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MV Orchestra And The Joy Of Music-making

	Vernon Robison Moapa Valley Progress Submitted April 30,2008 There once was a time when, if people wanted to hear music, they performed it themselves in their own homes. These were the days before electronics and multi-media, when people mastered musical instruments for their own entertainment. Listening to new music was not as simple as downloading the mp3 or picking up a CD. Rather, people ordered		Members of the Moapa Valley Community Orchestra violin section perform in the group’s spring concert held on Saturday, April 26.
	the piano score, or the string quartet arrangement, of the music and they learned to play it at home. These were the days of the amateur musician. People came to know music by playing it; not just by hearing it. Folks found enjoyment by getting together in small groups in their homes and playing music together. Nearly every town, large and small alike, had music ensembles, orchestras, dance bands and theatre groups that were the chief source of entertainment for the townspeople. These groups and performers exposed people to a wide variety of styles and genres of art, drama and music. In many cases these amateur performances would be a town’s only exposure to such things. This is hard to imagine in our age of instant music where great performances of all kinds are so readily available to us. With recorded music and the emergence of the personal mp3 player with headphones, music has moved away from being a community experience and has become a lonely and rather detached business. This makes the work of groups like the Moapa Valley Community Orchestra rather refreshing. The Orchestra held its final performance of the season on Saturday, April 25 in the Old Overton Gym. This group revives that old fashioned idea that the most effective way to experience music is to make it yourself. The ensemble is made up of a variety of players; young school kids playing right alongside a group of more experienced adults. They are recruited, gathered, organized and coordinated by an enthusiastic orchestra director (and violinist), Torann Bender. They meet once a week to rehearse. All of the players willingly participate for no other reason than the rather out-moded desire to get together as friends and make music. Seasoned musicians and educators like Conductor Trish Andersen and Concertmaster Walter White sit through many, undoubtedly tedious, hours of rehearsals and performances, mentoring the less experienced players and guiding them through the valuable music-making experience. It is a tremendous labor of love. Saturday’s concert featured the full orchestra under Andersen’s direction in works by Mozart, Brahms and Vivaldi. The orchestra also accompanied violinists Walter White and Emili Culp in a vigorous Duo for Two Solo Strings and String Orchestra by Michel. In addition, the program showcased orchestra members in a variety of solo works. Shelby Simper displayed a solidly developing technique and wide tonal range in her solo performance of a Violin Concerto by J.S. Bach. Violinist Adrina Hanson provided the audience with some diversity of timbre by performing her solo, Prelude and Berceuse, with electronic amplification. Walter White displayed considerable virtuosity in his performance of a Praeludium and Allegro by Fritz Kreisler. Other notable soloists included Marya Romero who performed a Viola Concerto and Porter Lamping who played two short violin solos. The program also featured several small ensembles selected from the orchestra players. A string sextet made up of Shelby Simper, Jessany Mortensen, Walter White, Amanda Hansen, Jessica Robison and Bryce Mortensen, gave a sprightly performance of Handel’s Entrance of the Queen of Sheba. Brother and sister team, Bryce and Jessany Mortensen returned later in the program to perform a duet together; Sonatina by Mazas. Being mainly an amateur group, it comes as no surprise that the Moapa Valley Community Orchestra level of performance is often rather rough around the edges. Despite this, they always seem to get to the heart of what it is to perform a piece of music together. There is a certain electricity in the act of creating music out of silence before a live audience, that can mask a myriad of minor technical flaws. And so, what this small band of eager local players lacks in perfect professionalism, it makes up for in enthusiasm, vitality and a simple, elemental love of music-making. Indeed, the novelty and raw joy of this creative force has the power to sing out in a way that a carefully manicured recorded performance simply could not do. It is great fun to watch this happen. And so, though the crowd in attendance at Saturday’s concert was small in number, it’s members were richly rewarded with a good old-fashioned show of homegrown music making that was truly worth hearing.