Kronos Quartet and Hancher Auditorium have a deep relationship that dates to the late 1980s. In 2015, the quartet launched Fifty for the Future, a landmark commissioning, performance, and education initiative that has reshaped the contemporary string quartet repertoire with work from composers around the world.

Hancher will present all 50 compositions across nine concerts over four days in spaces throughout their facility. Audiences travel through three of Hancher’s spaces for performances by Iowa-based musicians. The format is part concert, part architectural tour, and each set brings a different texture: percussion ringing through the lobby's open volumes, a low-end duo with electronics in the club space, and a saxophone quartet in the behind-the-scenes backstage transfer area.

Iowa Percussion starts the tour with music by Susie Ibarra inspired by Philippine kulintang traditions. University of Iowa composition professor Jean-François Charles and University of Northern Iowa bass professor Will Yager perform an arrangement of a Tod Machover work for bass clarinet, double bass, and electronics that draws on MIT research into therapeutic brainwaves. They will follow it up with a remix of music by Henry Threadgill. The Dimma Saxophone Quartet, drawn from the UI School of Music’s celebrated saxophone studio, closes with a piece by Fodé Lassana Diabaté which evokes the 13th-century Mali Empire.

PROGRAM

Iowa Percussion: Susie IBARRA: Pulsation / Smith Lobby
Jean-Francois Charles: Todd MACHOVER: Gammified (a version for clarinet(s) and electronics) & Henry THREADGILL: Sixfivetwo / Club Hancher
Dimma Saxophone Quartet: Fodé Lassana DIABATÉ: Sunjata's Time / Transfer Area