Orchestra Iowa returning to Brucemore to open season

CEDAR RAPIDS - Something big is about to happen at Brucemore.

Music.

“Burana at Brucemore” is “the largest and most significant cultural event of the year,” declares Timothy Hankewich, Orchestra Iowa's music director.

“Carmina Burana,” Carl Orff's bombastic hourlong work, will unite 130 singers and 90 instrumentalists Saturday night on the front lawn at Brucemore mansion, 2160 Linden Dr. SE. The piece is featured in the second half of the orchestra's season-opening concert, which begins at 7 p.m. with Beck's “Majestic River” and three arias featuring the “Carmina Burana” vocal soloists.

If the name of Orff's work doesn't ring a bell, the opening strains will. They helped put the fear factor in “The Omen” in 1976 and torpedoed the tension through “The Hunt for Red October” in 1990.

The epic work has been a driving force in commercials and on other movie soundtracks, as well, from 2003's “Cheaper by the Dozen” to 2007's “Epic Movie.” But a 1981 Arthurian tale is where the maestro discovered the majestic music.

“?‘Excalibur' was the first time I heard that piece, as an adolescent,” says Hankewich, 41, of Cedar Rapids. “I spent the next three weeks trying to hunt that piece down.”

Hankewich says the concert is significant for two reasons.

“As a musical endeavor, some of the music is the most engaging in our repertoire, whether it's ‘Nessun Dorma,' one of the most beloved arias ever written, or ‘Carmina Burana,' featured in films,” he says.

“Most importantly, I'm excited about the social event,” he says. “This concert is designed to draw people together, certainly in the audience, but also looking to the chorus as an example.

“Technically, the Cedar Rapids Concert Chorale, the Children's Discovery Chorus and the Coe College Concert Choir are performing this,” he says. “However, a great many people from Chorale Midwest, from Iowa City and other people are coming from throughout the community to participate, so there are more people performing in this program than ever before. I am so excited about that.”

Daniel Kleinknecht, founder of the Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre and Orchestra Iowa's newly appointed resident conductor, will step to the podium for the first half of the program. This will allow Hankewich to hear the orchestra from the audience's perspective.

“Not only in a setting like this, which is so dependent on the sound engineer, but in a concert hall, the space in which you're playing is another instrument,” Hankewich says, “and it reacts to instruments differently. In hearing what the audience is hearing, I can adjust my conducting. One room may favor trumpets over strings or another room may cover the woodwinds, so I can adjust the seating arrangements. That kind of information is really valuable. And finally, to also be aware of the general concert experience of our patrons is crucial.”