(gentle music) - Since it's beginning in 1957, this ensemble has enjoyed 63 years of performing symphonic orchestra music.

The orchestra began in 1957 in the home of Lawrence and Margaret Opsahl.

They hosted ensembles in their homes on Sunday evenings and conducted summer concerts in their yard.

That started the vision what has become the Willmar Area Symphonic Orchestra.

(gentle music) Lawrence was followed by Dr. Chet Sommers and during his 25 years of leadership the Wilma Orchestra was affiliated with the Willmar Community College.

Following his retirement I directed the orchestra for six years.

When I began directing at the name was changed to Willmar Area Symphonic Orchestra because we involved members from many communities.

I was followed by Steven Eckblad from St.

Cloud, Sergey Bogza, Minneapolis, and the current music director, Stephen Ramsey of Minneapolis.

Each director adding a new dimension to the group.

- The Willmar Area Symphonic Orchestra typically performs four concerts a year with guest artists from the Minnesota Orchestra, local dance companies, a narrator or guest artist from town, and friends who come and help us make music together.

- The mission of the orchestra is rather twofold.

Just to have an opportunity for local musicians to play together and perform.

And the other part of the mission is to bring orchestral music to our local audiences and perhaps cultivate an appreciation for different kinds of orchestral music.

- I've found that being in the orchestra is a very rewarding and challenging, and a very fulfilling opportunity.

I have to work at it and the people in the orchestra have been very, very, very supportive and helpful and very approachable.

- You can do lots of entertaining things and you can listen to beautiful music.

- I think it is the most pure and embodiment of what music should be.

Something to just share together with not just yourselves but the community.

- It's just wonderful to have such musical organizations in Willmar.

We have four major musical groups in town.

The Symphony Orchestra being being one of the main ones.

The programs are varied.

They're really entertaining - And there's a great desire in this group to make orchestral music.

They're very devoted to the art and to the process.

They show up for rehearsals, they've got energy for rehearsals, and we work really hard on playing together and playing in tune, and having fun with the music making process as well.

- When the audience comes to watch us perform we hope that they are moved by the music.

We hope that it maybe transports them somewhere peaceful or exciting or just relaxes them.

When it's live music you are all together in that experience.

(gentle music) - I've been going to the orchestra concerts for as long as I can remember.

The reason why kids should come to orchestra concerts is because they have exciting music.

An orchestra concert that I went to is "Peter and the Wolf" and the musicians went along with the animals and the storyteller did the storytelling.

- One of the things that the Willmar Symphony really tries to do is encourage children to attend live orchestral concerts.

And one of the ways that we do that is we offer a free concert to area children, and that's one of the ways we can bring children in to see a live orchestral concert, might be for the first time.

- I was coming to WASO concerts since I was a baby.

I like attending WASO concerts because there are good music.

(gentle music) - They have fun contests, like the Beethoven birthday card contest that I actually won that week.

- In about 2005, we decided we needed another way to share our music with the community so we decided to have a young artist competition for more advanced high school students.

We have them come and audition for a chance to play at our young artist concert with the full orchestra and that's a great experience for students to play with the orchestra that way.

- I had the honor of being the young artist winner for 2019 in my senior year of high school.

It was a wonderful experience to be a young artist winner because it was the first time I really got to be with a live orchestra and I was nervous going into the first rehearsal.

But the orchestra was very warm and welcoming.

I had been doing a piece for months with my private instructor.

The rehearsals were going very well with the orchestra so I'd had no worries with the concert at all.

- The interesting thing about the orchestra is that it brings a lot of different people together.

We have people that are retired, students in high school, and occasional middle school student, college students, a nice variety of teachers in the mix.

We have a couple of doctors, a lawyer, a bus driver, people in the social services fields, small business owners, people in agriculture.

It's a nice opportunity to play together and make music.

- I am hoping to someday play or conduct professionally.

This orchestra actually gave me a really important step.

I got a real first taste of actually being a conductor.

- It's a funny thing about coming to rehearsal in the evening because you could have just a really stressful day at work or at home, and the minute you walk through the door it goes away because you're so focused on the music.

You're so focused on producing something beautiful.

- It's a break from everyday life.

It's a break from the stress of teaching and I get to come together with a great group of people and make music and just have fun.

(gentle music) - I drive about two hours every Tuesday and drive back two hours because the members, that's what makes it worth it.

Like the people here.

- What's really priceless in this whole endeavor is that you can get in your car and you can turn on public radio and you can listen to a classical piece and you know it sounds familiar, and then all of a sudden it, it hits you that that was a piece that you played in orchestra.

And it's even more fun when you can tell the person next to you that, "I played that in orchestra."

(gentle music) - In the span of 63 years we've seen the orchestra grow from a few friends gathering in the Opsahl family home to the current symphonic size of 35 to 50 musicians, who represent up to 20 communities.

We now gather in our 700 seat concert hall at the Willmar Education and Arts Center, and look forward to a future of continued growth as musicians and an organization.

(gentle music) - It's so much fun to see my friends and neighbors up there creating music.

It just hits me right here.

- They were right at the beginning of my career, and they're at the development of my career, and I'm hoping they get to continue to be part of my life.

So orchestra is so important to me.

It's like a family.

- In the end it's just the music that brings us all together.

- We love orchestra concerts!

- We love orchestra concerts!

- It's all about what it says on the penny, "E Pluribus Unum," from many, one.

From many different people in the community, one sound, one image, one piece of music at a time.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.

Thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

(gentle music) (birds chirping) - [Narrator] Postcards is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the Citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by Margaret A Cargill Philanthropies, Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota.

On the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails, and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information at explorealex.com.

The Lake Region Arts Council's Arts calendar, an arts and cultural heritage funded digital calendar showcasing upcoming art events and opportunities for artists in West Central Minnesota.

On the web at lrac4calendar.org.

Playing today's new music plus your favorite hits, 96.7kram.

Online at 967kram.com.

(peaceful rhythmic music)