Park University International Center for Music’s Orchestra to Hold Fall Concert on Oct. 3

Park University International Center for Music's Orchestra to Hold Fall Concert on Oct. 3

September 9, 2025 - The Park University International Center for MusicOrchestra will host its first event of the 2025-26 ICM concert season- its annual fall concert - on Friday, Oct. 3, starting at 7:30 p.m. in Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel on the University's Parkville Campus. Admission to the concert is free, but attendees are asked to RSVP in advance.

For this concert, the Orchestra will be under the direction of guest conductor Timothy Hankewich, music director of Orchestra Iowa. In 2025-26, Hankewich will be celebrating his 20th year with Orchestra Iowa, 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 (in 2003).

The repertoire for this concert will feature a varied program of works for string orchestra. Felix Mendelssohn's "String Symphony No. 4 in C Minor" is a dramatic work written in his teen years. That piece will be followed by the moving "Trauermusik for Viola and Strings" (Music of Mourning), composed by Paul Hindemith in memory of the United Kingdom's King George V. This performance will feature violist Iana Korzukhina, Park ICM graduate student, as soloist. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Piano Concerto No. 12 in A Major, K. 414" is a graceful, charming work which will be heard in its original setting of strings only, with pianist Jiarui Cheng, Park ICM sophomore music performance/piano major, performing as soloist.

George Frideric Handel's "Concerto Grosso in D Major, Op. 6, No. 5," written to be performed during intermissions of his English oratorio performances, will begin the second half of the concert. The evening concludes with Ludwig van Beethoven's magisterial "Grosse Fuge, Op. 133. While the piece was originally written for string quartet, it will be performed in arrangement for string orchestra by conductor Felix Weingartner.

For more information about this concert and other events during the International Center for Music's 2025-26 season, visit icm.park.edu/concerts.

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The next performance in the Park ICM's season will be on Thursday, Oct. 23, as members of the ICM faculty will perform with principal string members of the Kansas City Symphony in a side-by-side concert starting at 7:30 p.m. at the 1900 Building in Mission Woods, Kan. This concert replaces the originally scheduled performance on the same date by violinist Shmuel Ashkenasi, who was forced to cancel his appearance due to health reasons.