CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Krannert Center for the Performing Arts’ 2026-27 season features a variety of performers that include Broadway stars Audra McDonald and Renée Elise Goldsberry, as well as Champaign-Urbana natives Somi and Sasha Velour. The season will feature a musical tribute for America’s 250th celebration, as well as jazz musicians, symphony orchestras, theater and dance groups.
Tickets will go on sale to the public on Aug. 13 at 10 a.m. at krannertcenter.com.
Opening Night Party and early-season performances
Krannert Center’s Sept. 3 Opening Night Party will focus on global performances and amplifying Champaign-Urbana as a cultural hub. The performers include Mucca Pazza, a 28-piece punk marching band that will start its set with a procession accompanied by the Marching Illini and large-scale puppets. Other opening night performers are Antibalas, playing Nigerian-influenced funk and jazz known as Afrobeat, in the style of Fela Kuti; Dr. Nativo, a Central American musician whose music reimagines traditional rhythms; Funkadesi, a Chicago-based group playing bhangra, Bollywood, folk, reggae, funk and Afro-Caribbean music; and DJ Silkee, a local deejay who runs the She Spins DJ Camp for girls and is an instructor in the School of Music.
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Following Opening Night, the season will begin with “I Hear America Singing,” a multimedia event for America’s 250th celebration. Directed by Sarah Wigley, a voice professor in Illinois’ Lyric Theatre program, the event includes performances by theatre professor emerita Lisa Gaye Dixon and the co-directors of Lyric Theatre, opera star and voice professor Nathan Gunn and pianist and professor of accompanying Julie Gunn. The event will feature music from various genres, such as traditional spirituals, and the words of Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes and Martin Luther King Jr.
In the early fall, Somi — a singer, composer and writer of Rwandan and Ugandan descent, born in Champaign and an Illinois alumna — comes back to Krannert Center to perform her fusion of jazz and African music.
Drag queen, visual artist and former Urbana resident Sasha Velour is returning to Krannert Center in October with “TRAVESTY,” the story of the queer life of a single location over time, with Velour embodying the different characters.
Broadway, orchestras and classical series
Renée Elise Goldsberry — the singer and actress who played Angelica Schuyler in the original Broadway production of “Hamilton,” for which she won a Tony Award and a Grammy Award — will perform next spring with the Illinois Wind Symphony, the premiere ensemble of the University of Illinois Bands. The concert will feature jazz, blues, pop, rock and Broadway show tunes.
Broadway star Audra McDonald is a six-time Tony Award winner and the first person to win awards in all four acting categories, as well as the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Emmy Award and the National Medal of Arts. “An Evening with Audra McDonald” will close out the season with performances of Broadway tunes and selections from the Great American Songbook.
Between those early- and late-season performances, Krannert Center will host a wide variety of artists. In “The Space Between the Notes,” renowned sitar player Niladri Kumar will honor the late tabla virtuoso and architect of world music Zakir Hussain. Kumar and Hussain played together many times and toured as a duo in 2022, when they played at Krannert Center.
The Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra will perform the “ONE PIECE Music Symphony,” an arrangement of music accompanying highlights of the Japanese anime TV series “One Piece” that will be projected on a big screen. The orchestra will play concerts throughout the season.
The Great Hall Classical Series features the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; Grammy Award-winning orchestra Apollo’s Fire with soprano Jeanine De Bique, performing “ECHOES Across the Atlantic,” exploring the historical connections between Europe and the Caribbean colonies; violinist Midori with Festival Strings Lucerne; and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with violinist Augustin Hadelich.
Jazz, theater and special events
Grammy Award-winning bassist Stanley Clarke plays a fusion of jazz, rock, funk and rhythm and blues. He’ll perform with his longtime collaborator, the pianist Hiromi, and the ensemble PUBLIQuartet in a tribute to the late jazz pianist Chick Corea, who was a bandmate of Clarke and a mentor to Hiromi.
Other jazz performances include saxophonist Joshua Redman, who has a new album out, “Words Fall Short.” He’ll return to Krannert Center for the first time in 10 years with his quartet.
Jazz guitarist and composer Mary Halvorson is the recipient of a 2019 MacArthur Foundation fellowship (known as a “genius” grant) and numerous Guitarist of the Year honors from DownBeat magazine. She is touring with her new group Canis Major.
Six-time Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist Samara Joy has been compared to Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald.
French classical guitarist Raphaël Feuillâtre will perform in an ELLNORA Reverb event. Feuillâtre has a passion for chamber music, and his new album “Spanish Serenades” features Spanish masterpieces.
The Neo-Futurist Ensemble is a Chicago-based collective of writers, directors and performers who create interactive theater that is “a fusion of sport, poetry and living newspaper.” It will perform the group’s flagship show, “The Infinite Wrench,” an ever-changing performance of 30 plays in 60 minutes.
The musical trio Meyer, Marshall, Meyer – Edgar Meyer on bass, Mike Marshall on mandolin and guitar, and George Meyer on violin – will play Americana, roots, jazz and global music.
Cirque Mechanics combines circus arts, acrobatics, mechanical marvels and storytelling in its shows. “Tilt!” is based on 1980s amusement parks and arcades that reignite shared joy.
Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Sam Green’s work “TREES” is a collaboration with author and environmentalist Rebecca Solnit that explores our relationship to trees. The film features actress Judi Dench and former U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón. The live cinema event features Green narrating the film in person while musicians provide a live soundtrack.
The Blind Boys of Alabama are gospel legends, winners of six Grammy Awards and inductees into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Their performance at Krannert Center will be a tribute to Stevie Wonder and his album “Songs in the Key of Life.”
Dance, campus artists and season schedule
Illinois dance professor and award-winning choreographer Cynthia Oliver will present “Turn, Turning, TURNT,” a performance of three interconnected Afro-futuristic works exploring recovery, remembrance and reimagining. Oliver collaborated with Jason Finkelman, artistic director of Global Arts Performance Initiatives at Illinois, and graphic design professor Stacey Robinson. The works will be performed by Illinois dance alumni.
The Mark Morris Dance Group and Music Ensemble will be at Krannert Center for its annual residency and perform Holidayland, a family-friendly show about traditions across cultures and seasons, by the author of the “Goosebumps” book series.
The season will include a series of performances by Jupiter String Quartet and Sinfonia da Camera, as well as performances of Illinois’ theatre, Lyric Theatre and dance programs.
A full schedule of the 2026-27 season performances is online at krannertcenter.com.
