New music teacher helps Valley tune up
By DANA DUGAN
A familiar face at the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, cellist Ellen Sanders, a California native, recently became a resident of the Wood River Valley. Sanders joined the musical teaching staffs at Wood River High School and Wood River Middle School as well as the Sun Valley Summer Symphony’s School of Music.
Sanders has played with the Sun Valley Summer Symphony for 25 years and has been a Summer Music Workshop faculty member since 1998.
“The unique collaboration between the school district and the symphony strengthens musical education in the Wood River Valley,” said GwenCarol Holmes, Blaine County School District superintendent. “This sort of partnership allows us to offer outstanding opportunities to talented students in a small community.”
Jenny Krueger, Sun Valley Summer Symphony executive director, joins the rest of the Valley as a big fan of Sanders.
“Ellen is a world-class musician and has always been a favorite teacher with our students,” Krueger said.
Sanders has played with “wonderful musicians” throughout her career, but “this opportunity to live in this location and be so connected with so many students who want to learn was impossible to pass up,” she said. “It’s my job is to make sure the students have fun. I want to be the teacher who teaches them nuggets.”
Sanders heard about the job opening when she was here this past summer.
“I immediately asked about it,” she said. “I have always enjoyed working with young adults as they are launching their lives, and I also love the area and the symphony. This is like a homecoming for me. These mountains make me happy.”
Sanders is principal cello of Santa Cruz Symphony, assistant principal cello of Opera San Jose and a regular member of the San Jose Chamber Orchestra. She also has performed frequently with the San Francisco Opera and the Mendocino Music Festival.
A 1989 graduate of Oberlin Conservatory of Music, on the campus of Oberlin College, in 1992 Sanders graduated with a master’s from the San Francisco Conservatory. Recently, she was invited to play in her 26th season for the 2017 Sun Valley Summer Symphony.
In addition, she was a teaching artist for more than 10 years in the San Francisco Symphony’s Education Department, making weekly visits to middle and high school music classes to coach cello sections and chamber music groups.
Sanders said one reason she loves teaching is that she connects so well with children––a good thing, since she’s around them all day and several evenings each week. She teaches three classes at Wood River High School; Sinfonia, at Wood River Middle School; and the Honor Orchestra Program and Elementary Strings, both through the Sun Valley Summer Symphony School of Music. She also has 11 private students.
The cello is not an easy instrument, Sanders admitted, but it’s “good that the children are challenged,” she said. “It’s healthy that they have to earn it.”
In seven years, the orchestra program at Wood River Middle School and High School has grown from 35 total students to 145 students.
The job was created because the teacher, Rebecca Martin, was doing it all alone, Sanders said.
“The support of faculty in School of Music alone makes this job such a right fit for me,” Sanders said. “It’s just amazing how the School of Music is set up. Plus, there are great musicians in the Valley I can’t wait to collaborate with, like Dorinda Rendahl and R.L. Rowsey. There are a lot of opportunities to do a lot of new things. It’s like a new season in my career.”
Sanders will return to California several times over the school year to satisfy playing obligations, including a December tour with Barbara Higbie, a Windham Hill artist. And in February, all three of her contract orchestras will play in the San Francisco Bay Area.