Orchestra Iowa poised to launch 2023-24 season with ‘Forged in Fire’ concert

Orchestra Iowa pulled out all the stops for last year’s centennial season. So how do you start up again, after a year full of gala celebrations on stage and off?

“It's quite difficult,” Maestro Timothy Hankewich said. “It's the equivalent of a musical hangover. Now we have to be a little bit more responsible with our budgets.

“And now we have to recalibrate our thinking for the next decade rather than the next season. So much of our eggs were put into the basket of our 100th season, so now it's trying to re-imagine what the next decade will look like.”

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He said it also feels “very odd” to not be starting the 2023-24 season on the front lawn of Brucemore mansion. Last year’s rain out of the initial date and the rain date gave the orchestra no choice but to let the sun set on that tradition. It was a popular one that started after the flood in June 2008 ravaged the orchestra’s home at the Paramount Theatre in downtown Cedar Rapids. After a $35 million renovation/restoration, the historic 1928 venue reopened in November 2012, but Brucemorchestra remained the season opening site until this year.

“There is a silver lining in that I am not glued to my cellphone looking at weather forecasts,” Hankewich said. “And I do not miss having to formulate contingency plans almost on an hour to hourly basis. Having said that, I miss it deeply. I miss it dearly, because it launched the season in such a celebratory way that was really meaningful to the community. And knowing that it was birthed from the aftermath of a flood of 2008 symbolizes the community's resilience.

“So it was a very difficult decision to let it go. At the end of the day, however, there were just certain financial realities that made it untenable. When we began the journey 15 years ago with Brucemorchestra, the infrastructure costs to produce the program was within our budget. But over the years, staging and lighting and sound just exploded exponentially, to the point where if there was a weather disaster causing a delay or a cancellation, the financial repercussions were just too onerous. And that's exactly what happened last year.”

Instead of beginning with a bang, the 2022-23 season began with a high five-figure deficit.

“Now I have to figure out what to do next,” he said, “and so this next season gives me a little bit of breathing room to figure out the next step. In many ways, our last concert of the year, which will be at the McGrath Amphitheatre, will be an experiment towards that. It has the advantage of having a stage and a roof already built. The grounds however, are very wide and not very deep, so we have to figure out how to make sure sightlines are as good as they can be for our patrons.”

That concert, titled “Pops on the River,” features the orchestra performing the music of The Eagles with The 7 Bridges Band, described as a “musical experience in an informal, everyone-friendly atmosphere,” to kick off the summer.

“One thing I learned from the flood is that location, where you play, determines what you play. And so the location of where we will ultimately land creates its own personality into what we what we play.”

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A new beginning

Before that peaceful, easy feeling sets in June 1, 2024, comes a fiery beginning this weekend.

Violinist Bella Hristova returns with Brahms Violin Concerto in a concert titled “Forged in Fire,” coming to the Paramount Theatre Saturday night, Sept. 16, and Sunday afternoon, Sept. 17, at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts.

“I'm bringing back some of my favorite soloists — people who I’d started a relationship with prior to the pandemic, and also fostered a relationship during the pandemic,” Hankewich said. “To bring them back for our new century of music is a real treat for me.

“For example, Bella Hristova, our artist for this concert. She played on the second-to-last program before the world shut down for COVID. We kept in touch, and she was one of my guests for my online Happy Hour program. And she was also one of our guest artists for our gala last year, so those who attended that know how special a musician she is.

“To bring her back to literally be the first guest artist of our new century is really something special — I purposely reserved a spot for her.”

And that’s not all.

“Zuill Bailey, the great cellist who joined me last year for my birthday, where we did a chamber recital together, will be back to perform with the orchestra. There's another dear friend of mine whose relationship was fostered over the last decade.

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“And then of course, Joyce Yang. She just brought down the house when she performed the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto (in April 2022). People were tripping over their jaws on the way out of the auditorium, it was so incredible,” Hankewich said.

“So I think our answer to launching the next century is about relationships, about friendship, and about bringing some of the world's finest talent to our community.”

Bulgarian-born Hristova, who lives in New York City after moving to the United States at age 13 to continue her violin studies, will be performing the Brahms Violin Concerto with Orchestra Iowa.

“When you look at the top 10 violin concertos, the Brahms is certainly up there, if not at the top,” Hankewich said. “And in the 17 years that I've been here, I have never programmed it. And I haven't programmed it for very good reason — because it takes an artist of exceptional technical skill. But moreover, one of great, deep musical understanding.

“Whereas last year when we performed the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, which is sort of the top of the mountain in terms of technical demands, the Brahms at the top of the mountain in terms of just depth of musical sensitivity,” he said. “It’s a symphony with a violin — it really is. It is a truly profound piece of music that I was very hesitant for the longest time to program just because I was waiting for the right person.”

Opening the “Forged in Fire” Masterworks concert is William Walton’s “Spitfire Prelude and Fugue.”

“When you’re programming from a 50,000 foot view, you like to try and make sure you have a balance of styles and composers,” Hankewich said. “And for the longest time, there’s been a great deficit in performing English music.”

With Queen Elizabeth’s death and King Charles’ subsequent coronation, Hankewich turned to Walton, who wrote all of the music for the queen’s 1953 coronation.

“William Walton very much inherited Edward Elgar’s stature as the composer of ‘Pomp and Circumstance,’ and so I wanted to start the program off with fanfare and flourish. And we’ll deliver that in spades,” Hankewich said.

“In fact, his style of music would go on to inspire other composers, not the least of which is John Williams, so it has that sort of ceremonial, celebratory feel to it. It’s very much an amuse-bouche or hors d’oeuvre to whet people’s musical appetites.”

Rounding out the season opener is Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5.

“That is symphonic fire,” Hankewich said. His history with the piece dates back to his days in Kansas City, and it’s been at least 10 years since Orchestra Iowa performed it.

“It is an incredible blow for the brass, especially the trumpet,” he said. “You're gonna see a lot of red faces up there. And of course, it’s no picnic for the strings, either. I’m most looking forward to the second movement, which has one of the most soulful horn solos ever written that people are just going to adore.

“The irony of this is, programmatically, the music of Brahms and Tchaikovsky complement each other quite well. They knew each other personally — and they hated each other. … Despite their interpersonal animosity for each other, they both represent music of their time and they complement each other very well. Tchaikovsky's music is very emotional, very heart-on-your sleeve kind of music-making, whereas Brahms is a little bit more buttoned down. A little bit more cerebral, but also much more spiritual in the way he writes. So it just gives you a full gamut of emotions.”

Yet to come

As the season unfolds, he’s especially looking forward to presenting “Carmina Burana,” one of the most famous works for chorus and orchestra, which will be performed at the Paramount Theatre on May 18 and at Voxman Concert Hall in Iowa City on May 19.

“That will be fun,” he said. “The big challenge with that is figuring out how to fit everybody on stage. Similarly, our Christmas program features the Iowa Women’s Jazz Orchestra, which will be fabulous, but it poses the same challenges. How are we going to fit a chorus, a full orchestra and a jazz band on stage? We’re already in operations meetings, figuring out how to make our stage bigger.

“I am really looking forward to having Zuill Bailey come back and play the Dvorak Cello Concerto (in March), a work that was finished in Spillville. That’s another piece that in the 17 years that I have been here, I have not programmed because I was waiting for the right soloist to come along.”

A major development in the works is bringing a new concertmaster into the fold, but that announcement will come after the proposed contract is signed. Stay tuned for more on that, and for more on the orchestra’ 101st season.

Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com