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Wood River Orchestra Plays High Notes-Minus Elk Calls
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Tuesday, June 26, 2018
 

STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Phoebe Boelter and her husband Fred look at things from different perspectives.

She’s busy championing the arts; he’s an engineer, helping to find solutions to such things as climate change. But they both agree on the value of music for children and adults.

“We need to connect and music is a language that allows us to do that,” said Fred Boelter. “To understand another culture, we need to listen to its music. Visual art, music, physics, math—it’s all connected. It’s part of life and part of what we need out of life.”

The Boelters framed their thoughts as they listened to the  Wood River Orchestra, which makes up part of the cultural fabric of the Wood River Valley.

Phoebe Boelter’s mother used to put her to sleep during naptime with classical music. And she looked downright dreamy as the orchestra performed “Danny Boy” during its renamed Sue Mendelsohn Picnic n’ Pops fundraiser at the Sawtooth Botanical Garden.

“When I go to a symphony performance during winter, I still go to sleep right away,” she confessed. “I sleep for about five minutes, hearing the music during this time, then I come awake.”

A capacity crowd dined on chicken and salmon in the lengthening shadows of the mountains lining Highway 75 as the orchestra played on.

Among those who turned out were a group of Wood River Women’s Foundation members. They had granted a donation to the orchestra and professed to want to see what they’d given their money to.

“If we don’t like it, we’ll have to throw rose petals since we don’t have any tomatoes,” quipped Teri Bullock. “But how could you not like it!? We’re here in this beautiful garden, listening to beautiful music...”

The orchestra’s motto, violin player Lynne Heidel told the audience, is “music by the community for the community.” And its foremost champion was Sue Mendelsohn, who passed away last year.

Mendelsohn was typical of other musicians in the orchestra in that she played violin as a child, then put it down while raising children. She picked up the violin again after her children were grown and started a violin group for schoolchildren after seeing Meryl Streep’s “Music From the Heart” about a women who started a violin program for schoolchildren in Harlem.

“Now there are 175 string players in our high school and middle school and more in elementary school. So, I would say what Sue Mendelsohn planted has blossomed. Sue Mendelsohn envisioned an orchestra that was accessible to musicians and to audiences. That’s why we keep our concerts free.”

She paused, “That said, we can always use money for music, to pay our director Brad Hershey…”

Today’s orchestra is made up of a wide range of people, including a bank executive, building contractor, retired lawyer, teacher and health department director, an author of children’s books, a sheriff’s officer and an insurance agent who is a month away from giving birth to her first child. And, then, there’s Lucy Griswold, who just graduated from Community School and will be missed next year.

The orchestra’s propensity for fun was illustrated by an unusual snowball fight it had during its Christmas concert at the Church of the Big Wood Presbyterian Church last December. Its propensity to get serious was illustrated by its performance of Charles-Camille Saint-Saens’ Concerto No. 1 for Cello and Orchestra in A Minor, which featured Sun Valley Summer Symphony cellist Ellen Sanders.

“”It would be cool to hear some elk calls,” said Hershey as he turned to conduct “Rocky Mountain Majesty.” “But we couldn’t find anyone brave enough to do it.”

And what did the Wood River Women’s Foundation members think of the cause to which they had awarded a donation?

“We spent it well!” gushed Charlotte Unger. “This orchestra is a treat for the community—for the people who play and for the people who listen.”

DO YOU PLAY?

The orchestra is always in the market for additional players. A couple French horn players, for instance would eliminate the need to keep dipping into the Boise talent pool. Players of all ages and abilities are welcome, and the orchestra will assist those in need of an instrument or lessons.

The orchestra presents three or four major concerts for the community each year. And some musicians play at events as part of small group ensembles.

For information, visit www.wrcorchestra.org.

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