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Discovering The Mature Lifestyle

Bloomington Symphony Orchestra concludes 52nd season Page 4

Arts

April 17, 2015

April Issue

City band is a 53-year tradition in Fridley

BY SUE WEBBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER Mary Jane Olson’s musical stick-to-itiveness would be hard to beat. She’s been playing alto saxophone in the Fridley City Band for 51 years. And she also is a member of two other bands.

A former teacher, Olson said she missed her band days at North Dakota State University when she and her husband, the late Dave Olson, moved to the Twin Cities. She was thrilled to discover the then-2-year-old Fridley City Band and promptly became a member.

“We’re almost like family,” Olson said of the 38-member group. “We have so much fun. We really care for each other in this band. We take new people in under our fold, and they’re hooked.”

Her husband, a teacher in Fridley, became the city band director in 1967. He continued until he became ill in 1987. He died in 1991.

Olson, who started her musical career on the violin as a third-grader, now also plays in the ELC Lutheran Senior Synod Band, as well as being one of 12 who play in a German Old Time Band.

On the fourth Monday of August, Olson sponsors a yard concert and pizza party for the band at her home, an event that draws close to 100 people, she said.

She has nothing but praise for director Phil Raaen, whom she terms “a fabulous director.”

“He’s so easygoing, so kind and so nice,” Olson said. “He welcomes everyone.”

The Fridley City Band is 53-years-old and still going strong. (Submitted photo) She notes that Raaen, a retired music teacher, still teaches tennis at Forest Lake.

He and his four brothers all were music majors at Augsburg College and all are now band or choral directors.

Raaen, who taught for two years in Fridley and 31 years in Forest Lake, said he started his teaching career at Fridley Junior High in 1977 and team-taught with Dave Olson, Mary Jane’s husband. Raaen also

joined the city band and has been director for the last 28 years.

“My instrument was the baritone sax, BAND - TO PAGE 7

Page 2 Our Life • Friday, April 17, 2015

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Two boys, lifelong Minnesota residents, both born in 1935, had fathers who taught them how to handle guns and hunt in their pre-teen years.

The two didn’t know each other then, but for more than the last two decades, they have been lynchpins at the Plymouth Gun Club.

Plymouth Mayor Kelli Slavik was on hand March 29, as Ron Hentges and Dick Nelson were presented with Lifetime Achievement awards at the gun club’s annual spring banquet at the Medina Entertainment Center. Their wives, Shirley Nelson and Marge Hentges, who had been in on the surprise awards, were presented with bouquets of roses.

“Ron Hentges has been the person that opens the club, welcomes members and non-members alike, collects the money, keeps the score sheets in order and deposits the money in the bank at the end of the day,” Slavik said. “Neither rain nor snow or gloom of night prevents Ron from completing his self-appointed responsibilities. He is the friendly face all of you have become accustomed to seeing every time you visit the club.”

Nelson, according to Slavik, “has been the guy that has assumed responsibility for ordering ammunition, organizing paint crews to keep the buildings looking good and making sure workers are on hand to unload targets when the semi-truck arrives with a delivery. He keeps the tractor running like a Swiss watch and keeps the driveway and trap/skeet fields plowed right after each and every snowfall. He orders gravel for the driveway, and makes certain the lawn mowing equipment is running smoothly and always has sharp blades on it. Dick also is the goto guy when any of the traps need attention.”

Club President Jim Sable, a member since the late 1980s, said Hentges has “the volunteer unpaid position of club manager.”

“He does everything everyone else takes for granted,” Sable said.

Hentges, a native of Watkins,

Our Life • Friday, April 17, 2015 Page 3

Two Plymouth Gun Club stalwarts get Lifetime Achievement awards

BY SUE WEBBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER Minn. who now lives in Golden Valley, said he was 11 years old when his dad first showed him how to handle guns. Hunting followed from there. He joined the Plymouth Gun Club 25 years ago.

Hentges admitted to being completely surprised at receiving the recent Lifetime Achievement Award.

“Between Dick and I, we know everything that’s going on at the club, but we didn’t know about that,” Hentges said.

Nelson agreed.

“It was the best-kept secret since the Normandy Invasion in 1944,” he said. “I didn’t have a clue, and neither did Ron.” A resident of Wayzata who joined the gun club 38 years ago, Nelson said he was working at FMC in 1978 and shooting at an area behind the plant until it was shut down because of development.

“We started looking for another place to shoot,” Nelson said. “There were only a couple of other gun clubs.”

When they inquired, the Plymouth Gun Club said it would be glad to add another league.

