Orchestra Iowa celebrates centennial with nod to past, present, future

When Orchestra Iowa opens its centennial season with a thundering volley Saturday night, it won’t be from the thundering downpour that sucked the wind out of the sails from the canceled season opener on the front lawn at Brucemore mansion Sept. 17.

This thunder will roll off the timpani inside the Paramount Theatre in downtown Cedar Rapids, and will boom again Sunday afternoon at Hancher Auditorium in Iowa City.

The two Masterworks concerts, titled “Cultural Crossroads,” begin with the world premiere of Jerry Owen’s “Towering Oaks.” And he couldn’t be more thrilled.

“I was just flabbergasted when I saw that location” at the top of the concert, said composer Owen, 78, of Cedar Rapids. “First of all, I was incredibly honored to get the commission to do this. But to have a place at the front of the season — and with Tchaikovsky and Bartok (also on the program) — yikes. It’s a real honor.”

All three works on the program represent the orchestra’s centennial theme of looking to the past, present and future, Maestro Timothy Hankewich said, by including spectacular pieces both vintage and new.

“Audiences will see that our theme for the year is 100 years into the future,” Hankewich said, “because if we just play masterworks of the past, we risk becoming a museum piece. And so, we’re beginning with a new work by Jerry Owen, who is a dear friend of mine, a longtime supporter of the symphony and one of the most accomplished composers in the tri-state area. …

“Also, whenever we perform a new work, that’s sort of our love letter to the future, and hopefully, we are continuing the art form, and also revealing something about ourselves to future generations, through music.

“The main symphonic work of the evening, which is Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra, is one of the great all-time orchestral works ever written,” Hankewich said. “And ironically, when I thought of this, my head almost exploded, but it was written 20 years after the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra was founded.

“So when people think of the orchestra as an ensemble that only plays works of Beethoven and Brahms, there is a huge (number of pieces) in the standard repertory that was written after this orchestra was founded.”

Cho-Liang Lin, guest artist

Between the Owen and Bartok works lies a nod to the past, Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major, featuring internationally renowned guest violinist, Cho-Liang Lin.

This is a work that “strikes fear in the hearts of every violinist,” Hankewich said. “It was considered unplayable for a very long time. And it has become the yardstick by which most artists measure themselves.

“It is very popular among musicians and audiences alike,” he added. “The audiences cannot help themselves, but jump out of their seats at the closing of the piece. And also, it’s nestled in between two more modern works. So this is again, honoring our past, as well as our present and future.”

Having Lin’s artistry grace two Corridor stages is a “pinch me” moment for Hankewich.

“When I was a student in Aspen, I used to follow him around like a puppy dog — I kind of stalked him,” Hankewich said. “And all these years, he’s been one of my idols, but I’ve never gotten a chance to really work with him at all. And so I’m going to be very tongue tied and star-struck when he arrives. So it’ll be kind of a dream come true.”

According to Lin’s website, growing up in Taiwan, at age 5 he heard a neighbor practicing violin, and wanted to do likewise. So he did. At age 12, he moved to Sydney, Australia, to continue his studies, and at age 13, after playing for Itzhak Perlman in a master class, he decided he needed to study with Perlman’s teacher, Dorothy DeLay. At age 15, he traveled alone to New York City, auditioned for the Juilliard School, and spent the next six years studying with DeLay.

He launched his concert career in 1980, performing Mendelssohn’s celebrated Violin Concerto with the New York Philharmonic, under maestro Zubin Mehta. Twice nominated for a Grammy Award, Lin has soloed with nearly every major orchestra around the globe.

So how did Orchestra Iowa book such an esteemed soloist?

“A lot of musicians were not working during the pandemic, so a lot of these artists’ calendars cleared, which allowed us to grab him,” Hankewich said. “And like any artist’s career, it’s either feast or famine. I’m glad we were able to engage him here, because now his calendar is completely full.”

