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Denied Because She Was a Girl, Cynthia’s Living Her Dream
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Saturday, August 26, 2017
 

STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Cynthia Woolley has wanted to play cello ever since she became mesmerized with the bowed four-stringed instrument at age 6. But she was told she had to play a violin because she was a girl.

Now she’s living her dream, playing cello for the Wood River Orchestra.

“I barely knew how to play the cello when I started with them but last summer I had improved enough I even got to play a solo during the ‘William Tell Overture.’ And I love playing it more and more—it transports me back to that symphony hall as a six-year,” said Woolley.

The Wood River Orchestra is looking for new players as it embarks on its 11th season with an introductory potluck from 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27. Founded to give former band and orchestra members a place to play, it’s open to members of all ages and abilities and has even attracted high school students.

Woolley began taking piano lessons at age 5 but became fascinated by the cello when she attended a symphony performance at 6.

“I love the sound—it was my voice in my head. So mellow and luscious!” she recalled. “And I was fascinated with their size and beauty.

She thought she’d get her chance to play cello when she joined her middle school orchestra but they steered her to the violin because, they said, girls don’t play cello.

“I played violin for two years but never got into it,” she said.

After Woolley moved to the Wood River Valley 19 years ago, a member of the Arden Trio doing a residency in the Wood River Valley was able to secure a cello for her from a friend of his in New York.

She took lessons from Dick Brown who was then music director at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, but she had to give them up as work picked up at her law practice. It was Dede Morris, who plays cello for the Wood River Orchestra, who suggested she take it up again after Woolley retired.

“I said, ‘I haven’t touched it in 15 years. I don’t know how to play it,’ but she said that didn’t matter.”

Woolley engaged the help of Ellen Sanders, a cellist with the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, and she has been playing with abandon ever since. Come symphony season, she even stares at the cellists, studying the way they move their bow and watching their fingerwork.

“So much is involved. I never imagined how difficult it could be, but I love it. It’s so complicated and yet so elegant. I just wish I had started when I was 6,” she said.

Playing cello is different from playing piano, Woolley noted. When you hit a note on the piano, it always comes out the same. But cellists must learn to hear the pitches as they play.

“When you put your finger on a cello string, it may be a flat or a sharp note or in between so you have to really hear the pitch to play with accuracy,” she said.

Playing with a group like the Wood River Orchestra is also very different from playing piano, she said.

“When I practiced piano, it was me by myself—and that can get lonely. Everyone in the orchestra is so nice, and it’s not high pressure at all,” she said.

“Some of our members were shy when they started out, afraid they weren’t good enough. I was very much a beginner when I started, as well. But it’s always amazing how well we sound by concert time. And I’ve made a lot of new friends—people of different ages, different backgrounds, people from all over.”

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