March 25, 2022 — The Park University International Center for Music Orchestra will conclude its 2021-22 concert season on Friday, April 8, under the direction of guest conductor Tim Hankewich. The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. inside Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel on the University’s flagship Parkville Campus. Admission is free; however, reservations are requested by e-mailing Gus Fernandez Agreda, ICM coordinator, at gfernandezagreda@park.edu or filling out the RSVP form.

Hankewich has served as music director of Orchestra Iowa for 16 years, leading the state’s premier symphony orchestra based in Cedar Rapids. He has earned an outstanding reputation as a maestro whose classical artistry is as inspiring as his personality is engaging. Prior to joining Orchestra Iowa, Hankewich served as resident conductor of the Kansas City Symphony for seven years and held an appointment as artistic director of the Philharmonia of Greater Kansas City for three years. He also served as an artist-in-residence at Park University for three years, prior to the start of the Park ICM.

The concert will feature three diverse selections, including:

• Aldemaro Romero’s “Fuga con Pajarillo,” which contains many musical influences, all combined in a virtuosic display of counterpoint.
• Richard Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll,” a chamber orchestra piece of great warmth and tenderness, written as a birthday present for Wagner’s second wife, Cosima, after the birth of their son, Siegfried.
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor (K. 491),” a magisterial work that leads the listener through a musical landscape alternately stormy, gentle and at times threatening, making this piece a model for later Romantic-era composers. International Center for Music student pianist Sihao Qin, a junior music performance/piano major from Liuzhou, China, will be the featured soloist.