Group in tune with the area

SPANISH FORK — Musicians have plenty of opportunity to play when they are in school — all the way up to and through college.

But graduation can spell the end of a musical career.

Not so in Utah County with at least two orchestras in close proximity to each other, the Utah Valley Symphony and the American Fork Symphony.

While opportunities amply serve central and north Utah County musicians, south county folks had to either drive north or give it up.

That's no longer the case with the founding of the Nebo Philharmonic Orchestra, a group of south county residents with a musical background, although their careers have led them in other directions.

Violinist Carolyn Sorensen played in the Riverton Metropolitan Orchestra before moving to Spanish Fork where no orchestra existed. So she went to the Spanish Fork Arts Council to get an orchestra started. The council agreed when Sorensen was able to pull in Ben Winkler, Riverton's conductor and a retired military musician, to lead the group.

The arts council gave the group $2,500 from its annual budget and ticket sales. Still, Sorensen said, it operates on a shoestring.

"(Winkler) became (the Riverton Metropolitan Orchestra) conductor, and I gradually came to realize how knowledgeable he is in all the aspects of the orchestra — the business end as well as the musical. When I moved to Spanish Fork in October 2005, I was very worried because there was no orchestra around except for the Utah Valley Symphony in Provo," she said.

Still in its first year, the Nebo Philharmonic has presented two orchestra concerts this season and a Christmas concert with the Spanish Fork Community Choir, she said.

The community choir subsequently changed its name to become the Nebo Chorale to better blend with the orchestra.

"We involve people from the entire Nebo area, (and are) not limited to only one city," Sorensen said.

A retired Army brass musician — he played French horn and trumpet — Winkler has been a professional musician for some 40 years. He moved to Utah several years ago from Denver, then from Provo to Payson more recently. Winkler juggles his time between the Nebo and Riverton orchestras and is impressed with the talent that has emerged.

"I feel it's a measure of cultural maturity for a community to support an orchestra," he said.

He sees potential in the south county group to become one of the major orchestras in the state. While it has quality, it lacks depth, he said. That is usually resolved by bringing in substitute musicians — either from another orchestra or local residents who haven't yet committed to the group.

They've "pulled off" some extremely difficult pieces in the concerts they've performed so far, he said.