(bright music) - [Narrator] On this episode of "Postcards."

- I love playing in an orchestra and one of the best things is when we all practice, work on our parts, learn our music alone, and then come together and tell a story or create a mood, and it creates a sense of almost magic.

- It's just wonderful to have such musical organizations in Willmar.

We have four major musical groups in town, the Symphony Orchestra being one of the main ones.

(gentle music) (upbeat music) - [Announcer] "Postcards" is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms.

A retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota.

On the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails, and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information at explorealex.com the Lake Region Arts Councils Arts Calendar, an arts and cultural heritage funded digital calendar showcasing upcoming art events and opportunities for artists in west central Minnesota.

On the web at lrac4calendar.org.

Playing today's new music plus your favorite hits, 96.7 kram, online at 967kram.com.

(inspiring music) (inspiring music continues) (inspiring music continues) (gentle piano music) - Welcome.

My name is Frank Lawatsch.

I am a first violinist in the Willmar Orchestra and I'm also president of the Orchestra Board of Directors.

Now you're gonna have the opportunity to meet members of the Willmar Orchestra.

They're gonna show you their instruments.

They're also gonna tell you why they decided to learn how to play an instrument, and also tell you how they feel about playing in the orchestra.

So here they are.

(upbeat music) - I love playing in an orchestra and one of the best things is when we all practice, work on our parts, learn our music alone, and then come together and tell a story or create a mood, and it creates a sense of almost magic.

Especially when we're on stage with a wonderful audience.

- What I love most about my violin is that it's been with me for over 55 years and it's kind of like a friend, and it also brings me together with other friends.

It's like a voice and I can make music that you can't put into words.

- So if you're in a spot where you aren't in an orchestra or aren't in a group, you can still play this instrument and enjoy making music by yourself.

And then maybe get into a group later on.

(gentle violin music) (gentle violin music continues) (upbeat music) - I started playing the cello when I was 10, 'cause in my school, like Willmar Public Schools, in fourth grade you can choose a string instrument if you want to.

I kind of like this one that was bigger than the violin and I've been playing that ever since.

I love the cello because of all the music it can play.

But I'm gonna play a piece from "That Carnival of the Animals."

And I want you to silently, in your brain, guess which animal the cello is trying to describe.

(slow melodic cello music) (gentle music) - Doing the orchestra is something I enjoy.

Getting to work with people and make awesome music and get to play for wonderful audience people, like yourselves.

So I'll be doing part of the first movement of Fran Schubert's "Arpeggione Sonata."

(melodic viola music) (upbeat music) - One thing that I love about the string bass is that you can use it to play basically any style of music you want.

Almost anything that you listen to already, any song, has some kind of string bass instrument in it.

And I'm gonna be playing a song written for me by my friend, Kim Osberg, and it's meant to sound like the morning of a fun wedding dance.

(upbeat whimsical bass music) (upbeat music) - When I start I was 13 years old.

The trumpet, it's tubing as I can show to you, with the end like a bell.

You can make this with your parents and you can have some fun.

Maybe you can create some music.

(upbeat music) (handmade trumpet music) The piece that I'm playing right now, it's "Brazilian Bossa Nova."

It's a very calm and peaceful melody.

(gentle trumpet music) - I feel very lucky to be a french horn player.

The beauty of the french horn is it has a more mellow tone.

So I have played in brass groups, but I've also been able to play with woodwind instruments.

The piece I'm playing today is called "Wild Hunt" by Schubert.

I chose it because the origins of the French horn go back to when there were no valves or keys, and they were used to signal the start of a hunt.

(upbeat French horn music) (gentle music) - This is my trombone and I enjoy this instrument because it's very simple.

There are no valves.

The trombone is known as "the voice of God" in the orchestra.

So I'm not sure that this is really how God sounds, but that's our tradition.

I'm going to play two very short pieces that demonstrate the types of music that can be played on this instrument.

(slow melodic trombone music) (upbeat march trombone music) (upbeat music) - What's so special about playing the tub in the orchestra?

I'll tell you, you're the only guy there playing the tuba.

But the real reason that I enjoy playing for the orchestra is playing with all the other musicians around you.

We're all doing different crazy things at the same time and yet when it all comes together, it's beautiful.

So I've got a little folk number that that I'm gonna play for you.

