STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Andrew Moffat might have started performing with the Wood River Orchestra earlier. But there was the pesky problem of getting his violin through customs after he moved to the Wood River Valley from Prague.

Customs, it seems, doesn’t look kindly on violins made of Brazilian rosewood, ivory—even pearl, in some cases because of pressure from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and the Endangered Species Act. And it’s common for customs officilals to hold violins and other musical instruments until they conduct an investigation.

“Although I moved here full time in April of 2021, I didn’t have my violin for a while because of international customs pertaining to exotic or endangered materials,” said Moffat. “You have to get proper paperwork. It was very annoying and complicated, and you hear horror stories of people having their instruments destroyed. So, I was very keen for that not to happen.”

Moffat was finally reunited with his violin, and he is looking forward to playing in his first holiday concert with the Wood River Orchestra on Sunday. The free concert will start at 4 p.m. at the Church of the Big Wood, at Warm Springs and Saddle roads in Ketchum.

“I like all the traditional Christmas music, the traditional Christmas medleys. We’ll play some fun stuff like music from ‘The Grinch.’ And we’re playing a modern piece composed in 2016 by a Finnish composer that evokes the atmosphere of winter in an Arctic forest. It’s a really beautiful piece, and hopefully we will do it justice.”

Moffat has had some amazing orchestral opportunities since taking up the violin as an elementary school student.

Born in the United Kingdom, he spent his childhood playing with the United Kingdom’s National Children’s Orchestra. He also won prizes in such national competitions as the Cheltenham Festival of the Performing Arts and the National Chamber Music for Schools competition.

“I can’t say what led me to the violin. Maybe it’s something to do with deep down being a bit of a show-off--I think violinists are the type to slightly show off,” he said. “I was very lucky as just down the road from us there was a really good small music school, although I was very lazy and never practiced as much as I should.

“By the time I was 15, the little music school where I started had grown into the Gloucester Academy of Music. Through it I went to a small town in Tuscany and spent three weeks there as part of an international music festival, living in this little hilltop Italian town playing concerts at an amazing venue.”

Moffat performed at St. John’s Smith Square and the Royal Albert Hall as part of school prom. And in 2000 he won the Keith Nutland Memorial Prize which led to a recital at the Cheltenham Music Festival.

He studied violin under Steve Wilkie at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England, and played under the baton of some of the world’s leading conductors, including Sir Mark Elder, Douglas Boyde, Elgar Haworth, Gianandrea Noseda and Zubin Mehta.

“They sent the orchestra to another Italian town where we played Mozart opera in a beautiful basilica l church at the bottom of the hill. Amazing, amazing good times,” he said.

But, despite an obvious penchant and talent for music, Moffat took his career in a different direction  after graduating with a Bachelor of Music degree with honors. He moved to Prague to learn to teach English as a foreign language.

He taught in the Czech Republic, South Korea and Spain, earning a Master of Arts degree in Applied Linguistics in his spare time. And he returned to the United Kingdom in 2015 to study for a PhD in Applied linguistics at the University of Nottingham.

He followed his bride and twor children to the Wood River Valley

“I married a girl who is from here while I was teaching English as a foreign language in Prague, We got married at Redfish Lake. and we spent a decade teaching in various different places. We moved here two years ago—my wife got a job at the high school as an English specialist in a biology class. Now we have two little twin girls who just turned 8 at Alturas Elementary. And it’s been super fun just having them here and watching them grow. They’re having a good time at school in the dual immersion program and down the road maybe we’ll look at some of the musical opportunities the summer symphony music academy provides.”

Moffat is working on a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan while living in Hailey. But he’s no less excited about the opportunity to play music again.

“When I moved into teaching, I played a little bit here and there but mostly let my playing slide. Now I’m really excited by the opportunities here for playing, excited about being involved with the orchestra,” he said. “I feel very lucky to be involved on stage again, playing with the musical community. I’m blown away by the level of enthusiasm for classical music in the valley here, and I’m excited to be part of it.”