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Show Cyan Magenta Yellow Black Wednesday, March 23, 2005 A5 Sanpete Messenger - Sanpete Messenger/Gunnison Valley Edition Snow conservatory gives Allreds start on dream of family orchestra Off the Wasatch By Suzanne Dean By Roger Baker Publisher Stress in the slow lane My dad could fall in behind a slow driver on the highway for a period of time that seemed interminable. Rigor mortis could set in at the speed he drove. He wouldn’t take the chance to pass unless he could do it without exceeding the speed limit or even touching a double line. He’d never push someone along on the highway by tailgating or flashing his headlights, and the horn was only for emergencies. Dad would have been more comfortable living here off the Wasatch than in busy downtown Salt Lake City. He believed that it just wasn’t safe to force slow drivers to go faster than they were comfortable, and he’d putter along behind codger drivers and tractors, helping back up traffic, but only temporarily. He just couldn’t let the traffic back up for long. Dad would pull over and let the line pass if he sensed impatience and then fib and say that he just pulled over to enjoy the view. Maybe it wasn’t a fib, but sometimes the view didn’t seem that scenic to me. Did he need a closer look at some road kill? He would have made a good driver in Sanpete. He liked to stay in the slow lane. He would take the slow way from Salt Lake to Ephraim because he enjoyed the view. This often meant a swing around the west side of Utah Lake or even Ephraim via Tooele and Dugway. When he did take the main road, he avoided rush hour. He sometimes took the old way through South Salt Lake, Murray, Midvale, Sandy, Draper, Lehi, American Fork Pleasant Grove, Lindon, Orem. …You get the picture. The journey from Salt Lake to Ephraim could easily take a full day or more when it included stops at cemeteries, drinking fountains and obscure canyons. And, of course, he knew which places had the best deals on ice cream, and we had go out of our way to stop there. Makes me wonder sometimes if we’re in too much of a hurry. Why would anyone take a cell phone on a hike or camping? What’s the deal with e-mail when a handwritten letter with a real stamp is so much more sentimental and lasting? Is reading a day-old newspaper that bad? What happened to the good old days when it took a check a week to clear the bank? The world still turned at the same speed. As I close in on retirement, I pause a bit and think Dad was right. There seems to be no reason for our speed other than the fact that it is possible. People send a fax rather than a letter just because it is possible to send a fax. Someone will no doubt check my math, but here it goes anyway. It’s 85 miles from Ephraim to Provo. If I can average five miles over the speed limit for the entire trip, I will save six and a half minutes. And it’s not easy to average five miles per hour faster. If I slow five miles an hour for five minutes, I have to go 10 miles over for five minutes to maintain my average. And for the six and a half minutes I saved, I will also arrive in Provo harried from a dangerous drive and with a headache. I will have lost my cool, sworn a few times, dodged some deer and generally lost my self-respect. What is worse is that I won’t have enjoyed the sight of the sunlight and fresh snow on Nebo or noticed that the elk have moved to the other side of the highway. The pheasants in the field will have gone unnoticed. But I will have made good time so that I can hurriedly get my chores done and speed home saving another six-plus minutes. Come to think of it, I could avoid the trip altogether and save an entire day. That’s my kind of slow lane. I feel much better and am down one size, which is wonderful! Curves is a fun and supportive environment for women. —Linda Bateman EPHRAIM—Worth Allred (he goes by Worth C. to distinguish himself from his 19-yearold son, Worth A.) has always dreamed of setting up a family orchestra. He doesn’t aspire to create a virtuoso group that performs for money. He simply pictures his family of six performing for each other, neighbors, family groups and maybe at church. “We want to play beautiful classical music just to lift our spirits and others’ spirits,” says daughter Amber, 17. “It sounds cheesy, but that’s what we’ve always wanted to do.” A couple of months ago, the family got a start on its dream when all six enrolled in the Horne Conservatory of Music at Snow College, a Saturday music school for anyone and everyone 4-years-old and older. (A cousin, Lane Carr, is taking lessons with them.) Worth P. is studying voice. Christie (the mother), Amber, 17, and Mariah, 9, are taking piano. Worth A. is working on the violin. And Samuel, 13, is playing trombone. “We’re all beginners,” says Amber. Well, that’s not completely true, she adds. Samuel has played a little trumpet in his school band. The Horne School of Music launched the conservatory in February as a vehicle to serve the community, develop future music students for the college and provide current students with music teaching jobs, says Dr. Elaine Jorgensen, who directs the program. Fifty students signed up for the first term, which runs through April. Jorgensen expects to run shorter terms and a flexible schedule over