Rocky Mountain Strings performs in Cedar City
By Marin Colby and Lindsay Szczesny
Rocky Mountain Strings, a group of 37 outstanding young violinists from northern Utah, along with the Suzuki Strings of Cedar City will perform April 25 at 7 p.m. in SUU’s Thorley Recital Hall in Cedar City. The concert is free and open to the public.
Rocky Mountain Strings will perform classical favorites like “Salut D’Amour” and crowd pleasers like “Millionaire’s Hoedown” and a medley from “The Greatest Showman.” Cedar City’s Red Rock Singers, directed by Steve Meredith, will also be featured with the visiting violinists in the song “Come Thou Font of Every Blessing.”
Ramona Stirling, Chandelle Fairbanks, and Ruth Godfrey direct the Rocky Mountain Strings with Shelley Astle as accompanist and Michael Thomas McLean as their in-house composer and arranger. They have toured Poland, Italy, Argentina, Belgium, Russia, and Austria since their founding in 1997. The group also performed at the Suzuki Association of the Americas International Teacher Convention in 1998 and 2006.
Local musicians along with current and former members of Suzuki Strings will provide an orchestra under the direction of Lindsay Szczesny for the joint performance of J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor. This rousing number will feature over 50 violinists in a fast-paced Baroque delight.
“We are so excited to be there and collaborate with the Suzuki Strings in Cedar City,” said co-director Ramona Stirling.
Stirling, founder of Rocky Mountain Strings, also directs the annual Intermountain Suzuki String Institute in Salt Lake City. This two-week string music camp involves over 800 students and teachers of the Suzuki method. Many local Suzuki students and teachers have attended ISSI and received instruction and teacher training.
“I attended Intermountain Suzuki Strings Institute this past June and received Suzuki violin teacher training,” said violin teacher and concertmistress of the Orchestra of Southern Utah Heather Wilhelm. “Since then, I’ve noticed that I’ve become a more effective teacher, and that my students are happier and more successful in their studies.”
For more information, email suzukistringscc@gmail.com.
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