“The city has been very good to us,” Nelson said.

Nelson recalls getting his start with guns when he went pheasant hunting on his grandparents’ farm in Hector, Minn. He continued to pursue the sport.

Now, in addition to his own interest in shooting, he’s made maintenance at the club a priority.

“We’ve got a pretty big area to maintain,” Nelson said. “We’ve got a good-sized parking lot to plow.”

But Nelson finds lots of members, many of whom are retired, who are willing to help, he said.

“One of the neat things about

Jim Sable, president of the Plymouth Gun Club (far right), presented a Lifetime Achievement award to Dick Nelson March 19.

(Photo by Sue Webber) the club is that anytime we have a project – like freshening up the paint on the buildings, removing diseased trees, or cleaning and fixing up – all we have to do is put out a notice that we need help.

Members are glad to bring their tools and chain saws and pitch in.

This is the greatest bunch of guys you ever saw.”

The Plymouth Gun Club put down its roots in Plymouth in 1953. The club was located at the intersection of County Road 18 (now Highway 169) and Highway 55. In 1957 the club bought 40 acres and moved to its present location at 5400 Holly Lane.

“At first we had two ruts going through the woods to get in,”

Sable said. “Then they built Harvest Hills, and we could quit using the road in the woods.”

The club is open Wednesdays and Saturdays year round, and Thursday afternoons May through October. It’s also open to the public.

Now with 150 regular members and 38 junior members, the club “hasn’t changed a bit,” said Sable, who started spending more time there after he retired.

“In 2001, the average age of members was 56,” Sable said. “We were all 60-80-year-olds with a handful of teens sprinkled in.

Now the average age is 40.”

The youthful influence comes as a result of the Plymouth Gun

Ron Hentges, a native of Watkins, Minn., joined the Plymouth Gun Club 25 years ago. (Photo by Sue Webber) Club’s being the birthplace of the USA High School Clay Target League in 2001. The youth trapshooting program got its start when a group of members was discussing the future of the club, including its aging membership.

Sable was named youth program director and given the responsibility of attracting young people to the club and to the shooting sports.

The Clay Target League has exceeded the club’s wildest expectations. An estimated 8,000 students throughout the state are expected to participate this year.

“One Saturday we had 55 kids waiting to get in and shoot,” Sable said. “Many, many parents who had never even heard of the sport now have joined the gun club. A family of five, including a son and two daughters, came to shoot as a squad one Saturday.

They said they used to golf as a family, and now they’re shooting together and encouraging each other.”

According to Sable, the youth program has kept many area gun clubs in business that might otherwise have become extinct.

And it’s brought things full circle for people like Dick Nelson and Ron Hentges, who first started hunting in the 1940s.

Now they’re helping with the Plymouth Gun Club’s pre-season orientation sessions for kids who are just starting out.

Page 4 Our Life • Friday, April 17, 2015

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Bloomington Symphony Orchestra concludes 52nd season

BY SUE WEBBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER Anne Cheney recalls that Doc Evans was directing the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra when she joined the group in the early 1970s. “I knew they needed a piccolo player,� said Cheney, a Minneapolis resident whose husband, Stuart Mitchell, plays oboe in the orchestra. “We play wonderful music, and the musicians are so accomplished,� Cheney said. �Our performances are so exciting.�

She has found the Bloomington musicians to be “a rather welcoming orchestra. We’re always happy to have new people,� Cheney said.

Cheney’s lifetime career prior to retirement was working as a financial officer for nonprofits. But, she has been playing flute and piccolo since she was in third grade. “Classical music is a big part of my life,� Cheney said. “When I’m not playing it, I’m listening to it. We’re culture vultures at our house.�

The orchestra was founded in 1963 by the city of Bloomington to provide orchestral music for Bloomington’s citizens and as an organization where area instrumentalists could develop their musical skills.

The 70-member group, concluding its 52nd season this month, is made up of volunteer adult amateur, semiprofessional and professional musicians from all around the metro area. Many of the members who are profes-

sionals also enjoy playing music in their spare time. “Music has always been a part of my life,� said Elizabeth Evans of St. Paul, a 17-year string instrument member of the orchestra. “I started with piano at five and learned strings in elementary school in order to play in the school orchestra.�

Music wasn’t her career, however. Evans, whose degree is in biochemistry, worked in research for pharmaceutical companies.

