Maestro Tim Hankewich celebrates 20 years with Orchestra Iowa

Maestro Tim Hankewich is pretty excited about the upcoming season for Orchestra Iowa. There’s a lot of great music planned, but it’s also Hankewich’s 20th year with the symphony: an important milestone and a cause for both celebration and reflection.

It’s been a memorable 20 years for Hankewich, filled with challenges and accomplishments.

“When I talk with my colleagues who are directors elsewhere, almost all of them are absolutely astounded at the adversity this organization has had to withstand over the past 20 years,” Hankewich said. “Not many have had the biblical disasters that we’ve endured: a derecho, pandemic, two floods. And to be able to survive them all is something.”

There were times, for example, after the 2008 flood — which inundated the Paramount and destroyed much of the Orchestra’s music library — when Hankewich could have picked up and left. But he stayed.

When did he realize it was the right decision?

“It was at Brucemore Orchestra after the flood,” Hankewich said. “It was one of the most emotional moments for the orchestra and for the community at large. Such a cathartic moment.”

Christine Bellomy, principal clarinetist at Orchestra Iowa, remembers that time and is grateful for Hankewich’s direction after the flood of 2008.

“It took some leadership and creativity to keep us going,” Bellomy said. Hankewich and orchestra staff had to seek out venues for performances and figure out how to manage without a stable home base. “We were often squished on small stages for performances, but we were glad to still get to play.”

Coincidentally, it was then that the Orchestra began reaching out to develop an audience in the “Southern Corridor”: Iowa City. That turned out to be a successful growth strategy for the Orchestra.

“It’s been great to see the Orchestra grow and extend its reach,” Hankewich said.

Keeping a professional orchestra alive and relevant is an ongoing challenge, even without biblical disasters. Hankewich and the Orchestra face challenges as they develop programming for each new season: what music can they bring to the audience that will be exciting, intriguing and a delight to the ears?

When deciding on the repertoire, the Orchestra tries to keep a balance between audience favorites — like Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, which will be performed in October — and pieces that haven’t yet been performed in the Paramount Theatre, like Mozart’s C Minor Mass.

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Hankewich is most excited about the performance of Mahler’s 6th Symphony, scheduled for next May. Lush and romantic, Mahler symphonies show off virtuosic performances and over-the-top romanticism. They’re also big: Mahler’s 6th requires additional brass and woodwind instrumentalists; the stage will be filled to the edges with musicians.

Because of the extra expense and effort required to perform them, Mahler’s symphonies are rarely done. Musicians get excited when the opportunity arises to play them.

“Musicians will crawl on their hands and knees on broken glass to play this music,” said Hankewich, who also mentions that the Orchestra is having a huge drum and giant hammer built for this particular symphony. The last movement calls for “hammer blows” in the percussion section, signaling the “mighty blows of fate.”

A lover of music of all kinds, Hankewich is also looking forward to conducting music that’s not usually considered part of the classical repertoire.

“Our audience is not monolithic,” Hankewich said. “We perform to a lot of constituencies, a lot of whom are invisible to each other.”

The Orchestra will be featuring more of its popular Film with Live Orchestra concerts this year.

“We got really lucky and got the perfect date to perform to the movie ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ on Nov. 1,” Hankewich said. “Right between Halloween and Christmas.” Silver screen buffs turn out in big numbers to experience their favorite movies on the big Paramount screen, accompanied by a live orchestra.

Later in the year, Looney Tunes fans will get to hum along with Bugs Bunny at the symphony. Remember Bugs and Elmer Fudd cavorting to tunes from “The Barber of Seville?” That’ll be on the big screen, with Orchestra Iowa providing the music.

Overall, it’s a lot of music to prepare. But Hankewich and Orchestra Iowa are ready for it.

“It all comes together really fast,” Hankwich said. Most concerts are performed after only two rehearsals — four rehearsals for the big Masterworks concerts. Some of the Film with Live Orchestra concerts only get one rehearsal.

Hankewich credits his musicians for being able to pull a concert together that quickly.

“It’s a rare privilege to work with them,” he said. “The musicians get better and better every year.”

Bellomy points out that Hankewich’s expertise as a conductor is the special ingredient for successful rehearsals.

“He’s amazing at the one-and-dones, concerts with just one rehearsal,” Bellomy said. “He’ll say ‘just follow me here!’”

Hankewich explains. “I’m a music jigsaw puzzle-ist. I think: How do I rehearse the Orchestra so everything fits together?”

Perhaps the conductor is also a kind of performer, too.

As an undergraduate, Hankewich studied piano performance. He was headed toward a career in professional musical performance as a concert pianist. However, he got sidetracked by conducting when he saw how exciting it was to bring a group of people together to make music.

“I went from having the lifestyle of a monk with hours and hours of practice a day to being a kind of pied piper,” Hankewich said.

Now, his performance is on the podium as a visual representation of the music — keeping time, gesturing to performers to bring out their parts and embodying emotional responses.

“For people who are new to the orchestra experience, seeing the visual nature of music helps decode it,” he said.

Hankewich’s energy, talent and passion for music are evident to musicians and concert-goers alike whenever he steps onto the podium. He leaves it all on the stage.

As someone who grew up in a small town with a strong commitment to music — Dawson Creek, British Columbia Hankewich knows the importance of music for creating community. For him, the Orchestra being a relevant part of a community is an ongoing process.

“That civic contract between the arts and the community is re-negotiated every day,” he said. “We have a really good orchestra because the community wants one. And we have to continually make the case that the community needs one.”