Letter to the Editor: Performance a delight

By Sun Advocate

Editor:
The “Two for One” Eastern Utah Wind Symphony and the Whitehorse High School Band presented an entertaining program of standard works for concert band.
This unusual combination of wind instruments and conventional band instruments meshed perfectly into an unusual but coordinated musical offering.
This well attended event was a joint effort by the San Juan School District and the College of Eastern Utah. Our own Dr. Greg Benson shared the conducting of the group with Kim Schaefer of the Montezuma Creek High School. Both of these excellent conductors demonstrated their musical skills conducting some very complicated musical scores of relatively unfamiliar works. Many of the Utah Wind Symphony are well known locally, but the Montezuma Creek High School group was a first for this area.
The conductor, Kim Schaefer, has a distinguished career as a music educator. Besides her many achievements, she personally teaches all of the band instruments in the high school, and 64 of the 80 students play some type of instrument.
This high school also qualified in the State Finals with a superior rating. This group really demonstrates how a really dedicated teacher in any discipline can affect the lives of his/her students. Public support of these wonderful performances is a privilege and it demonstrates acceptance and appreciation of the performances.
What can we say about Dr. Benson? I believe he could conduct the New York Philharmonic, Opera, and Country Western with equal ease. Many of the members of the orchestra are especially gifted, many have been featured as solo performers, conductors and composers. With so much talent in the Price Area, we can be quite grateful for these performers.
One of the performers, when asked, said the performance was “scintillating,” I’m not sure what that adjective means; but it must be great. Webster’s dictionary describes scintillating as: “To emit quick flashes as if throwing off sparks, rapid changes in the brightness of a celestial body, a flash of the eye.”
In any event, the performance was a delight to the ear and eye of the audience.