Best bet – Orchestra Iowa

Ferocious phoenix

By Diana Nollen

I believe everything Tim Hankewich tells me. So when the Orchestra Iowa maestro told me last spring that he was most looking forward to this weekend's Shostakovich violin concerto, that's reason to sit up and take notice. And buy a ticket or two.

That's a ringing endorsement in a season that began with “Carmina Burana” at Brucemore and featured Mozart's Requiem and Bach's “Brandenburg” Concerto along the way.

The season finale concert, titled “Phoenix Rising,” also includes Stravinsky's wild “Firebird” and “Vigil,” a Russian Orthodox-inspired piece by Dubuque native Michael Gilbertson, who is studying at Juilliard in New York. Hankewich calls him “an amazing talent.”

Performance times are 8 p.m. Saturday, May 15, 2010, at Sinclair Auditorium in Cedar Rapids and 2 p.m. Sunday, May 16, 2010, at West High School in Iowa City.

Getting back to the Shostakovich concerto, Hankewich describes it as “a very meaty, dramatic piece.” It features guest soloist Augustin Hadelich, 26, of New York, a rising star among violinists.

“One of the challenges for an orchestra our size is to find soloists on the brink of a great career,” Hankewich says. “We were able to engage Augustin as his career was taking off. We wouldn't be able to afford him now.”

Hadelich, born in Italy to German parents and also schooled at Juilliard, has performed in the Louvre, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Hollywood Bowl and with orchestras across the United States, Europe, Tokyo and Brazil.

He will speak at the free “Insight” discussions one hour before each concert.

What better way to end a season than with a blaze of glory?

Tickets are $14 to $39 through the Orchestra Iowa Ticket Office, 119 Third Ave. SE, (319) 366-8203, 1-(800) 369-8863 or

www.orchestraiowa.org