Blown Away

That’s how I feel about Olympia after the past couple days. All I can say is “Wow.” My neighbor, Mel, and I went to the Student Orchestras of Greater Olympia Spring Concert on Sunday and discovered that this area can field probably two full student symphony orchestras from local music programs. They performed in three ensembles, each demonstrating amazing proficiency.

First was a Debut Orchestra of elementary and middle school musicians, who played pieces that emphasized individual sections. Without my program, I don’t recall the titles but I think one was an Irish Suite. They also did very well cranking out a fast paced tune like Brahm’s Radetzky(?) March. They were pretty amazing. Not a few were pretty small kids but they performed as an orchestra and played well..

Second up was the Academy Orchestra–middle and intermediate high school musicians. This ensemble performed a couple pieces that created sound and movement. (Is that a tone poem?) One was The Cat Waltz or something like that. The other was an urban intersection whose title escapes me. The Academy Orchestra’s finale was a Dvorak Slavonic Dance , maybe No. 26, a fairly challenging–and a personal favorite–work that requires some skill and precision. They did well..

A Brass Choir performed next. French horns, trombones, trumpet and tuba. About 12 in all. These musicians were from the Conservatory Orchestra and were very proficient. I don’t recall the titles but at least one was familiar.

After intermission the Conservatory Orchestra came on stage. Tuning up, they impressed me as an ensemble with a force and presence. I realized that sense of power and command was missing in the previous ensembles. Where they had been tentative, this orchestra sounded mature. That showed in their performance. First off was a young woman soloing on French horn, playing a Saint Saens concerto. She was damn good on what is apparently a very difficult instrument. My neighbor told me that a French horn scholarship at Boston College went unused for years because few even attempted to master this instrument. This particular French horn concerto was performed well but it sounded more to me like “here’s what I can do with this instrument” than a piece I would hear for enjoyment. Still, it was an intense, impressive performance.

The evening’s major piece was Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World, another favorite and a demanding work that showcased the entire orchestra. The orchestra built the tension well across the various instrumental sections. The French horns, even in the solos, sounded very much a part of the piece. Same with all the other instruments. The full orchestra was 58 members, all of whom knew what they were doing. The final movement was filled with sound and passion as came to a resounding climax. All this from high school students. It’s enough to give me hope for the future.

Not that I didn’t hear flat notes, especially in the highest ranges, now and then, more with the younger musicians than the older. If anything, the concert demonstrates the musicians’ growth and development, which was as much fun as the music itself. . These students are not masters but many showed the dedication and skill to become masters. That this music happens at all for these students is far more important than the occasional dropped note.

So the concert was good, and cheap entertainment ($10) on a Sunday afternoon. Mel and I walked back to his place on a pleasant sunny afternoon. Walking in downtown Olympia is very pleasant. The area retains much of its original architecture and street scape. In many places the curbing has been redesigned to calm traffic and facilitate pedestrian street crossing. It’s much like walking in an earlier America populated with the diversity of 21st century northwest diversity.

To top it all off, I visited the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge yesterday on my way back from a trip to Tacoma. Much of the refuge is visible from I-5 about 10 miles east of Olympia. I’ve driven past it many, many times. This time I stopped to check it out. The refuge straddles the Nisqually River and the delta where it flows into Puget Sound. I walked a couple miles along a nature trail that took me past a couple of very large barns (the land was a dairy farm in the last century) and along the river. I could see across the marshes to Puget Sound and the snow-capped Olympic Mountains in the far distance. Wildlife was abundant–lots of geese, ducks and many smaller birds I did not recognize. I caught a glimpse of a heron or kingfisher along the river but only fleetingly through the brush.

Spring is definitely coming to the refuge. The trees are sprouting fat buds and green is pushing up through last year’s gray-brown detritus. Flowering buds here and there, green foliage beginning to show on the undergrowth. Enough of everything to clearly announce Spring’s arrival but not enough to close in the forest just yet. This spring in particular is characterized by changeable weather. Yesterday was no different. Lots of sun and partly cloudy skies all morning. By the time I reached Nisqually, skies were more overcast, with some dark clouds in the west. Sure enough by the time I had been walking just a short while, hail flurries were falling. By the time I reached my turnaround point, a much larger dark cloud was heading over. This, too, was hail but it was a steady down pour, the crystals bouncing off my jacket and along the ground. I didn’t get too wet but I did learn that hail stings very lightly when it hit my face.

Music and nature. I am a very, very fortunate man.