Hancher has commissioned 100 new works since 1986
By Rob Cline
On December 5, the University of Iowa’s Hancher presented performance artist Taylor Mac, who performed the 1846–1856 portion of his forthcoming epic work A 24-Hour History of Popular Music. Hancher is a co-commissioner of Mac’s piece, and this support of an artist’s work is important in and of itself.
But this particular commission is especially notable because it is the 100th work Hancher has commissioned.
Hancher’s first commission was James Kudelka’s The Heart of the Matter for the Joffrey Ballet. The world premiere of Kudelka’s piece was presented on the Hancher stage on February 25, 1986.
The next commission is perhaps still Hancher’s most famous. The world premiere of the Joffrey Ballet’s beloved version of The Nutcracker (which is being performed for the final time this month) took place at Hancher on December 10, 1987.
Since then, Hancher has provided financial and physical support (such as space for artists to work on new performances) for a wide array of music, dance, and theater works. Among them, a sizeable number of commissions for the Kronos Quartet; additional commissions for the Joffrey Ballet, including Billboards, which features the music of Prince and had its world premiere at Hancher in 1993; theatre works by Iowa City native Rinde Eckert and by the members of Iowa City’s own Working Group Theatre; and musical compositions focused on Iowa including saxophonist Dave Pietro’s Iowa Memoirs and Stew & The Negro Problem’s collection of songs about Iowa City, both presented in 2012.
Hancher’s commissioning program is in keeping with the University of Iowa’s focus on research as the organization helps artists push their creative work forward.
Works commissioned by Hancher:
James Kudelka for The Joffrey Ballet
The Heart of the Matter
February 25, 1986 (World premiere)
Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino for The Joffrey Ballet
The Nutcracker
December 10–12, 1987 (World premiere)
Laura Dean for Laura Dean Dancers and Musicians
Equator
March 4, 1988 (American premiere)
David Gordon for David Gordon/The Pick Up Company
United States
February 11, 1989
Alessandro Moruzzi for Kronos Quartet
Concept and visual design for Assembly Required
April 2, 1989
Paul Dresher Ensemble
Power Failure
October 27–28, 1989
David Parsons for The Parsons Dance Company
Incandescence (a.k.a. Simply So)
January 19–20, 1990 (World premiere)
Larry Neff for Kronos Quartet
Visual design for Salome Dances for Peace
Visual design for Black Angels
April 6–7, 1990 (World premiere)
Alexander Goehr for Arditti String Quartet
Quartet No. 4
October 8, 1990 (World premiere)
Nina Wiener for Nina Wiener Dance Company
Harmonic Landscapes
October 12–13, 1990
Meredith Monk
Atlas
1991
Dumi Maraire for Kronos Quartet
Mai Nozipo
January 26, 1991 (World premiere)
Christian Marclay and Jay Cloidt with Kronos Quartet
New Work
January 26, 1991 (World premiere)
Bill T. Jones for Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin/The Promised Land
February 2, 1991
Paul Dresher Ensemble
Pioneer
February 8–9, 1991
Libby Larsen for Cleveland Quartet
Quartet: Schoenberg, Schenker Schillinger
May 1, 1991 (World premiere)
Wim Vandekeybus for Ultima Vez
Always the Same Lies
October 16, 1991
Rinde Eckert
The Gardening of Thomas D.