the summer and to offer a full term again in the in the fall. Because the nationally ranked Horne School of Music has faculty and students specializing in all areas of music, the conservatory can offer a broad spectrum of instruction. Current conservatory students are studying voice, piano, guitar, violin, cello, flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet and trombone. One student is playing the euphonium, a large wind instrument similar to a tuba. “We can offer conducting, music theory and jazz, depending on the demand,” says Jorgensen. The base cost is $7.50 per 30-minute lesson or $30 per month. However, the conserva- 801-592-1278 Mobile • New construction, reroof repairs, strip-offs, free bids, • Insurance claims welcome. Family owned and operated. • If you are looking for a high quality professional job, call Anderson Roofing. LICENSED & INSURED Serving all Sanpete! www.friendlyroofers.com The Allreds with some of their instructors. Back row: Amber Allred, Loralie Whittaker (instructor), Worth Allred, Chris Lyon (instructor), and Worth Jr. Front row: Christie Allred, Samuel Allred, and Mariah Allred. On the end is a cousin, Lane Carr. BRUCE VAN DER RIET / MESSENGER PHOTO Piano instructor Emily Caldwell (with hand on music book) works with student Jessica Fullmer. tory offers family discounts. Two students from the same family can take lessons for $27 per student per month. If three family members enroll, the cost goes down to $25.33 per student per month. If a student pays in advance for a full term, he or she can receive an even deeper discount, a free music book and Snow concert tickets. Jorgensen says parents should look at lesson costs as an investment. If the lessons enable their children to qualify for college scholarships “the parents will get all their money back.” The biggest motive for launching the conservatory was to enrich Snow music students, educationally and financially. “It gives our very best majors the opportunity to teach,” says Jorgensen. “We train and supervise them.” Conservatory lessons have worked for the Allred family on several counts, says Christie, Want to sign up for lessons? For information about taking music lessons through the Horne Conservatory of Music, contact Dr. Elaine Jorgensen at 283-7471. Sign up for summer instruction begins April 12. to enroll, call the Horne School of Music at 283-7472 or Jorgensen at the number above. Jorgensen reminds parents that taking lessons over the summer can help students maintain and improve their musical skills, and may result in higher placement in school music programs in the fall. the mother. Both she and her husband work, so shuttling family members to different lesson locations during the week would be impossible. With the conservatory available, “we all come at the same time, and they are able to accommodate us,” she says. She describes the student in- structors as exceptionally dedicated, kind and patient. T h e Allreds sometimes practice together at home. They don’t always sound good, Amber says, but that’s because they’re just getting started. “We’re planning on taking lessons for a long time,” she says. Sculpture based on video games soon on display at Central Utah Art Center By John Hales Staff writer 435-623-7083 Office BRUCE VAN DER RIET / MESSENGER PHOTO BRUCE VAN DER RIET / MESSENGER PHOTO EPHRAIM—The Central Utah Art Center will present new exhibitions from artists Elizabeth Neel and Michael Whiting beginning March 25 and will host a reception for the artists that same evening from 6-9. Neel is a video artist from New York City. Her work explores the relationship between video as a new art form and the more traditional art form of painting. Many of her projects use video footage of horses and bull riding on the professional rodeo circuit but refer to other art-historical paintings. Other works of Neel explore why some historical events are “canonized” over others. To do this, she contrasts re-enactments of both famous and relatively unknown historical events. The Art Center will display Neel’s video-art March 25 to April 30. She will explain her work at an Art Talk on Thursday, April 7 at 6 p.m. Michael Whiting is a sculptor from Provo and received his education at BYU and Pratt Institute in New York City. He has exhibited in New York, Colorado and California, as well as elsewhere in Utah. Whiting’s sculptures are based on the pixilated images of vintage video games such as PacMan and Space Invaders. Whiting’s work will be on display from March 25 to May 28. The two exhibits continue a trend of contemporary art that began when Art Center director Adam Bateman took over as head of the gallery last year. At the time he took over, visitors to the gallery numbered about 30-40 per month. Bateman One of Michael Whiting’s sculptures, based on video games such as PacMan or Space Invaders. says 550 visitors came to the Art Center in February, and he says the center may have over 600 in March. Putting the statistics context, Bateman says the Salt Lake City Arts Center—drawing from a population of over one million people—averages 1,500 visitors each month. Bateman says an art critic in the state recently told him that the Central Utah Arts Center is the second-best venue in the state for contemporary art, next to the Salt Lake City Arts Center. |
