Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra

An invigorating experience, a tranquil song, where it failed in sight, never in song. The Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra, or GJSO for short, has been around since the 1930’s. Every year they choose a theme to follow and orchestral festivals to celebrate. This year is season 45. They celebrated Beethoven and their theme is “Bold Strokes”. Beethoven is an event where people go and listen to Beethoven along with drink beer

The Orchestra’s most recent concert was April 6th at the Avalon Theatre, where they featured the cello section. Their cast switches between the years but has stayed with a consistent director of Charles Latshaw. He has been directing the GJSO and various orchestras since 2010. 

The theme this year, “Bold Strokes,” has included many invigorating pieces written by classical and contemporary artists. On March 9th and 10th they featured Tchaikovsky’s 6th symphony and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola, and Orchestra. Both of these pieces feature the string section of the orchestra and large fast passages. The theme of bold means that they are willing to take risks. And this is perfectly portrayed in the dangerous shifting and fast paced pieces that they are playing this season. performed. Jack Hatcher, a ninth grader at the Fruita 8/9, reports “It’s pretty impressive how they can do all that stuff. They definitely practise a lot. And this year especially they have gone to harder pieces,”. The entirety of the pieces they have played are above a grade level four (one of the highest level pieces) and have been intensely practised by many to perform the great pieces presented at the Avalon Theatre.

Their most recent concert, on April 6th and 7th, was the world premiere of “Hello Cello”. This piece was made of three movements all in the classical order, slow, waltz, then fast and exciting. All of them beautifully composed and then performed greatly by Mark Kosower. Both the artist and the performer are from Chicago and met about three years ago, where Daniel Perttu got the original idea for the composition. “A great performance, really cool and definitely creative with the repetition of themes,” reports Brody Wickersham, an eighth grader at the Fruita 8/9. Because of the repetition of themes the artist was able to help the audience remember and relate multiple parts of the composition to each other and made an all together great whole.

All together, the Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra is a highly professional group that is able to perform with excellence. They are also organised enough to be able to strictly choose and follow a theme for a year at a time. A spectacular experience, a world from home, let the symphony, be your holm.