The Ames International Orchestra Festival Association is bringing the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine to Stephens Auditorium Tuesday, March 7 at 7:30 p.m.

Theodore Kuchar, who is featured on more than one hundred labels, is the award-winning conductor for the group. He has also been the principal conductor of two other European orchestras. 

Kuchar also conducted the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra which used to be the Czech Radio Orchestra from 2005-2014 and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine from 1994-2014. 

The orchestra features Dima Tkachenko, a Ukrainian-born violinist who has been playing the violin since he was six years old. He proceeded to graduate from the National Music Academy of Ukraine and was invited to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Tkachenko was awarded the Recital Diploma at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama at the school. He has also won multiple international competitions with his violin. 

The orchestra gained its fame by impressing an audience in Moscow shortly after its formation. 

“This orchestra has as distinguished a group of performers as one would be likely to find anywhere,” said Dmitri Shostakovich, a composer of the orchestra. “The ensemble of the orchestra is of the highest level.”

They have had success all over the globe, from Australia to Hong Kong to the United Arab Emirates. They are currently enduring a 44 city tour in the United States which also happens to be the first U.S. tour in the orchestra’s history. The show at Stephens is the only Iowa stop they have . 

The lineup of the production is, “Overture to La Forza del Destino (Opera rev. 1869)” performed by Giuseppe Verdi, “Violin Concerto No. 2″ performed by Yevhen Stankovych, Dima Tkachenko as a soloist with Symphony No. 6 in B Minor,” “Pathetique” and “Op. 74” performed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.