Mila Lyon grew up playing the flute but hadn’t played for 30 years. But she picked it up again in 2008 when the orchestra instructor for the Blaine County School District sounded the call for anyone who could blow a horn or draw a bow across a violin to be part of a fledgling community orchestra.
A few weeks later 29 members of that Wood River Community Orchestra, including a seventh-grade violinist and three high school students, played in public for the first time before 40 diners eating pot roast and chocolate cake at the weekly Souper Supper at St. Charles Parish. And six days later they presented their first public concert—a 90-minute performance featuring Maurice Ravel’s “Bolero,” Handel’s Trumpet Minuet” and even the Beatles’ “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” at The Liberty Theater.
The orchestra just performed a fabulous spring concert of overtures from movies like “Sound of Music” and “West Side Story” that had audience members ticking off shows they hoped they’d perform next year—shows like “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Wizard of Oz…” Meet some of the musicians, including those who have been with the orchestra since the beginning, in today’s Eye on Sun Valley video.