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Show a SOUTHERN UTAH NEWS Focus Stirland Continued from Page 10 and two sisters, who are all married and all live in the area. After graduating from Hurricane High School in 1968, Stirland went to Dixie College for a year. He then served a two-yeLDS mission to Australia. He returned and got his associate degree from Dixie, then transferred to Southern Utah State.College in Cedar City. He got his BA in music education there in 1973. One year was enough to show Stirland he didnt want to teach music at least not for a living. Actually he has had piano students every place hes lived for the past 10 years. After teaching music, and everything else, in the small town ofManila in northern Utah for a year, Stirland decided he was going to be a cabinetmaker. He spent two years going to Salt LakeTrade Tech while apprenticing with Fetzer s. In 1976 Stirland finally set his career course on pharmacy and headed back to school. I was in school for a long time, he comments. After another five years of education, he had his pharmacy degree in 1981, but he still had to apply and pass a test. I got lucky and got in, he remarks. ar , WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 14, 1930 Stirland developed his first love jazz. Stirland was involved in In the meantime, he had met Beverly, who was from West Jordan, on a blind date in 1977 and they married the next year. While the pharmacy and building interests come from his dad, Stirland gets his musical and teaching bents from his mother. My mother is from a real musical family," he explains. Her dad was a talented violinist. He was on his way to Vienna to study when he was young, but he got married instead." Stirland says his mother was active in music all her life. It rubbed off," he says. There was a strong influence in the home. I had good opportunities. I always had lessons and a record player and lots of records. If there was something going on in town, she took us to it. Stirland started piano lessons at the age of 8. He remembers his first teacher, not necessarily fondly. If I didnt play the right notes, shed slap my hands with a ruler," he relates. Thats the way it was in my day. His second teacher also had idiosyncrasies, but was better. Hed fall asleep, but he was a really, really good player. Hed . say Play this, then fall asleep. But he was good. I advanced more with this guy than any teacher I ever had. And thats the honest truth." every aspect of music at Dixie College. He was in the choir and band, and performed with the Program Bureau. It was a thrill, he says, recalling the experience of performing The Messiah" in the Tabernacle to organ accompaniment. Stirlands favorite perfor- With his moms pushing, Stirland continued his piano development and later played the oboe and sang. He played with Bands in Salt Lake and appeared on KSLs Talent Showcase several times. He put together programs with his sisters and brother, who also are musical. He had a teacher his All-Sta- te last year in high school, Carl Williams who had been a drummer with The Lettermen. They became friends and Williams was a strong influence. He got Stirland on the Dixie College Stage Band when he was still in high school. It was hot stuff to do things like cut a record and travel around at that age. Through this experience, mance experience happened a little later in the Tabernacle. He played a piano solo during a dull Founders Day Program. It was hot and everyone was bored, he explains. It was a very fast piece, a neat program piece for breaking the mood. They gave me a standing ovation, ill never forget it." Stirland has taken piano lesHal sons from the best at SUSC; Gladys Campbell Gladstone in Salt Lake City, at the time the top teacher in the state, he says; and Lowell Farr at the University of Utah. Ive been surrounded by good people and good music, he says. He plans to put it to put all that to good use in the Civic Orchestra here. In spite of his personal attainments, he knows people have to start somewhere. We dont audition, he asserts. We accept everybody. r O O O Makin' it great! O o Please join us on Tuesday Feb. 20 in the of our newest opening "isza Hwt Location 644-251- 3 Phone: 421 S. 100 East Kanab, Utah Watch for details on our grand opening festivities !!!! |