Conversations with booking agents tend to be fluid, as both sides strive to accommodate schedules, Hankewich noted. Marking a centennial helped in securing a season full of world premieres and accomplished guest artists, from pianists Garrick Ohlsson and Iowa City native Conor Hanick, to the Mambo Kings and saxophonist Branford Marsalis.

“We made it very clear to them and their agencies that this was our 100-year anniversary, and that is a milestone well worth celebrating,” Hankewich said. “And they want to make it special for us, too.”

Orchestra Iowa’s musicians will benefit, as well.

“What I love about having a great soloist come to town is that our musicians tend to sit up a little straighter, they take notice a little bit more, they put that extra 5 percent into their own playing when they hear great artistry on stage,” Hankewich said. “So not only is it a privilege to be able to share the stage with a legend, but it also inspires our own musicians to just give that extra effort in their own performance.”

And they all will get their turn in the spotlight during the Bartok concerto, Hankewich noted.

“The Bartok is aptly named — there’s no soloist, but every musician and their instruments are featured, as though they were a soloist,” he said. “The orchestral writing is par excellence. The imagination of harmony and color is incredible.

“It’s virtuosic for everyone, so they get a thorough workout, and it ends with a movement that is just so energetic and captivating that the audience won’t be able to sit still.”

‘Towering Oaks’

Opening night for the opening piece — Owen’s “Towering Oaks” — will be special for the composer and the musicians.

“It’s very stately (and) begins with great timpani cadenza,” Hankewich said. “It uses the full forces of the orchestra to create a sense of grandeur and occasion.

“Jerry’s music is also very melodic. There’s a gorgeous middle, lyrical melody in there, as well. And he’s a master of orchestration.

“I think you could sum up his work, at least from my perspective, as it sets the stage for an important season, with a lot of flourish and grandeur.”

Because Owen will hear the orchestra rehearse his piece a time or two this week, the opening night butterflies will have flown away, secure in the knowledge that the orchestra will “know what they’re doing,” he said. But he’ll still relish the experience in an auditorium crackling with energy.

“It’s sort of like having your child in front of an audience for their first time, and all the pride is there — the internal beaming and kind of glancing around to see what people think,” he said. “It’s the same sort of thing that any artists would go through.

“On the other hand, you’re aware that you’re going to be followed by Bartok and Tchaikovsky.” It’s not exactly anxiety, he added, “but maybe it’s eagerness. You hope you’re not forgotten by the time the concert is over.”

Owen is well acquainted with opening performances. He’s written 99 pieces during his career, in which he also taught various music classes at Coe College in Cedar Rapids and conducted the school’s symphony before retiring in 2006.

But that’s not all. Twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his music, he also founded the composer-in-residence program for Red Cedar Chamber Music in Marion, serving in that capacity from 2002 to 2005. He founded that same program with Orchestra Iowa’s predecessor, the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra, serving as composer-in-residence from 1984 to 1992, and was the principal trombone player with the orchestra in the 1970s.

“I realized here recently, that I have a connection for 53 years of the orchestra in one way or another. And actually, my connection goes all the way back 100 years, because part of my job at Coe was the orchestra,” from which the Cedar Rapids Symphony branched out, founded in 1923 by Coe College professor and orchestral conductor Joseph Kitchin.

Orchestra Iowa commissioned Owen to write the Masterworks opening piece in 2020, so it became not only a pandemic project, but also responds to the derecho’s effect on his property and beyond, as well as the orchestra’s history of persevering through the Great Depression, wars, the turbulent 1960s, floods, the pandemic and the April 10, 2020, inland hurricane.

Designed as a 12-minute overture, Owen describes the opening cadenza as “a pathway to several ‘sound towers,’ which are just the towering oak trees in musical disguise.” A brass fanfare, declaring the orchestra to take its place among the oaks, leads into three more themes of black, white and red oaks, all of which entwine at the end.

Most of all, he said, “It’s a celebration piece.”

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