Rainy Lake Community Orchestra and Rainy Lake Sinfonia conduct workshop, prepare for concert Friday in Ranier
With the sounds of strings reverberating through the Ranier Community Building, members of the Rainy Lake Community Orchestra are holding a strings workshop this week with a public performance Friday.
Two groups, the Rainy Lake Community Orchestra for seasoned players and the Rainy Lake Sinfonia for youth and adults, will hold a concert at 7 p.m. Friday at the Ranier Community Building for the public.
John Faith, one of four conductors for the concert, said the ability for the audience to sit inches, at most about 10 feet, from the instruments and musicians makes this performance unlike other string concerts.
The audience will hear the music as it sounds for members of the orchestra, he said. This same quality of sound cannot be duplicated in larger venues, with greater distances between the performers and audience.
“When the audience comes here, even if they’re not a strings aficionado, they’ll hear the beautiful sounds the instruments can make,” Faith said.
Faith, along with Beth Bistrow, Karen Madsen and Scott Roberts, will conduct pieces during the show.
Selections for the Rainy Lake Community Orchestra include “Concerto VII” by Arcangelo Corelli, “Intermezzo” from “Little Suite” by Carl Nielsen, “St. Paul’s Suite” by Gustav Holst, “Adagietto” from “Symphony No. 6” by Gustav Mahler and “Lullaby” by George Gershwin.
The Rainy Lake Sinfonia will play several selections, to be chosen closer to the concert date. The youth orchestra will be assisted by members of the Rainy Lake Community Orchestra.
Faith explained that the mixed Sinfonia workshops, a combination of seasoned and new performers, will allow for the newcomers to ask questions and learn by example. For the seasoned performers in the Community Orchestra, this is a showcase of more challenging pieces than many play during the rest of the year.
This is the 32nd annual week-long strings workshop and public concert for the Rainy Lake Community Orchestra.
Four original members of the orchestra continue to participate: Faith, Marcia Bringedahl, Jane Barthell and Bill McPherson.
Other performers, such as Bistrow and husband Van Bistrow, have come from great distances for many years to participate in the week-long event. The Bistrows are from Chicago, and have only missed two annual events in the last 22 years. They remember bringing their now-grown children when their feet did not even reach the floor as they sat. Like the Bistrow family, the orchestra has grown each year, adding new faces and retaining some lasting friends.
“We look forward every year to seeing the people,” Beth Bistrow said. “It’s something to look forward to.”
Faith said that it was through tenacity and sheer persistence that the orchestra has lasted the last 32 years.
Both orchestras began the workshop and practice Sunday and will continue through Friday, culminating in the performance that night.
The workshop and the public performance are free for the participants and for the audience.
This activity is funded by the Minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on Nov. 4, 2008. The orchestra has received a Rural and Community Art grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council.
If you go:
What: Rainy Lake Community Orchestra and Rainy Lake Sinfonia concert
When: Friday, 7 p.m.
Where: Ranier Community Building
Cost: Free
