STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Gretchen Van Hoesen and her husband James Gorton have long quibbled about whose instrument is the most difficult to play.
But
one thing the harp player, the oboe player and their daughter—harpist
Heidi Van Hoesen Gorton—can agree on is how magical it is to play with
the Sun Valley Summer Symphony in Sun Valley.
The three have been coming to Sun Valley for 26 years, arriving when Heidi was just 6 years old.
The
orchestra, which then played on The Green in Elkhorn under the baton of
founder Carl Eberl, had expanded from the six players it started with
in 1985 to about 30—the size of a chamber orchestra. Carl began to
recruit top pros in the orchestral world to add to musicians from Boise
and Twin Falls.
“I’d
known Carl Eberl from playing with him in the Lake Placid Sinfonietta,”
said Gretchen. “When he wanted to expand the Sun Valley Summer Symphony
(then called the Elkhorn Music Festival), he invited us to
perform.” The orchestra moved to a large tent on the lawn where the
harps were rolled across the grass from the Sun Valley Inn each night.
Taking
the 100-pound harp across the country from Pittsburgh to Sun Valley
wasn’t an easy proposition. The family drove gingerly, trying to avoid
bumps in the road. The finicky harp couldn’t be left in the hot car
during lunch stops so the family would keep the air conditioning on
while they made a beeline for fast food takeout. Come night the harp
would join them in their motel room, along with their suitcases.
Three
years ago the Sun Valley Summer Symphony decided to purchase two harps
from the Lyon & Healy factory. Gretchen and Heidi were thrilled, and
they affectionately named the instruments Galena and Baldy. Gretchen
traveled to Chicago where the harps are made, to select the best two.
After a long day of testing around 20 harps she chose the most warm,
bright, and resonant instruments.
James
Gorton’s oboes may be smaller and 99 pounds lighter but that doesn’t
mean he doesn’t have challenges to contend with. While clarinet players
can purchase ready-made reeds, oboe players must make their reeds out of
bamboo grown in the south of France. Sometimes it involves 20 hours a
week of cutting and scraping with razor blades, knives and other tools.
And, typically, only about three out of 10 reeds are usable.
Gorton
can’t make a bunch of oboe reeds to bring from Pittsburgh as entirely
different reeds are needed in the altitude of Sun Valley. “Reed-making
is time consuming but I love the challenge and the ability to create
varied sonorities,” he said.
Making music fills the DNA of these three.
Gretchen
Van Hoesen is the daughter of K. David Van Hoesen, who taught bassoon
at the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music and Oberlin
Conservatory of Music and was former Principal Bassoonist of the
Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.
Gretchen’s
grandfather, Karl Van Hoesen, taught at the Eastman School and in the
Rochester public schools. He was a violinist in the Rochester
Philharmonic and a conductor who created the model for youth orchestras
around the country. Gretchen’s sister Catherine, currently first
violinist with the San Francisco Symphony, is a former member of the Sun
Valley Summer Symphony. Carol Van Hoesen, Gretchen’s mother, is a
cellist who met Gretchen’s father at the Eastman School of Music.
Carol’s parents were also musicians, a piano teacher and organist.
Gretchen
was 12 when she joined an experimental beginner’s group harp class at
Eastman, playing with five other students on a 30-string Troubadour
harp.
James
Gorton’s mother was an accomplished pianist and his father formed a
civic chorus in suburban Philadelphia when he wasn’t writing headlines
for his weekly newspaper. Jim’s parents urged him to take up the oboe
after they were mesmerized by an oboe player who soloed with the
Philadelphia orchestra. They found their son a teacher from that
orchestra. “I always liked Prokofiev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’, so I was
happy to start the oboe,” said Gorton, who retired as Co-Principal
Oboist with the Pittsburgh Symphony in 2012 after playing in the
orchestra for 41 years.
Heidi
traveled alongside her parents and the Pittsburgh Symphony on dozens of
world tours beginning at the age of 9 months. “While others toured
museums, we toured the world’s playgrounds,” Gretchen said.
Heidi,
now Principal Harpist with the Toronto Symphony, feels that Sun Valley
has always been a second home to her. While her parents rehearsed with
the Symphony, she rode horses, attended day camps, frequented the
Chocolate Foundry and explored the Sun Valley resort. She learned to
ride a bike in Sun Valley at the age of six, and made family trips from
Ketchum to Hailey singing campfire songs along the way.
Heidi
started playing the harp at 7, wanting to be just like her mother. “The
harp has always been a part of me. I’m sure I heard and felt the
vibrations when I was in utero as my Mom held the harp against her
body.”
Now
considered one of the most outstanding solo, chamber and orchestra
musicians of her generation, Heidi started performing with the Sun
Valley Summer Symphony at the age of 12. “I love all genres of music –
Metallica is actually my favorite band - but classical music is my
language. I learned to read music before books.
It
takes mental and physical coordination as well as strength and stamina
to play the harp. “We play with both hands and both feet, which many
people don’t realize. The harp has seven foot pedals that control the
accidentals (sharps and flats) in the music,” says Gretchen. “You might
pluck the correct string but if you have the incorrect pedal depressed,
you’ll play the wrong note.”
Playing
the harp outdoors in Pittsburgh is not ideal, due to the extreme
humidity and its effect on the tuning. Fortunately, the harps seem to
love the dry conditions here in Sun Valley. “How much time do we need to
tune? As much time as we’ve got,” says Heidi.
Gretchen
misses the intimacy of the former tent venue where even audience
members like former Sen. John Kerry and Teresa Heinz would stop to talk
with the musicians. But she loves the beauty and the acoustics of the
new Pavilion. She says that the Jumbotron videography and the sound
system on the lawn are amazing. “With any concert hall the question mark
is: What’s it going to sound like? Even when you use all the right
materials, sometimes it sounds awful,” Gorton said. “But the Pavilion is
great,” added Gretchen. “When I performed the Mozart Flute & Harp
Concerto last Friday, I did not even need amplification.”
The
entire family is in awe of the crowds that often exceed several
thousand. “Anywhere else you might get 50 audience members to attend a
chamber music performance and you think that’s a good crowd. To have
hundreds, even thousands, like we do for our In Focus concerts is
unheard of,” Gorton said.
“That
we can draw so many people for classical music is fabulous, especially
in this day when so many symphonies are struggling,” added Gretchen.
“Alasdair Neale, our exceptional music director, really brings in the
crowds because of his warm rapport with the audience and his stellar
interpretations of the music. Another reason our free outdoor concerts
are so well attended is that the quality of music making is so high. We
have five concertmasters from around North America within the violin
section alone! It’s just a beautiful place to be—a place where magic
happens.”