Local musician's road to Casper took some turns
HANNAH WIEST Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Friday, February 15, 2008 12:00 am
People had always told Richard Turner he was a great bassoonist with a promising future in performance. Why then is this talented Texas native a computer programmer for the State of Wyoming?
First came the rejections. Too many to remember.
Then his instrument malfunctioned.
Life, it turned out, curved and twisted upon itself just like his bassoon. And he couldn't be happier.
When Turner graduated from college in 1983, he was like any other music performance major: hopeful, confident and a tad cocky.
He had stretched his four-year degree into seven to play with the Houston Grand Opera each spring.
He was a shoe-in for any symphony orchestra anywhere.
Or so he thought.
But then the rejections came. Tampa. New York. His own Houston. By the time he auditioned in Oklahoma City, he had made up his mind to find another livelihood if he failed. He had accepted the fact he may never play Beethoven's Ninth Symphony as it's meant to be played: precisely, with a grand orchestra.
Turner didn't get the job.
Around the same time, two D notes that have the same fingering but play an octave apart on his bassoon went out of tune.
Both events re-routed his life course and landed him in Casper.
Puzzled by his out of tune bassoon, he began researching the science of hole placement on wind instruments. The first paragraph of the first book he found said hole position was based on elementary physics. So he started learning physics. Then he started learning calculus. Eventually, he found a computer program about the science of making instruments, and this lead to his interest and subsequent career in computer programming.
Turner is now an Information Technology professional for the State of Wyoming Department of Employment.
And he has found all the culture he desired here in Casper, maybe more. Since 1996, he's been principal bassoonist with the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra. He's a frequent soloist with the Casper Chamber Music Society and the Casper Municipal Band. He's the president of ARTCORE. And he plays bass recorder for the Casper Recorder Consort, among other things.
"I encountered things out here I didn't expect to encounter, like a really rich cultural life at an affordable price," he said. "It makes it easy to be plugged into the amount of things I'm plugged into. I love what I do by day and what I do by night. That's a good place to be."
Oh, and just for the record, Turner has played Beethoven's Ninth three times.
Bassoonist Richard Turner honors his heroes
Sometimes when someone dies, the funeral isn't enough. You want the world to know how great the man was, to feel how big the loss was.
Maybe tributes are selfish, a way to explain the tears that still come at the oddest of times. Maybe they are selfless, an exaltation of another, a message to the world about what really matters in life. Maybe they are both.
Either way, bassoonist Richard Turner has some respects to pay at his upcoming ARTCORE performance.
Just weeks ago, he was at the funeral for his friend and mentor Louis Rognstad, and he started thinking.
"It's just one of those things where you want to do more for him than just gather with friends and say he was a good guy," Turner said. "That feeling really leapt into my thoughts. I realized how blessed I was to have the wonderful influence of four such wonderful men in my life."
His own father: Turner's father died suddenly just a year ago. The day Turner found out, he was scheduled to play at the Nicolaysen Art Museum. He did play and is glad to play again this year in honor of his father.
His uncle: "My uncle always gave to the Nth degree," Turner said. He served with Doctors Without Borders and Habitat for Humanity until passing last summer. Turner wants to serve others like his uncle did.
Arch Deuel: "He was always giving, always smiling, and he taught me how to make people feel welcome," Turner said. Arch Deuel's daughter, Carolyn Deuel, will be accompanying Turner on piano for the ARTCORE show.
Louis Rognstad: "He taught me about generosity of spirit," Turner said about the man who played English horn in the Wyoming Symphony for years.
"I was lucky for having known them."
If you go…
What: ARTCORE performance by bassoonist and recorder player Richard Turner
When: 4 p.m. Feb. 24
Where: Our Saviour's Lutheran Church, 318 E. Sixth St.
Tickets: $4 - $12, available at Ayres Jewelry, Hill Music, The Shade Tree, Simply Shelia and Sonic Rainbow.
Info: Call 265-1564, e-mail artcorewy@aol.com or visit www.artcorewy.com. ]]>
Extend the love of Valentine's a few days more with the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra's upcoming concert, "A Night of Romance."
Guest conductor Harvey Felder will lead the 70-piece orchestra in three romantic pieces. Respighi's Prelude and Fugue in D Major is a lavish expansion of a piece by J.S. Bach. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21, otherwise known as the "Elvira Madigan" theme, will feature guest pianist James Winn. And one of symphony director Sherry Parmater's favorites, Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6, or the "Pathetique," will round out the show.
"The melodies are just the kind that pull at your heart. They are overwhelmingly emotional," Parmater said. The Pathetique was the last piece Tchaikovsky wrote. He conducted it in St. Petersberg nine days before he died, she said.
Felder, who is currently the Music Director of the Tacoma Symphony, is an active guest conductor. He has conducted around the world, including Carnegie Hall, Honolulu, Kansas City, Atlanta, Chicago, Japan, Mexico and Costa Rica.
Winn, a piano and composition professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, made his professional debut with the Denver Symphony at age 13. He has performed widely in North America, Europe and Japan ever since.
As if the music weren't sweet enough, one concertgoer will win a romantic dinner at 303 Restaurant and a night at the Sunburst Lodge Bed and Breakfast on Casper Mountain.
If you go…
What: Wyoming Symphony Orchestra's "A Night of Romance" concert
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: John F. Welsh Auditorium at Natrona County High School
Tickets: $14 - $33, available at Blue Heron Book, Metro Coffee Company, The Shade Tree, Flower Gallery, All That Yarn and the Symphony Office, 130 W. Second St.
Info: Call 266-1478 or visit www.wyomingsymphony.org