CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Krannert Center for the Performing Arts’ 2015-16 season will feature international stars whose roots are in Champaign-Urbana or at the University of Illinois.
The lineup also includes jazz from a legendary Chicago musician and a big band telling a futuristic urban fable. A baroque orchestra will perform on period instruments, and a percussionist will make music on a bicycle. Flamenco artists, Chinese acrobats and the Moscow Festival Ballet all will occupy a stage during the season.
Early in the season, Julie and Nathan Gunn will give five performances together in a cabaret-style setting in the Studio Theatre. Nathan Gunn is a world-renowned opera singer, the general director of the University of Illinois’ Lyric Theatre program, a professor of voice at Illinois and an alumnus. Julie Gunn is a pianist, music director, vocal coach and song arranger, the director of the Lyric Theatre program, a professor of accompanying and an alumna.
The couple has performed together in the past in the Great Hall at Krannert Center, but their performances in the Studio Theatre will offer audiences a chance to see them in a more intimate setting.
Singer and songwriter Somi was born in Champaign-Urbana to African parents and is a U. of I. alumna. She performs a fusion of jazz and African music, and her most recent album, “The Lagos Music Station,” is the product of 18 months spent in Lagos, Nigeria, in search of new inspiration. She’ll also perform in a club-style setting in the Studio Theatre.
In “Steel Hammer,” the SITI Company and Bang on a Can All-Stars explore the cost of hard labor on a person’s body and soul. The music-theater piece, revolving around the legend of John Henry, was written by composer Julia Wolfe of Bang on a Can. Wolfe won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for music.
The National Theatre of Scotland will present one of its signature pieces, “The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart.” The story about an academic’s dreamlike journey of self-discovery is based on Scottish border ballads and features live music, “devilish encounters and wild karaoke.”
Take 6, an a cappella group with 10 Grammys among its numerous musical awards, will take the stage of the Tryon Festival Theatre in March 2016. Its visit will coincide with the Intercollegiate Men’s Choruses Centennial Seminar, to be hosted by the Varsity Men’s Glee Club and director Barrington Coleman.
Legendary jazz drummer Jack DeJohnette of Chicago will make his first appearance at Krannert Center, performing with tap dancer Savion Glover.
JazzReach: An Evening with the Metta Quintet will bring the jazz quintet to the stage, along with local high school students. The JazzReach program, “Sittin’ In & Groovin’ Out,” is a three-day mentoring program during which students rehearse with the Metta Quintet, then join them on stage to perform.
Brooklyn Babylon features an 18-piece big band performing an original score and incorporating live painting and projected animation. The urban fable it tells imagines a futuristic Brooklyn with a giant tower in its center.
Among the performers in Krannert’s Great Hall series are some of the finest orchestras in the world. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra makes its annual visit to the Great Hall in October. The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra will perform music by George Handel on period or reproduction period instruments, while the Polish Baltic Orchestra will feature the music of Tchaikovsky.
Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard will perform with Grammy Award-winning classical guitarist Sharon Isbin. Isbin is the artist-in-residence for ELLNORA: The Guitar Festival, which opens Krannert’s season. Finally, the Utah Symphony Orchestra will feature a percussion soloist when it visits Krannert for the first time at season’s end next April.
Classical music lovers can hear the Jupiter String Quartet in late September at its first of three performances next season. The Classical Mix series also includes the string quartet Takács Quartet; cellist Matt Haimovitz and the vocal ensemble Voice, who will perform “If Music Be the Food of Love,” a concert including Shakespearean song in honor of the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death; pianist Richard Goode, who will perform a concert of Bach pieces; and Trio Voce, a group featuring piano, violin and cello, known for its interpretation of music by Shostakovich.
Flamenco dancer and choreographer José Porcel and his company will present classic flamenco in “Compañia Flamenca José Porcel: Flamenco Fire.”
PHILADANCO, the Philadelphia Dance Company, will present a tribute to its founder, Joan Myers Brown, as well as to James Brown. Other dance performances next season include the Moscow Festival Ballet, which will perform “Swan Lake,” “Don Quixote” and “Cinderella,” and the Mark Morris Dance Group, returning to its Midwest home.
The Krannert season also will include an appearance by The National Circus and Acrobats of the People’s Republic of China, and Evalyn Perry’s SPIN, “starring the bicycle as muse, musical instrument and agent of social change.” SPIN is inspired by the first woman to ride a bicycle around the world in 1894. The spoken word/theater/music performance features a percussionist whose instrument is a bicycle.
Tickets for the 2015-16 season at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts go on sale Aug. 15. For a complete schedule of performances, go to krannertcenter.com.