1 by Wynton Marsalis
Saturday, October 22, 2022
All Rise, a monumental work by Wynton Marsalis, is the cornerstone of Hancher’s 50th anniversary season. It blends the sounds of jazz, blues, classical, and indigenous music from around the world to represent humanity’s enduring ascendance over time.
Soprano Dawn Upshaw and the Brentano String Quartet will share music inspired by the ancient myth of Dido culminating in a stirring performance of composer Melinda Wagner’s and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann’s reimagining.
Dance Gala 2022 celebrates its return to the Hancher stage with groundbreaking choreography created by the University of Iowa Department of Dance faculty and the premiere of new work by FLOCK.
Little Orphan Annie has reminded generations of theatergoers that sunshine is always right around the corner, and now the best-loved musical of all time is set to return in a new production—just as you remember it and just when we need it most.
The bestselling Christmas artist of all time comes to Hancher Auditorium for the first time! Enjoy Mannheim Steamroller’s beloved renditions of your holiday favorites in a concert that is sure to be the perfect kickoff to your family’s holiday season.
The University of Iowa Symphony Orchestra and the combined UI choirs—Kantorei, University Choir, Camerata, and Voxman Chorale—come together for the first time since the pandemic began to perform Johannes Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem).
Cantus has a simple but powerful vision: to give voice to shared human experiences. And what beautiful voices they bring to the task. In this holiday concert, the members of Cantus will wrap you in the joyous sounds of the season.
She is known as the “Godmother of Soul” and her hitmaking career has spanned seven decades—and she’s coming to Hancher to help us ring in the holidays.
STOMP is explosive, provocative, sophisticated, and utterly unique while appealing to audiences of all ages. The return of the percussive hit also brings some new surprises. See what all the noise is about.
Enjoy an easy going, semi-acoustic evening with Lake Street Dive. Come sing along as the band performs a revue of their 18-year catalog of songs. Join the band—including bassist and Iowa City native Bridget Kearney—in a relaxed, basement couch setting.
Consistently counted among the world’s greatest orchestras, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra thrills audiences at home and in great concert halls around the world. The CSO returns to Hancher for a concert of beloved music by Beethoven, Liadov, and Mussorgsky.
Pilobolus—that feisty arts organism—is, like Hancher, celebrating 50 years! Turning its traditions sideway and bringing its past into the future, Pilobolus will perform a mix of signature works from the vintage and visionary to the fresh and electrifying.
A modern-day song cycle spun from the skin of history for string quartet, chorus, and narrator, At War With Ourselves – 400 Years of You features a text by award-winning poet Nikky Finney inspired by her 2013 poem “The Battle of and for the Black Face Boy.”
Grammy Award-winner (and longtime Hancher friend) Dan Zanes and Haitian-American jazz vocalist Claudia Zanes perform a mix of old and new songs from near and far in a style that has been called “all-ages social music.”
Joy-Ann Reid is a political analyst at MSNBC and host of The ReidOut. She is a New York Times best-selling author, and also co-hosts a podcast: Reid This-Reid That with veteran TV journalist Jacque Reid.
One of the finest chamber orchestras in the world, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, is renowned for fresh, brilliant interpretations of musical masterworks. The orchestra will be joined by renowned cellist Gary Hoffman.
Alexa Tarantino was named one of the “Top 5 Alto Saxophonists of 2019” by the JazzTimes Critics’ Poll and nominated as a “Rising Star–Alto Saxophone” by the DownBeat 2020 and 2021 Critics’ Poll.
Pianist Isaiah J. Thompson garnered the 2018 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award and earned second place in the Thelonious Monk Competition that same year.
South African jazz vocalist (now based in Harlem) Vuyo Sotashe was the first male singer ever to place in the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Vocal competition—and that’s just one of many honors he has collected.
One of the world’s most beloved musicians and his longtime collaborator come to Hancher for an unmissable concert. Yo-Yo Ma and world-renowned pianist Kathryn Stott have been collaborating since 1985, and their musical connection is simply unmatched.
Musical soulmates Danilo Pérez, John Patitucci, and Brian Blade have long performed together as essential members of the Wayne Shorter Quartet.These three virtuosos celebrate Shorter’s music and introduce new compositions with the Children of the Light trio.
James “The Ragin’ Cajun” Carville is America’s best-known political consultant. Mary Matalin is one of the most celebrated and popular conservative voices in America. Matalin has held many roles, most recently assistant to President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
Cat Power (duo) | Michelle Zauner | Black Belt Eagle Scout
An evening of music and literature
Thursday, April 6, 2023
Cat Power (duo) | Michelle Zauner | Black Belt Eagle Scout
An evening of music and literature
Thursday, April 6, 2023
For Mission Creek’s opening day, Hancher will transform into a single-site festival venue and present a multidisciplinary program featuring Michelle Zauner (author of Crying in H Mart and Japanese Breakfast songwriter), Black Belt Eagle Scout, and legendary artist Cat Power.
Iowa City native Conor Hanick has been called the “soloist of choice for…thorny works” by The New York Times. Hancher welcomes Hanick home for a performance that will feature solo, duo, and trio works.
Undeniably one of the finest string quartets of the last four decades, the Emerson String Quartet has announced it will disband in 2023. Hancher is proud to once again present these incomparable musicians as part of their final tour.
Performing everything from jazz-tinged psychedelia to dissonant cumbia, Dos Santos is at the forefront of a new era of Latinx alternative music. Ratboys is an American indie rock band from Chicago formed by Julia Steiner and Dave Sagan.
With special guest: Tom Hambridge.
At age 86, Buddy Guy is a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, a major influence on rock titans like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and a living link to Chicago’s halcyon days of electric blues.
American Ballet Theatre returns to close Hancher’s 50th anniversary season with a mixed repertory program that is sure to thrill and delight everyone who experiences it.
A singer, composer and actor, Lyle Lovett has broadened the definition of American music in a career that spans 14 albums.