It doesn't really have a name, that's why it's called a folk tune.

(upbeat tuba music) (upbeat music) - I've played the flute for 53 years.

I started playing it when I was 10 years old.

When I was a real little girl, my mom took me to a live orchestra concert in Kansas City and I got to hear "Peter and the Wolf."

A few years ago the Willmar Area Symphonic Orchestra played "Peter and the Wolf" for a children's concert and I got to play the part of the the bird on my flute.

So that's what I'm gonna play a little bit of for you.

(whimsical flute music) (gentle music) - The oboe looks like this.

And it can play very high notes.

(lively high octave scale music) And it can play very low notes too.

(lively low octave scale music) And we make sound by blowing through this double reed, which is essentially two very, very thin pieces of wood.

Bob and I are gonna play a little bit from "Pavane" composed by Gabriel Faure.

(slow melodic oboe music) (melodic harmonized oboe music) (upbeat music) I think the clarinet is the coolest instrument because it can play low notes like a trombone.

("The Imperial March") (ominous low tone music) Loud notes, like a trumpet.

(bright fanfare music) And crazy high notes like a flute.

(whimsical high tone music) With my clarinet I have had the privilege to travel all over the world.

Now I share my love of music by teaching kids on Zoom and in classrooms.

I get to play fun music all the time.

(upbeat playful clarinet music) (upbeat percussion music) - I love playing percussion.

You can play any genre, any style of music with percussion, which makes percussion so flexible because you can play anything with it.

Why don't we sample some percussion instruments?

(rapid rhythmic snare drum music) (rhythmic timpani drum music) (rhythmic marimba music) (cymbals clashing) (rhythmic bass drum thundering) (whimsical xylophone music) (reverberating tubular bells music) (rhythmic tom music) (rhythmic wood blocks music) (whimsical chimes music) (warm glockenspiel music) (gong reverberating) (triangle chiming) - Well, we're back.

You had the opportunity to hear from members of the Willmar Orchestra and the purpose in doing that was to possibly create some interest on your part to think about learning an instrument and maybe potentially being a part of the orchestra in the future.

We'd also like to thank Graywood Films for putting this film together.

We'd like to thank our music director, Steven Ramsey, and the musicians, and board members of the Willmar Orchestra.

We'd like to thank the Willmar Public Schools for being able to use the WEAC for rehearsals and performances.

We'd like to thank our community for the support that they have provided us in the past and in the future.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.

Thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

Thank you for joining us and we hope to see you soon.

(upbeat music) (birds chirping) (gentle music) - Since it's beginning in 1957, this ensemble has enjoyed 63 years of performing symphonic orchestra music.

The orchestra began in 1957 in the home of Lawrence and Margaret Opsahl.

They hosted ensembles in their homes on Sunday evenings and conducted summer concerts in their yard.

That started the vision what has become the Willmar Area Symphonic Orchestra.

(gentle music) Lawrence was followed by Dr. Chet Sommers and during his 25 years of leadership the Wilma Orchestra was affiliated with the Willmar Community College.

Following his retirement I directed the orchestra for six years.

When I began directing at the name was changed to Willmar Area Symphonic Orchestra because we involved members from many communities.

I was followed by Steven Eckblad from St.

Cloud, Sergey Bogza, Minneapolis, and the current music director, Stephen Ramsey of Minneapolis.

Each director adding a new dimension to the group.

- The Willmar Area Symphonic Orchestra typically performs four concerts a year with guest artists from the Minnesota Orchestra, local dance companies, a narrator or guest artist from town, and friends who come and help us make music together.

- The mission of the orchestra is rather twofold.

Just to have an opportunity for local musicians to play together and perform.

And the other part of the mission is to bring orchestral music to our local audiences and perhaps cultivate an appreciation for different kinds of orchestral music.

- I've found that being in the orchestra is a very rewarding and challenging, and a very fulfilling opportunity.

I have to work at it and the people in the orchestra have been very, very, very supportive and helpful and very approachable.

- You can do lots of entertaining things and you can listen to beautiful music.

- I think it is the most pure and embodiment of what music should be.

Something to just share together with not just yourselves but the community.

- It's just wonderful to have such musical organizations in Willmar.

We have four major musical groups in town.

The Symphony Orchestra being being one of the main ones.

The programs are varied.

