VISITING ARTISTS
The University of Iowa is a destination for artists who are not only committed to world-class practice but also passionate about life-changing instruction. Through our residencies and commissions at Hancher, we invite top-tier and boundary-pushing artists to engage in arts education and enrichment with our Hawkeye community, on campus and beyond.
UI students benefit from up-close classroom and performance experiences with professional artists at the top of their fields, learning firsthand about creating art and what it takes to make a career in the arts—partnering with our faculty to bring new energies and perspectives to enhance their lessons. Additional engagements with community schools and other cultural organizations enrich and enliven our Iowa City and broader community, making spaces where artists can come to develop and present world-class work in conversation with our curious, creative community.
Trisha Brown Dance Company
In November 2025, the Trisha Brown Dance Company was in residence for a week at the University of Iowa, honoring the centennial of groundbreaking American artist Robert Rauschenberg.
The residency included two free public events and collaborative workshops with UI students, who performed alongside the company in a special presentation on November 7.
For University of Iowa dancers, the Trisha Brown Dance Company’s Hancher residency was an unforgettable opportunity to learn directly from one of the most influential dance companies of our time.
For the wider UI campus and Iowa City community, it was a remarkable chance to engage with the work of a modern master in a variety of accessible and interactive environments.
READ MORE + PLAY RESIDENCY RECAP VIDEOTRISHA BROWN DANCE COMPANY WEBSITE
Trisha Brown Dance Company: Dancing with Bob: Rauschenberg, Brown & Cunningham Onstage
November 7, 2025 / 7:30 p.m.
Gabriel Kahane: 2025-2026 Composer-In-Residence
In October 2020, at the end of a year-long internet hiatus, Gabriel Kahane wrote a song each day. “I wanted to…give myself permission to write about small things, rather than trying to distill the enormity of the moment into grand statements,” he explains. His next project? A searing oratorio about the unhoused called emergency shelter intake form. No moment or idea is too big or too small for his capacious talent to excavate.
Kahane is a celebrated singer-songwriter, an arranger for Sylvan Esso and Sufjan Stevens, a creator of works for symphony orchestra, and a composer for musical theater.
Throughout the 2025-2026 season, Kahane did intensive work with students in the University of Iowa School of Music—including performing with the UI Symphony Orchestra on Friday, February 20, in the Voxman Music Building Concert Hall. Over the course of the season, he will also perform in two concerts at Hancher.
GABRIEL KAHANE WEBSITE
University of Iowa Symphony Orchestra: With Gabriel Kahane and Lowell Liebermann
February 20, 2025 / 7:30 p.m.
