copyright the Chronicle January 7, 2015
by Joseph Gresser
DERBY LINE — About three and a half years ago, the Chronicle published an article about a man who had brought a few local musicians out of retirement and was working to create a local orchestra. In April of 2011, a few months after he started the Newport Area Community Orchestra, Ken Michelli, the orchestra’s founder, conductor, and engine, had found two clarinetists, two flute players, a violinist, and a cellist.
His ambition, which seemed at the time astonishingly optimistic, was to find a few more string players. Brass instruments were out of the question, because they would drown out the other players.
Today, Mr. Michelli is still looking for new recruits, but when he stands on the podium he looks out over as many as 45 musicians, including those performing on brass instruments, which play nicely with the others.
Mr. Michelli’s achievement, and that of the many musicians who have joined forces with him for the love of their art, is now celebrated in a 20-minute-long documentary film.
Filmmaker Stacey Vos opens her portrait of the unexpected ensemble with the soaring clarinet solo that opens George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue,” and closes it with a series of close-ups of musician’s feet tapping out time as they play.
“The idea struck me as I was filming at one of their rehearsals,” Ms. Vos said in an e-mail exchange. “I noticed that many of the members seemed to have their own unique way of keeping the beat with their feet and I thought it would be a wonderfully artistic detail to add to the film.”
In the film, Ms. Vos deftly lays out the brief history of the orchestra through interviews with players who recall how they were brought back to music by Mr. Michelli’s dream.
Among those she spoke with was Lisa C. Erwin, who recalled longing to play the flute as a small girl. Her father, instead, pushed her to take up the double B flat tuba.
Her band teacher told her the school didn’t have such a tuba, which was not surprising. The instrument is about as large as most elementary school students.
After several years, and much pleading, Ms. Erwin finally got her flute. Today, thanks to Mr. Michelli, she has a group of musicians with whom to play it.
Another early member of the ensemble, clarinetist Chris Maginniss, told how he played as a youngster, but stopped in college. After almost 50 years, he said, he picked up the instrument again.
“I’m back,” he tells Ms. Vos, “but I’ll never be as good as I was as a kid.”
Bassoonist Steven Tatum never stopped playing, even though he didn’t study music during his years at Middlebury College. Now a graduate, he tells Ms. Vos how pleased he is to be able to share his love of music with others.
Mr. Michelli and Ms. Vos were already acquainted when he saw one of her films on YouTube. He asked her to consider making a film about the orchestra, and she jumped at the chance.
“It turned out to be such a fulfilling project!” she said. “I had the pleasure of meeting so many talented musicians who call the Northeast Kingdom home and it was inspiring to observe their passion and dedication for bringing music to the community.”
Ms. Vos, who hails from Coventry and graduated from Lake Region Union High School, said she discovered a “passion to create short films that raise environmental, social, and cultural awareness” while earning a Master’s degree in humane education from Valparaiso University.
She discovered another purpose for her filmmaking skills, when she created a video tribute to mark her grandmother’s eightieth birthday. When her grandmother died, not long afterwards, the tribute gained even more emotional resonance as a reminder of a life, Ms. Vos said.
Since then she has made similar films to commemorate the lives of members of other families.
“I can’t express how fascinating and beautiful it can be to weave together memorable moments from people’s lives through the art of film.
“‘Ordinary’ people lead such colorful and diverting lives that, unfortunately, rarely get recognized or acknowledged. Tribute films can be a powerful way to bring their stories to light,” she said.
In his interview, Mr. Michelli talks about his love for the baritone horn, also known as the euphonium, and his years playing trombone, which he seems to consider a poor substitute. While the orchestra itself is his main instrument, Ms. Vos captures him playing his baritone with a chamber group at the Memphremagog Arts Collaborative (MAC) gallery in Newport.
Their conductor’s contribution to the musical life of the community is made clear in the comments of his players. One or two suggest that his absence would mean the end of the ensemble, while Mr. Michelli tells Ms. Vos that he thinks of the orchestra as a legacy that would continue to make music even if he should pick up stakes and move to another community.
He is, in fact, not a native Vermonter, having moved to Derby from Georgia after a career in computers.
When he began the orchestra, he hopefully included the word international in the ensemble’s name. That was soon dropped to avoid confusion with another local group of musicians, but today Mr. Michelli’s vision has come true with the addition of student musicians from Stanstead College, just across the border from Derby Line.
Mr. Michelli looks forward to adding more players to the orchestra, and is able to look back on some real accomplishments, including the performance of his own composition, “Colorscape For Orchestra, Opus 3,” at the Haskell Opera House.
Ms. Vos’ film documents that event, but more importantly, it brings to life the community created by Mr. Michelli. In the future, she said, she hopes to make films showing other ways people work together.
“Raising awareness about the ways in which people are making positive impacts in the world, even in the smallest of ways, can be such a comforting and inspiring thing,” she said. “I think film can be an incredibly powerful and artistic way to open a window into the ways that people are coming together to make a difference and elevate our consciousness about it — and hopefully stir us into taking action in our own lives to create a better world for all.”
Ms. Vos’ film can be viewed on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ0gVw-hKxc.
contact Joseph Gresser at [email protected]
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