January 22–25, 1992 (World premiere)
Jimmy Gamonet De Los Heros for Miami City Ballet
Danzalta
April 28, 1992
Scott Johnson for Kronos Quartet
How It Happens (Words of I. F. Stone)
November 5, 1992 (World premiere)
Laura Dean, Charles Moulton, Margo Sappington, Peter Pucci, and Prince for The Joffrey Ballet
Billboards
January 27–31, 1993 (World premiere)
Pilobolus Dance Theatre
Rejoyce—A Pilobolus Finnegans Wake
February 27, 1993 (World premiere)
Trimpin
D.R.A.M.A. ohno
September 14–15, 1993
David Parsons for The Parsons Dance Company
Ring Around the Rosie
October 1, 1993 (World premiere)
Bebe Miller for Bebe Miller Company
Nothing Can Happen Only Once
February 26, 1994
Joan Tower for Muir String Quartet
Night Fields
March 1, 1994 (World premiere)
Michelle DiBucci for Kronos Quartet
Arrangement of Raymond Scott's Powerhouse
March 14, 1994
Randall Woolf for Kronos Quartet
Arrangement of Raymond Scott's Twilight in Turkey
March 14, 1994
John Oswald for Kronos Quartet
Mach
March 14, 1994
Bright Sheng for Takács Quartet
String Quartet No. 3
April 4, 1994
Bill T. Jones for Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
Still/Here
September 30–October 1 1994 (American premiere)
David Parsons for The Parsons Dance Company
Touched by Time
1994
Minoru Miki for Pro Musica Nipponia
Lotus Poem
October 17, 1994 (World premiere)
Rinde Eckert
The Idiot Variations
January 19–20, 1995 (World premiere)
Susan Marshall for Susan Marshall & Company
Fields of View
February 10, 1995
Brent Michael Davids for Kronos Quartet
Tunpao Nenangpe
April 8, 1995
Ben Johnston for Kronos Quartet
Arrangement of Harry Partch's Barstow Eight Hitchhikers' Inscriptions from a Highway Railing at Barstow, California
April 8, 1995
Meredith Monk
Volcano Songs
May 2–3, 1995
Jawole Willa Jo Zollar for Urban Bush Women
Bones and Ash: A Gilda Story
September 15, 1995 (World premiere)
Marc Neikrug for Tokyo String Quartet and Pinchas Zukerman
String Quintet
October 13, 1995 (World premiere)
John Corigliano for Cleveland Quartet
String Quartet
October 30, 1995
Tan Dun for Kronos Quartet
Ghost Opera
February 10, 1996
P.Q. Phan for Kronos Quartet
Hoi uc cua ke lac loi (Memoirs of A Lost Soul)
February 10, 1996 (World premiere)
Diamanda Galás
Schrei X
March 27–28, 1996
Mark Morris for Mark Morris Dance Group and Handel and Haydn Society, conducted by Christopher Hogwood
Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice
April 8–9, 1996 (World premiere)
Ben Johnston for Kronos Quartet
Arrangement of Harry Partch's Two Studies on Ancient Greek Scales
January 24, 1998
Robert Lepage and Ex Machina
Geometry of Miracles
September 9–11, 1999 (American premiere)
Traveling Music for Kronos Quartet
Osvaldo Golijov, arrangement of Anibal Troilo’s Responso
Aleksandra Vrebalov, Panonia Boundless
Alicia Svigals, Kale Baveynen II
Hyo-Shin Na, Kahk-seo-ree-ta-ryeung (Song of the Beggars)
Kayhan Kalhor, Gallop of a Thousand Horses
September 15, 1999 (World premiere)
Twyla Tharp for Twyla Tharp Dance
Diabelli
September 17–18, 1999 (American premiere)
Ushio Amagatsu for Sankai Juku
Hibiki (Resonance from Far Away)
October 1–2, 1999 (American premiere)
Susan Marshall for Susan Marshall & Company
The Descent Beckons
October 8, 1999 (World premiere)
Paul Taylor for Paul Taylor Dance Company
Arabesque
October 15–16, 1999 (World premiere)
Bill T. Jones (solo)
The Breathing Show
October 23, 1999 (World premiere)
Lar Lubovitch for American Ballet Theatre
Meadow
November 2–3, 1999
Jawole Willa Jo Zollar for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
C-sharp Street – B-flat Avenue
November 19–20, 1999 (World premiere)
Paul Schoenfield for Ahn Trio
Four Music Videos
January 27, 2000 (World premiere)
Bill T. Jones for Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
You Walk?
