President John Griffith called the meeting to order promptly at 12:24, with the ring of the bell and welcomed everyone to today’s meeting. He told us that in trying to make changes they are now putting up information on the screen for us to see as we are enjoying our lunch so pay attention to those things.  

Dean Cline and Aaron Schilling were our greeters today and Aaron introduced the members who brought guests:

Gary Pehrson was not here so no song today;

Jim Porter let us know that Lee Watts’ wife passed away during surgery in Denver.

Mike Lougee announced that our new member orientation will be Thursday January 23^rd at 5:30 at Raccas. He invited all to come.

Marie Puryear President Elect for Casper Five Trails Rotary Club announced that their fundraiser Wyoming Beer Tasting will be February 7^th at The Lyric with a roaring 20s theme and a silent auction with some great items. All of the funds will go towards their projects fund. If you need tickets she has some with her and they are also available online.

Miamie Sleep let us know that on the table are sheets for volunteers showing what areas they need help with. Please sign up for what you can help with. They also are going to make magnets for vehicles so sign up if you would like one and if you have an old magnet sign please get them to her so that the dates can be updated. She needs a vice-chair for sales, please let her know if you can help.

Holiday today so no SOM

President John presented the following Paul Harris recognitions today; Glenn Januska (PH Fellow), Casey Allison (PH Fellow), Val Roberts (PH +2), Susan Thomas (PH +2), Barry Johnson (PH +3), Tony Valdez (PH +3), John Jorgensen (PH +4), Steve Loftin (PH +4), Dave True (PH + 6 and PH +7), Liz Becher (PH +7). Congratulations and thank you!

Eric Schlidt received his Blue Badge today, Congratulations.

President John Griffith, introduced our speaker today, Christopher Dragon, the Music Director for the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra. Christopher is from Perth Australia and Dragon really is his last name. He said that his path to being a conductor is a little different as he did not study at a University to be a conductor, he studied Clarinet at the West Australian Academy for the Performing Arts as Conducting was not offered as a core subject. He instead put together his own Orchestra made up of all of his friends. He said that he put on a concert having never conducted an orchestra before which looking back was very crazy. He continued to learn and practice by conducting anything he could in Western Australia from community orchestras to school and University orchestras, bands and he even was involved in an Opera Company. He said that he found the most difficult part of learning to conduct is that unlike an instrumentalist you can’t keep an orchestra in your room to practice on whenever you have time. So, having as much time as possible conducting anything is a huge help. He was also accepted into the Symphony Services International Conducting Program which chose a handful of participants and flew them to each of the different professional orchestras in Australia and New Zealand to have Master classes with them. At the age of 22 he was lucky enough to become the inaugural assistant conductor of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra which is the professional State Orchestra. Here he met his most important mentor the Music Director Asher Fisch. Asher was lucky enough to be the assistant to the great Daniel Barenboim, pianist and conductor. Working with Asher really opened his eyes and made a huge difference in his life. While at the West Australia Symphony he auditioned for the job at the Colorado Symphony where he competed against 209 applicants and won the job of associate conductor which meant he now had to leave Australia and move to Denver Colorado which was a big deal as it was the first time he had moved out of Australia. He has been at that job now for four and a half years and this season he was promoted to resident conductor, which doesn’t change his duties but it lets the community know that he is still based in Denver which is important because he won the position with the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra also. The position of Music Director over conductor is that the Music Director is responsible for shaping the sound of the entire orchestra and giving the organization a vision of where to go in the future. We are about halfway through the 2019-2020 season which is all about celebration of all kinds. The upcoming concert for this weekend is called Celebration of Tradition, and it is all about music engrained in the characteristics of the classical period, with form, structure, and an emphasis on balance. It includes Mozart’s Symphony 40, which he played us a snippet of.  This concert will also feature the Toy Symphony which was supposedly composed by Mozart’s father Leopold. It has this title because it features toy instruments being used, they are excited to be collaborating with the Vibe School of Music as their students will be performing with the toy instruments. This concert also marks the beginning of the Beethoven 2020 celebration as it is his 250^th anniversary. So, every concert throughout 2020 will contain something about Beethoven. The celebration will begin with his first piano concerto which is one of his earlier works and through the year you will get to see how his work progressed. The pianist that will be featured is the same pianist that played for Christopher’s audition last year, Steven Lin, he showed us a video, what a magnificent pianist. The next Concert in March entitled Celebration of Masterworks brings some of the biggest hits of classical music into one concert. This concert will feature concert violinist Simone Porter, which is a huge deal. It will also feature Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and they are partnering with Wyoming Dementia Camp to reimagine some of Harman’s art works of this piece. The Final concert of the season will be called the Suffragette Symphony, and is a celebration of the 100^th anniversary of women’s suffrage in the USA and the 150^th in Wyoming. So, the first half of the concert begins with American Music with a very special piece, a new WSO commissioned work by the American Composer Stephanie Ann Boyd who is known for her ethereal melodies and exploration of feminine themes. They hope this composition will always stand as an enduring token of these significant anniversaries. The concert will finish with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony which is arguably his most popular ever composed. He said that this one is selling well so it would be a good idea to get your tickets sooner than later. They are trying to incorporate the Symphony even more so into the community so that it becomes a central part of not only Casper but of the whole State. They believe the Symphony is for everyone so they are going to try to make it more accessible by bringing the musicians out of the concert hall and into the community for events like the brunch at the Nic. Also, they want to expand this by taking ensembles into local bars and other places in the community. They want to have more Pops Concerts like their Pops in the Park series at Washington Park and they want it to be family events and collaborate with some local bands for more variety and more local participation. He said most importantly the Symphony does not have to be always taken so seriously, it should be a fun night out. He then showed us a video of him conducting the Colorado Symphony playing the music to Jurassic Park while he was dressed as a T-Rex. Mr. Dragon as a Dinosaur. He said that when he did this none of the musicians knew he was going to do that which made the first few minutes quite difficult for the musicians.

 

President John Griffith concluded the meeting at 1:01, PE Lisa Scroggins let us know that next week, we will be at the Casper Events Center. Our program will be about the census.

 

“Use Rotary to connect your world”