STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Marie Fogli was considering moving back to the Bay area where she grew up. But there was one thing she couldn’t leave behind.
“There’s nothing like the Wood River Orchestra there,” she said.
Fogli was carrying Sue Mendelsohn’s groceries to her car when she spotted a music stand in the car and remarked she had played violin in school. Mendelsohn immediately recruited her for the Wood River Orchestra, designed to give musicians people a place to play long after they might have hung up their instruments.
That was six years ago.
“It’s just so much fun playing with all these other people, and I don’t think there are too many orchestras like ours that allow people to do that,” said Fogli, who works as an executive assistant for Ruscitto Latham and Blanton. “We take our music very seriously but we find time to be jovial about it.”
The Wood River Orchestra celebrated its 10th anniversary on a pitch perfect Sunday evening with a Picnic n’ Pops fundraiser at the Sawtooth Botanical Garden.
A sold-out crowd turned out to drink in a concert of overtures from “The Barber of Seville,” The Marriage of Figaro” and “The William Tell Overture,” which had them dancing in their seats.
Among the new faces in the orchestra was that of young Joey Altermatt, whom Mendelsohn spotted in the grocery store, remembering him from when he took up bass in middle school.
Altermatt, who wants to be an emergency room doctor or surgeon, just returned from the University of Oklahoma at Norman. He’s working at St. Luke’s Wood River while he saves up money for medical school.
“I heard the bass when we were playing Instrument Bingo in class and fell in love with its deep rich sound. I said, ‘I’m playing that!’ ” he recalled. “It’s awesome to be back. Playing an instrument teaches you discipline—you can’t just show up and expect to play without having put a little work into it. And it gives you confidence as you feel yourself getting better at something.”
Lynne Heidel, the orchestra’s spokesperson, recounted how the orchestra started off with 15 musicians playing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” at the Liberty Theater. It has evolved to playing symphonies written by Haydn and Mozart under the direction of Brad Hershey.
It also has grown to about 40 musicians with professionals like Paul Tillotson, Rebecca Martin and Ellen Sanders joining in from time to time.
“I can’t believe we’ve been around 10 years,” said Mendelsohn, as she counted a dozen musicians that she had “shanghaied” into joining the group.
“These are your neighbors and these are your friends,” Heidel told the audience as she pointed out a policeman, professor, welder and retired attorneys sitting behind the music stands. “They range in age from high school to 80. The vast majority of us played as youth and put away our instruments before taking them up again, proving that playing in an orchestra can be a lifelong pursuit. Others took up playing at 40 or 50, proving you’re never too old to start.”
After Andy Lewis and Mitzi Mecham organized the orchestra, Minette Broschovsky organized the board and acted as the orchestra’s initial publicist. Cindy Smith of Mountain Bookkeeping kept an eye on the finances. Dick and Connie Porter and Jon and Linda Thorson opened their homes for fundraisers. And Fred Gray videotaped the concerts.
“But we couldn’t do it without you,” Heidel told the audience. “Because of you, we can pay for new strings, new valves… Because of you we can purchase music.”
Lucy Moore, a 17-year-old high school senior, has been playing with the orchestra for three years.
“She loves the opportunity it’s given her to meet different adults in the community,” said her mother Mimi Griswold. “She came home one night telling about a policeman who showed up in uniform at one practice.”
Among the longtime players is Jim Watkinson, who will soon move with his wife Hermione are moving to Boise to be closer to their grandkids. But he does plan to return to the valley on occasion—to play High Holy Days for the Wood River Jewish Community and teach with the Sun Valley Summer School of Music workshops.
“One of the nice things about this orchestra is that anybody can play with it,” he said. “Some of the musicians don’t play all the notes –they play what they can because they’re learning. And some can play all the notes. Everybody is patient and everybody is working together to make music. And Brad Hershey is comfortable working with that wide arrangement.”
Hershey hopes to pair concert pianist Susan Spelius, who has been nursing a shoulder injury sustained in a kayaking accident to play a Grieg Piano Concerto. He also wants to do a piece by Russian composer Nicoly Rimsky-Korsakov this coming season.
“If you think you’re not good enough to play with us, come join us. We’ll make you better,” Heidel told the audience. And, if you think you’re too good for us, come join us and make us better.”