Patriotic Pops offers up plenty of red, white and boom

After Mother Nature's cannon fire and fireworks washed out Friday night's Classic Rock Concert doubleheader, the Freedom Festival had perfect weather for unleashing its Patriotic Pops cannon fire and fireworks Saturday night at Kirkwood Community College.

The annual Orchestra Iowa concert hasn't exactly been annual, after back-to-back rainouts, but Maestro Timothy Hankewich and his stellar musicians and guests delivered plenty of red, white and boom for 2,600 enthusiastic audience members gathered on solid, dry footing.

Freedom Festival organizers and Kirkwood staff wisely decided this past week to move the concert from its usual grassy expanse to the huge new parking lot next to the Johnson Hall gymnasium. It offered plenty of room for the massive stage, lawn chairs, vendors, kids' games and nearby parking, with no mud in sight or on shoes.

Everything about the event was a rousing success.

The evening began with “American Idol” contestant Kelsey Madsen of Cedar Rapids displaying the fine talent that propelled her to the Hollywood rounds of the popular star-making TV show.

She and guitarist Billy Heller of Cedar Rapids delivered an hour of hot rock fueled by Madsen's smokey, bluesy voice covering hits from Billy Preston, John Mellencamp, the Beatles, Bill Withers and the Doobie Brothers.

Madsen's best moments came on Corinne Bailey Rae's “Put Your Records On,” adding some nice twists and turns to make it her own, as well as the soulful “Easy to be Hard” from “Hair,” which she made a musical highlight in the Theatre Cedar Rapids production in 2009.

Then Orchestra Iowa unleashed two hours of magnificent symphonic arrangements of marches, fanfares, folk tunes, stage and screen hits and patriotic anthems. Guest artists offered up a few surprises along the way, as well.

The third time truly was the charm for this program, first planned for 2008, then 2009, finally coming to fruition this year under bright blue skies.

“This is the most wonderfully prepared, overly rehearsed Patriotic Pops,” Hankewich told the crowd.

Following the national anthem, the orchestra launched into a piece of Iowa pride: ”76 Trombones” from Meredith Willson's “The Music Man.” It's never sounded better than right here in our own River City, with an arrangement that featured a delightful, delicate woodwind interlude, a swing variation and prerequisite trombone flourishes throughout.

Another outstanding nod to Broadway Americana came with a pair of pieces by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Among Hankewich's many strengths is his ability to speak completely at ease with the audience, offering up quick bits of trivia and personal insights that add so much to the casual, yet polished tone of the concert.

Looking at the program, cleverly printed in the shape of those pew fans we used to get at church, no one would expect ”The Farmer and the Cowman” from "Oklahoma!" to be one of the hardest works of the evening for the strings. But Hankewich told us so, and it was, indeed, a feat of furious fiddling.

Mezzo-soprano soloist Elisabeth Bieber of Iowa City, who was featured in the orchestra's Mozart Requiem concert in March, added her glorious voice throughout the evening, beginning with a sassy, sultry turn on “I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy,” from “South Pacific." Her headset microphone didn't perform as well as she did, cutting out so often that she was invited back to the stage to sing the song again, using Hankewich's mic stand. Much better.

She also added her magnificent, rich voice to “God Bless America,” “America the Beautiful,” and Cedar Rapids composer Jerry Owen's lush arrangement of  the “Cedar Rapids Song of Dedication,” played at the end of most Cedar Rapids Municipal Band concerts.

Two other Cedar Rapidians added guest-starring roles to the star-spangled evening.

All-State oboe player Liz Townsend, who will be a senior at Washington High School, garnered a guest-conductor spot from last fall's Sight & Sound fundraiser. She stepped to the podium with poise to lead the orchestra in the light and fanciful “Belle of the Ball.”

David Bolt, a veteran of many local stages, gave rousing readings of the stirring “The New Colossus” poem engraved on the Statue of Liberty, as well as the nail-biting baseball epic, “Casey at the Bat.”

Whether playing the sweeping sounds of “Band of Brothers” from the HBO miniseries starring Marion native Ron Livingston or the bombastic “1812 Overture” with its 16 cannon shots, a well-rehearsed Orchestra Iowa set flags flying and hearts pounding throughout the event.