They're really entertaining - And there's a great desire in this group to make orchestral music.

They're very devoted to the art and to the process.

They show up for rehearsals, they've got energy for rehearsals, and we work really hard on playing together and playing in tune, and having fun with the music making process as well.

- When the audience comes to watch us perform we hope that they are moved by the music.

We hope that it maybe transports them somewhere peaceful or exciting or just relaxes them.

When it's live music you are all together in that experience.

(gentle music) - I've been going to the orchestra concerts for as long as I can remember.

The reason why kids should come to orchestra concerts is because they have exciting music.

An orchestra concert that I went to is "Peter and the Wolf" and the musicians went along with the animals and the storyteller did the storytelling.

- One of the things that the Willmar Symphony really tries to do is encourage children to attend live orchestral concerts.

And one of the ways that we do that is we offer a free concert to area children, and that's one of the ways we can bring children in to see a live orchestral concert, might be for the first time.

- I was coming to WASO concerts since I was a baby.

I like attending WASO concerts because there are good music.

(gentle music) - They have fun contests, like the Beethoven birthday card contest that I actually won that week.

- In about 2005, we decided we needed another way to share our music with the community so we decided to have a young artist competition for more advanced high school students.

We have them come and audition for a chance to play at our young artist concert with the full orchestra and that's a great experience for students to play with the orchestra that way.

- I had the honor of being the young artist winner for 2019 in my senior year of high school.

It was a wonderful experience to be a young artist winner because it was the first time I really got to be with a live orchestra and I was nervous going into the first rehearsal.

But the orchestra was very warm and welcoming.

I had been doing a piece for months with my private instructor.

The rehearsals were going very well with the orchestra so I'd had no worries with the concert at all.

- The interesting thing about the orchestra is that it brings a lot of different people together.

We have people that are retired, students in high school, and occasional middle school student, college students, a nice variety of teachers in the mix.

We have a couple of doctors, a lawyer, a bus driver, people in the social services fields, small business owners, people in agriculture.

It's a nice opportunity to play together and make music.

- I am hoping to someday play or conduct professionally.

This orchestra actually gave me a really important step.

I got a real first taste of actually being a conductor.

- It's a funny thing about coming to rehearsal in the evening because you could have just a really stressful day at work or at home, and the minute you walk through the door it goes away because you're so focused on the music.

You're so focused on producing something beautiful.

- It's a break from everyday life.

It's a break from the stress of teaching and I get to come together with a great group of people and make music and just have fun.

(gentle music) - I drive about two hours every Tuesday and drive back two hours because the members, that's what makes it worth it.

Like the people here.

- What's really priceless in this whole endeavor is that you can get in your car and you can turn on public radio and you can listen to a classical piece and you know it sounds familiar, and then all of a sudden it, it hits you that that was a piece that you played in orchestra.

And it's even more fun when you can tell the person next to you that, "I played that in orchestra."

(gentle music) - In the span of 63 years we've seen the orchestra grow from a few friends gathering in the Opsahl family home to the current symphonic size of 35 to 50 musicians, who represent up to 20 communities.

We now gather in our 700 seat concert hall at the Willmar Education and Arts Center, and look forward to a future of continued growth as musicians and an organization.

(gentle music) - It's so much fun to see my friends and neighbors up there creating music.

It just hits me right here.

- They were right at the beginning of my career, and they're at the development of my career, and I'm hoping they get to continue to be part of my life.

So orchestra is so important to me.

It's like a family.

- In the end it's just the music that brings us all together.

- We love orchestra concerts!

- We love orchestra concerts!

- It's all about what it says on the penny, "E Pluribus Unum," from many, one.

From many different people in the community, one sound, one image, one piece of music at a time.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.

Thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

(gentle music) (birds chirping) (birds chirping) (gentle violin music) (gentle violin music continues) (gentle violin music continues) (birds chirping) (upbeat music) - [Announcer] "Postcards" is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by Margaret A Cargill Philanthropies, Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms.

A retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota.

On the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails, and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information at explorealex.com.

The Lake Region Arts Council's Arts Calendar, an arts and cultural heritage funded digital calendar showcasing upcoming art events and opportunities for artists in west central Minnesota.

On the web at lrac4calendar.org.

Playing today's new music plus your favorite hits, 96.7 kram, online at 967kram.com.

(upbeat music)