She was playing in a string quartet that included members of the orchestra when they suggested that she audition for the Bloomington orchestra. “The opportunity to play large orchestral works with our current conductor is so amazing,� said Evans, who estimates she spends 16-20 hours a week on music. “I love the challenge of learning difficult music and playing a good concert.�

Greg Granum, a 37-year Bloomington resident and member of the orchestra for 15 years, said he played viola up through high school and then set it aside when he went to college to study engineering. “That’s not the right way to do it,� Granum said. “If you want to play in your old age, you should keep it up.�

He noted that good friendships develop among the musicians and have endured through the years.

The group no longer has charter members who are still playing. But there are charter members who still attend every concert and contribute generously to the organization, according to General Manager Sara Tan.

The Bloomington Symphony appointed Manny Laureano the Music Director and Conductor in April 2013.

Laureano has been principal trumpeter with the Minnesota Orchestra for 34 years.

A resident of Plymouth, Laureano said he began his musical career as a 12-year-old junior high student in New York City. “I have always known about the great Bloomington Symphony and had my first experience with them when then-music director Cheng Chau asked me to substitute for him for a rehearsal,� Laureano said. “That summer I was contacted by Laurie Maiser, then board chair, wondering whether I would care to be the next music director of the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra.� Laureano said he enjoys “the moments when I have a new concept in an interpretation and after working very hard to get everyone to understand and execute it as I hear it in my head.�

It’s hard to estimate how much time he spends on music each week, Laureano said. “The first few weeks are the hardest because it’s when I spend the most time understanding the pieces so that I can relay a clear idea to my musicians,� he said.

Laureano has worked with a variety of ensembles in the Twin Cities, ranging in roles from the Music Director of the Calhoun-Isles Community Band in Minneapolis, and Music Director of the Metropolitan Symphony

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Our Life • Friday, April 17, 2015 Page 5

Anne Cheney, right, has played the flute and piccolo in the orchestra since the early 1970s. (Submitted photo by Leslie Plesser)

Orchestra FROM PREVIOUS PAGE Orchestra, to several appearances in Young People’s Concerts with the Minnesota Orchestra.

He has served as CoArtistic Director of the Minnesota Youth Symphonies (MYS) since 1988.

He is the conductor of the MYS Symphony Orchestra, and is the brass and woodwind coach for the MYS Repertory Orchestra, conducted by his wife and Co-Artistic Director Claudette Laureano.

Laureano served as assistant conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra during the 2005-06 season and served as conductor of the 2008-09 Minnesota AllState orchestra. In recent years, he has appeared regularly as guest conductor

at Indiana University, as well as the Eastern Music Festival, St. Olaf College and Bethel University.

Michael Sutton, a 16year member of the Minnesota Orchestra, was appointed concertmaster of the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra in May 2014.

A native of Minneapolis, Sutton studied at MacPhail Center for Music, and then earned two degrees at Manhattan School of Music.

Sutton has served on the board of directors of the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies.

The orchestra rehearses from 6:25-9 p.m. Sundays at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Bloomington, from the last Sunday in August through the end of the season, usually April.

The group performs four season concerts from October to April, as well as

a summer concert and an educational concert with the Bloomington Public School string students.

The orchestra is supported by member dues of $100 per year, individual donors and the city of Bloomington.

The group works in partnership with other organizations, including the city of Bloomington and Bloomington Public Schools.

The city of Bloomington’s Parks, Arts & Recreation department presents the BSO during annual summer concert, including the annual July 3 Summer Fete Celebration and the Arts In The Park series.

The Bloomington Center for the Arts (part of the Bloomington Civic Plaza complex) houses the orchestra’s administrative offices and music library storage.

Elizabeth Evans is a 17-year string instrument member of the orchestra. (Submitted photo by Leslie Plesser)

ourLife Expo is May 3 in Bloomington The annual ourLife spring expo for adults 55 years and older showcases a wide variety of seminars, screenings, products and services.

The ourLife expo is set for 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, May 3, at the DoubleTree Hotel, 7800 Normandale Blvd., Bloomington.

Sun Newspapers is hosting the free event, which will feature a host of exhibitors and vendors from dozens of local business, including housing, health care, recreation and travel.

Vision and hearing

screenings will be offered, plus six free educational seminars.

The first 200 people through the doors of this year’s expo will receive a free $lunch coupon valid at the DQ Grill & Chill just outside the Doubletree Hotel (7700 Normandale Blvd.)

The coupon, good until 4 p.m. on May 3 only, includes two crispy chicken wraps, fries, drink and a sundae.

Sponsors, who make the event possible, include Corner Medical, which specializes in home medical equipment supplies, as the

presenting sponsor.