March 24–25, 2000 (World premiere)
Brett Dean for Bang on a Can All-Stars with the Australian Chamber Orchestra
Game Over
April 8, 2000 (World premiere)
Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe for Bang on a Can All-Stars with the Australian Chamber Orchestra
Haircut
April 8, 2000 (World premiere)
Steve Martland and Bang on a Can All-Stars with the Australian Chamber Orchestra
Hard Times
April 8, 2000 (World premiere)
Richard Danielpour for Kalichstein–Laredo–Robinson Trio
A Child’s Reliquary
April 13, 2000 (World premiere)
Michael Daugherty for Ethos Percussion Group
Used Car Salesman
April 18, 2000 (World premiere)
Gabriela Ortiz for Dawn Upshaw and Kronos Quartet
Baalkah
May 3, 2000 (World premiere)
Pilobolus Dance Theatre with Leonard Eto
Tsu-Ku-Tsu
September 29–October 1, 2000
Bill T. Jones for Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Evenings of dances and chamber music
January 25–26, 2002 (World premiere)
Kronos Quartet
Nuevo
March 2, 2002 (World premiere)
Terry Riley for Kronos Quartet
Sun Rings
October 26, 2002 (World premiere)
Jawole Willa Jo Zollar for Urban Bush Women
Shadow’s Child
January 24, 2003
Lera Auerbach for David Finckel and Wu Han
Sonata No. 1
February 19, 2003 (World premiere)
Bill T. Jones for Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
Reading, Mercy and the Artificial Nigger
October 11, 2003 (World premiere)
Lin Hwai-min for Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan
Cursive
November 12, 2003
Paul Taylor for Paul Taylor Dance Company
Dante Variations
April 16–17, 2004
Lucas Crandall for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
Gimme
October 9, 2004
Augusta Read Thomas for Chanticleer
Purple Syllables
September 28, 2006
Lukas Foss for Guarneri Quartet
String Quartet No. 5
April 10, 2007
David del Tredici for Orion String Quartet and David Krakauer
Magyar Madness
October 9, 2007
Brian Enos for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
B-Sides (12” Mix)
October 12, 2007
Stefon Harris for Imani Winds
The Anatomy of a Box: a sonic painting in wood, metal and wind
September 25, 2009
Rinde Eckert
Eye Piece
February 5–14, 2010 (World premiere)
Tomáš Kubínek
Professor Kubínek Meets the Symphony
November 5–20, 2010 (World premiere)
Clébio Oliveira for Hubbard Street 2
The Fantastic Escape of the Little Buffalo
September 22–23, 2011 (World premiere)
Dave Pietro
Iowa Memoirs
April 5, 2012 (World premiere)
Sean Christopher Lewis for Working Group Theatre
Mayberry
April 26–29, 2012 (World premiere)
Stew & The Negro Problem
A collection of songs about Iowa City
September 27, 2012 (World premiere)
David Lang for Anonymous 4
love fail
October 11, 2012
Mervyn Warren and Jeff Marx for it gets better, presented by The Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles
“You Have More Friends Than You Know”
October 19, 2012
Aaron Jay Kernis for eighth blackbird
Pieces of Winter Sky
February 6, 2013
Jennifer Fawcett for Working Group Theatre
The Broken Chord
April 12–14, 2013 (World premiere)
Rinde Eckert and San Jose Taiko
Hancher Site Ceremony
June 29, 2013
Jennifer Fawcett for Working Group Theatre
Out of Bounds | children’s theatre
November 18–20, 2013 (World premiere)
Out of Bounds | general audiences
May 1–4, 2014 (World premiere)
Mary Kouyoumdjian for Kronos Quartet
Bombs of Beirut
February 7, 2015
Shulamit Ran for Pacifica Quartet
Glitter, Doom, Shards, Memory
March 6, 2015
Sean Christopher Lewis for Working Group Theatre
All Recipes Are Home
April 17–18, 2015 (World premiere)
Taylor Mac
1846–1856, Whitman vs. Foster: Songs Popular Near the Breaking Point from A 24-Decade History of Popular Music
December 5, 2015
