Community orchestra holding first concert since former director passed away

FIRTH — The Community Orchestra at Firth is back for its first concert of the year.

First, COVID-19 shutdowns hit, and then beloved orchestra director Angela Carlson passed away in July last year. Many began to wonder what was to become of the Firth community orchestra.

The orchestra’s last performance was at a memorial service for Angela.

“In September, when everything started to open up again, we had a memorial service for her in the park, in the open so everything could be safe,” Shawn Satterthwaite told Community Pioneer. “It was a nice musical tribute.”

After that, it seemed like the orchestra may have been over.

“This is my only musical outlet,” Shawn said.

After Angela’s memorial, the leaders of the orchestra got together and asked the question as to whether or not the orchestra would continue.

“Not only do I need it, I think a lot of people feel the same way. As adults that are musicians, we just want to be able to keep playing somewhere,” Shawn told his colleagues.

The other orchestra leaders agreed and told Shawn that he would be the new director.

Shawn taught music for 22 years. He spent time teaching jazz history and had stints as a music teacher in junior and high schools in Utah.

Shawn was also a member of the award-winning acapella group T Minus 5. The group toured all over the western United States for 20 years.

“Then I went into a totally different field and moved up here. That’s when I heard these guys for the first time at Shelley Spud Days five years ago,” Shawn said.

Shawn immediately joined the orchestra playing the trumpet.

“I played some percussion if they were short-handed. As a band teacher for 22 years, I can play a little bit of everything,” he said.

He has been with the orchestra ever since.

Shawn said he was thrilled at being asked to be the new orchestra director. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of the orchestra’s struggles.

“We started trying to hold rehearsals and we thought, ‘they can’t cancel our Christmas concert.’ Then, sure enough, that’s when things started getting bad again,” Shawn said.

They decided to take a break for a while. When spring rolled around and more and more restrictions began to lift, they started getting together again.

“I said, ‘I don’t even care if we perform.’ It’s better when we can perform because then there’s a little bit more motivation,” Shawn said.

Rehearsals are finally back in full swing and the orchestra is preparing for their first concert since the COVID-19 shutdown.

“We like to have a theme for the concert,” Shawn explained. “I think right now the overwhelming theme for everybody is hope as the world comes alive again. Our first piece is a piece called Resurgences. To me, it just epitimizes that feeling of coming back.”

The title of the concert is Hope is Blooming! It is on Saturday, May 22 at 6 p.m. in the Firth Middle School gymnasium. Everyone is welcome to attend this free concert, though, the orchestra asks that people try to maintain social distancing as much as possible.

“We hope we can just get a huge audience there and that they are all safely socially distanced. If anybody is concerned by that, by all means, take whatever precautions you need to,” Shawn said.

Other selections for the concert are American Folk Rhapsody, Fandango and Alborada, Beyond the Horizon, Blue Tango, Colorado Trail, English Suite and The Light Eternal.

“A lot of fun music. Just fun to listen to and fun to play,” Shawn said.

Even as they work towards the concert, the orchestra is always looking for new members.

“There are people out there that haven’t played since high school. There is no audition. It’s a ‘y’all come’ group. If you enjoyed it at one point, you’ll enjoy it again so come back and help us make some more great music,” Shawn said.

All anyone needs to do to join is show up to rehearsal Saturday mornings from 9 a.m. to 11 at the Firth Middle School.

Shawn said the concert will have a lot of fun music and if anyone plays an instrument, they should come be a part of it.

“Because it’s even funner to play than to listen,” Shawn said.