Seminar sponsors are AAA Travel, Fairview Southdale Hospital, Meals on Wheels, Tealwood Senior Living and Thrivent Financial Silver sponsors, Sam’s Club and Ucare, will both be on hand to talk about their programs and answer questions.

The Bloomington DoubleTree is located at 7800 Normandale Blvd., near the intersection of Interstate 494 and Highway 100.

Information: www.ourlifemn.com

Page 6 Our Life • Friday, April 17, 2015

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Robbin Gallery showcases talent of local artists

BY SUE WEBBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER Painter Joan Cashin remembers how the Robbin Gallery started. After all, she was one of the founders.

“Several people were showing paintings at local places and decided to look for a gallery,” Cashin said. “It was a library in those days.”

She began painting as a child, Cashin said, and later always took her paints with her when she and her husband took their children camping.

Though she is not currently an active member, Cashin said she still has a lot of paintings in the basement of her Brooklyn Center home.

Robbin Gallery has shared the 90-yearold city-owned building close to downtown Robbinsdale with the Robbinsdale Historical Society since 1979. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The art gallery, operated by Hennepin Artists of Robbin Gallery, is a local nonprofit artists’ cooperative intended to bring art to the community while helping artists grow and learn to develop their skills and creativity. It celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2013.

Grace Lawson of Crystal, a member for more than 30 years, calls herself a hobby artist and said she started at the gallery “just for fun,” at the suggestion of a neighbor. She works primarily in water color and does mostly landscapes.

“I usually don’t sell my paintings,” Lawson said. “I have a large family, and when relatives get married, I invite them to come to my home. I put about 10 paintings out and invite them to choose one for a wedding present.”

She marvels at how the gallery, comprised completely of volunteers, “keeps going along.”

“We are so fortunate to have this local gallery in Robbinsdale,” Lawson said.

“We have wonderful shows. There’s a new show every month.”

David Bjorquist of Robbinsdale, a black and white photographer, joined the gallery in the early 1990s.

“I still do film-based photography,” Bjorquist said. “I have my own darkroom.”

He began taking photos in high school and remembers buying his first 35mm camera in 1955, in the PX at Ft. Riley, Kansas.

“I took picture of my children, and a lot of slides,” he said. “Now I’m taking travel photos with a digital camera. I like sharing them with family and friends.”

The gallery has been “very good for me, and it keeps getting better,” Bjorquist said.

“I enjoy the diversity of the artists there,” he said. “Photographers can learn from the painters and the sculptors.”

A member of the gallery for 25 years, Harriet Reiss of Crystal said, “I’ve enjoyed it. The gallery has been a real part of my life.”

She has done collage with fabric and paper, plus water color and pen and ink abstractions.

Reiss said she first started drawing in 1987, when she was in San Francisco. She took a class at the University of Minnesota, went to some workshops and started working with oil. Then she got into collages.

Gallery members are expected and encouraged to help set up exhibits, staff the gallery and “keep the place tidy,” Reiss said. She has enjoyed bringing in speakers and helping to set up programs and workshops with artists and museum curators.

She has been the gallery’s programmer and also editor of its newsletter.

“The gallery isn’t as structured these days as it was in the ’90s,” Reiss said.

At one time, the gallery did rotating traveling shows with art at libraries and city halls in the northern and western suburbs, she said. It also offered art programs for young children, she said.

The gallery also did some community programs, including donating art work for new Habitat for Humanities homeowners.

“It’s been a great source of learning, meeting other artists, friendships and contributing to the community,” Reiss said.

In January 2008, members of the gallery refurbished, painted and added sound baffling to the space to update it.

Robbin Gallery hosts 11 exhibits each year that represent all visual arts, including two member shows and the “Extremely Minnesota” statewide juried exhibition. Eight monthly “special exhibits” are available each year to individual artists or groups of artists.

Karen Benson, gallery director for the last year, said the gallery has about 80 members. A resident of Robbinsdale who

Karen Benson of Robbinsdale, gallery director, is shown with one of her photographs (top).

(Photo by Sue Webber) lives in the house in which she grew up, Benson retired from management with the Minneapolis Public Housing Agency.

“I’m a lapsed photographer,” Benson said. “One day when I was going by the gallery, I went in and marveled at the exhibits and talked with the artists. That was the beginning of my stopping in to see the shows. This building housed the public library I used as a kid.”

Vanessa Merry, a Crystal resident, fiveyear gallery member and immediate past president of the gallery, is a professional painter who does oil and acrylic paintings throughout the Twin Cities area for restaurants and private parties.

