Kristen Cheser
Staff Writer
Students can now tour with the University of Wyoming symphony and work with professors at the university in a more professional setting.
“It’s nice to get up and play with [the students],” said John Fadial, a professor at UW and the solo violinist for this tour of the UW symphony. “Normally I’m in the lesson just saying ‘Do this, do that,’ but we’re not really collaborating so much and this is a chance to do that.”
The orchestra itself is comprised by music majors, other majors with musical enthusiasm and a few people who are not UW students. Those involved range from beginner to advanced. Fadial said he has been playing violin for 52 years, whereas Kate Hayes-Siltzer, a cellist in the symphony, has only been playing for one.
“Just being in a professional setting with all these other amazing and talented instrumentalists is just a really big change and its just really refreshing,” said Hayes-Siltzer.
“The most challenging part is making sure I get in and I practice as much as I can so I’m able to fit everything together at the rehearsal so that we can keep going.”
Another member of the orchestra is Jessica Caviness, who has been playing the violin for 20 years.
“Playing this orchestra specifically has been fun because I get to have a leadership position. Right now I am assistant concertmaster, but I have a scholarship that is going to have me take over as concertmaster in the spring when the current concert master graduates,” she said.
Caviness said the concertmaster is the first violinist in the first section and they lead the group. The concertmaster is also the person who arrives on the stage to lead the orchestra to be tuned before the conductor arrives on stage.
“It’s a little bit stressful [and] it’s a lot of pressure. You have to know all the music before everyone else so you can show the orchestra, ‘this is where you end the note,’” said Caviness.
The UW symphony will be touring their performance with Michael Griffith, the director of orchestral activities and a UW professor as the conductor, and with Fadial as a guest solo violinist.
The orchestra will be playing three pieces including Tchaikovsky’s Second Symphony, Gwyneth Walker’s Open the Door and the Dvořák Violin Concerto.
Griffith said the orchestra tour provides good experience for both the public and the musicians who get experience in performing advanced pieces of music.
“I feel an obligation to serve the whole state like the university does,” he said.
This week the orchestra will travel to five places, four locations in Wyoming and Driggs, Idaho. The locations in Wyoming include Rock Springs High School, Star Valley Elementary, Star Valley High School and the Jackson Hole Music Festival.
“I’m looking forward to visiting Driggs, Idaho because I’ve never been there,” said Celia Karim, a cellist for 13 years.
“In between [the concerts] we have a whole bunch of in school concerts where we’ll play little bits. Some of its elementary school kids, we can’t just subject them to a 40 minute concerto,” said Fadial.
Fadial said that the Dvořák Violin Concerto is a difficult piece to play and the violinist, who the piece was dedicated to, never played it himself.
“It’s been the most challenging when it’s really fast and all down bow in Tchaicovsky,” Juanita Mushitz, a violinist for nine years, said.
The pieces the symphony will be playing all over the state are the same pieces from the concert on campus Oct. 10.
