Classical concert raises money for music program

A group of local musicians banded together to raise funds for the school music program, performing at the elementary school last Thursday evening.

Dubbing themselves the Wrangell Bear-oque Players – a portmanteau of bear and baroque, referencing past appearances together at Bearfest and the musical style – the ensemble was actually divided into two groups for the evening. A woodwind and strings set performed pieces of classical music, while a brass quintet played jazz.

The evening was organized by Mike and Mary Kurth, former teachers who have returned to Wrangell after a stint in Ketchikan. Drawing talent from various residents around town, the players performed for audiences this year at the Stikine River Bird Festival in April and Alaska Bearfest in July.

Donations at the door will go toward the public schools' music program, directed by Tasha Morse. With a limited pool of students and instruments, she explained the combinations they are able to play can be eclectic, and the additional donations will help give them some greater variety.

"We're going to try to get some music that fits our strange instrumentation," she said.

A musical education can last a lifetime, as the assembled musicians could attest introducing themselves and where they had picked up the habit.

"The unique thing about this group is, all being local performers, you're looking at 200-plus years of musical experience right here in this little town of Wrangell," Mike Kurth told the audience. "They have to start somewhere, and there are quite a few that are in the audience who I'm sure have started or will start."

"I started playing the flute in 5th grade band," said Morse. "It's been about 23, 25 years on the flute." When she was asked to join the ensemble earlier this summer, she had been delighted.

"That sounds like a lot of fun. I don't get to play anymore, I always get to direct," Morse said. "It's been really great to get it under my fingers."

When not in training for running events, George Benson also plays the violin.

"I think I started when I was 10," he recalled.

"It's been over a half-century," Alice Rooney said of her piano. She has been a staple member of other musical events in Wrangell, such as for the annual Christmas Chorale.

"I started playing cello when I was 10, and my mother was my first teacher. She was my teacher until I went to high school," explained Bonnie Demerjian.

Both Kurths played the French horn during the classical ensemble. "I started French horn when I was ten," Mary explained. "I started piano when I was younger."

"I started when I was in seventh grade," said Mike. "I wanted to play trumpet. By the time I got there, the band director said 'Well, we're all out of trumpets and you have two choices. You can play either a baritone, which is kind of like a small trumpet, and then we have what's called a French horn. It's sort of like a circle, kind of like a pretzel.' Well I like pretzels, so I went with that."

They were joined by Odile Meister on the violin, and for the brass assortment LaDonna Shilts and Lynn Prysunka.

Shilts had started the trumpet back in grade school, though after graduating had hardly touched the instrument in the decades since.

"My trumpet is 37 years old. I got it when I was a freshman in high school. I've been playing it for a while," she said. When the Kurths approached her about the concert, she thought it sounded like fun. "We didn't do jazz in high school. This is all brand new to me."

Prysunka had played trombone in school for five years. When she got her invitation to play, she had also not been in much practice since.

"I was a little skeptical but it's a lot of fun," she said. Prysunka played using an instrument she had gotten for her son one Christmas. "He thought it was an airsoft gun," she recalled. Masking his initial disappointment, he had played it all through high school.

For the brass section, Mary Kurth played trumpet.

"I picked it up along the way. It was my older brother's," she said. It had been left under his bed when he departed for college, and she sort of adopted it. "I played trumpet a lot when I was teaching, it was easier."

The event had drawn a nice showing, and audience members were sure to take out their checkbooks on the way out.

"It's nice to see people come out," commented Morse. She is currently in Klawock with her music students for the annual Honor Fest, returning this weekend.