“I grew up around art,” Merry said.

“My mother was an artist.”

Bob Newman of New Hope, an oil painter and member of the gallery since 2003, said he started fine art oil painting in 2002 after completing nearly 55 years as a commercial artist, specializing in industrial illustrating.

“At 85 years of age, I am still painting and recently completed my 107th oil painting,” Newman said, adding that the greatest benefit in joining the gallery has been meeting and sharing experiences with fellow local artists.

Steve Madore of Minneapolis is a 20-year gallery member and former gallery director whose photography comes to life on canvas.

His grandmother, the late Estella Filkins, was an early member of the gallery. (Photo by Sue Webber) Vienna Volante of Bloomington, a retired university professor and educational research specialist who serves as vice president and membership director of the gallery, said photography is her primary medium, though she also paints with watercolor pastels and creates fiber art using a variety of surface design techniques.

Volante said she first learned about the Robbin Gallery about five years ago when one of her photographs was selected for a show organized by the Arboretum Photographers Society of which she is a member. She has exhibited twice a year in member shows since then and in several Extremely Minnesota juried shows.

“Membership in the Robbin Gallery has expanded my interest in art through association with artists using a variety of media,” Volante said. “I have tried new media due to inspiration from members.

I have met many very creative people and made new friends through the gallery.”

The Robbin Gallery is at 4915 42nd Ave. N., Robbinsdale. Hours are noon to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, and 5:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday. For more information, call 763-537-5906.

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Our Life • Friday, April 17, 2015 Page 7

Band President Shirley Fors is a flute-player in the band.

(Submitted photo)

Phil Raaen has directed the Mary Jane Olson plays the band for 28 years. (Submitted alto saxophone. (Submitted photo) photo)

Band FROM PAGE 1

years ago after hearing about the Fridley City Band from a woman she was fitting with hearing aids. “I have enjoyed every minute,� Fors said. “The band members are a lot of fun. Our director is great; he brings out the best in us, and no one is ever made to feel inferior when we mess up. It does make a person – even a 54-year-old like me – feel young to play and hear music.�

In an online history of the Fridley City Band, the late Bev Kinsman noted that the group celebrated its 50th season in 2010. Kinsman and her husband Rich, who still plays with the group, played French horn, as did all three of their children.

The group got its start in the fall of 1960, according to Kinsman’s account. “Parent members (most in their early 30s) of the Fridley Band Boosters Club decided to turn the tables on their musician children who usually were the featured performers at the band booster meetings,�

Kinsman said. “A brass ensemble of parents practiced and then performed for the group and was a smashing success.�

Rich and Bev Kinsman and Bob and Betty Scott were charter members. Betty and Bev since have died.

Other parents clamored to join, and 25 showed

but I usually played other instruments in the band such as trumpet, percussion, trombone and French horn,� Raaen said. “In 1986, Dave became ill and asked me to fill in directing for him. Unfortunately he was unable to return as director, and I became the full-time director in 1987.�

According to Raaen, the Fridley band “welcomes all who can play an instrument.� “We have lots of fun together and have developed a great camaraderie with each other,� he said. “We have tried to play as many events in Fridley as we can, but we also have expanded our performances throughout the north metro. We have a good following at many retirement complexes in the area. We have played at Como Park, Faribault, Hopkins, Lindstrom and Zumbrota.�

The group also has formed a second Old Time Band that plays “many of the polkas and waltzes that many people grew up hearing,� Raaen said. “Marv Loff, a former tuba player, provided the music to the band.�

Band President Shirley Fors, who has worked as an audiologist for 30 years, brought her flute-playing abilities to the group eight

up at the first rehearsal in January 1961, according to Kinsman’s online account.

The group quickly grew to 40 members, Kinsman said.

They took second place in an Aquatennial concert band contest, played for the Holly Center opening in 1961 and performed at civic events. “Over the years, many children of band members joined in and played alongside their parents,� Kinsman said. In 2010, a twogeneration family was in the saxophone section.

The band’s repertoire includes show tunes, pop tunes, concert works and marches. They play concerts at Fridley-area nursing homes and senior centers, the 49ers Days concert and parade and Fridley Historical Society events. Summer concerts are scheduled at a variety of area parks.

The band rehearses 7:158:45 p.m. Monday nights September through June at the Fridley Middle School band room.

Four directors have been at the helm in over 55 years: Ben Fredricks, Vern Knutson, David Olson and Phil Raaen.

According to the online account, funding for the director’s salary and music costs comes from arts grants, area corporations such as Medtronics, dues from band members and some paid performances.

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