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Six at Sochi, The Final Push, This Thursday Page 3
Find Out Everything There is To Do This Week
Arts & Crafts Fest Showcases Unique Items
Page 11
Cooking with Brian Boitano to Benefit Sun Valley Figure Skating Club Page 15
read about it on PaGe 16
A u g u s t 1 4 , 2 0 1 3 • V o l . 6 • N o . 3 3 • w w w .T h e W e e k l y S u n . c o m
Symphony’s Teddy Abrams
Beaver Creek Fire Updates
McCan Fire Updates
Fire News Beaver Creek Fire Prompts Blaine County Commissioners to Declare Disaster Emergency
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he Blaine County Board of Commissioners has declared a disaster emergency as a result of the Beaver Creek Fire. The resolution requests the State of Idaho to declare that a disaster emergency exists in Blaine County and to include Blaine County in the state’s current declaration in order to authorize aid and assistance. The Beaver Creek Fire, which was ignited by lightning August 9, grew to more than 24,000 acres Sunday. Three community meetings are planned this week: Tuesday at the Legion Hall in Fairfield, Tuesday at Ketchum City Hall and Wednesday at the Community Campus in Hailey. All meetings begin at 7 p.m. As of press time on Tuesday, it was reported that firegighters are assigning key resources to the north and east flanks of the 32,211 acre wildfire to prevent its spread into nearby communities and recreation areas. Now that crews have built containment line on the fire’s southern and western boundaries, handcrews and a bulldozer will tackle more active parts of the fire, according to operations chief John Kennedy. Those efforts will focus south of Shaw Mountain and Placer Flat and along a ridge that runs between Wolf Tone and Kinsey creeks. Crews will use natural barriers, fire scars and topographical features to slow the fire’s progress, and they’ll be supported by aerial resources using a portable retardant station. Warm Springs Road is closed at Red Warrior Creek. Warm Springs is closed, as are all trails south of Baker Creek Road on both sides of Warm Springs Road. Forest managers on Tuesday implemented an area closure that includes all roads and trails on National Forest System lands on the Ketchum Ranger District and the Sawtooth National Recreation Area west and south of Highway 75, including Baker Lake. North Fork Campground, Wood River Campground, Easley Campground, Easley Resort and the Cathedral Pines Organizational Camp are excluded from the road closures. Highway 75 also remains open. Forest visitors are warned not to enter the forest from Carrietown. tws
For the latest information on the Beaver Creek Fire, including closure areas please visit: www.inciweb.org/incident/3635
“I never took lessons. I just heard pieces and improvised on them. Mozart did it. They’d put him on stage at age 5 and blindfold him or put a cover over his hands.” –Teddy Abrams
BY KAREN BOSSICK
T
eddy Abrams considers himself part autocrat, part cheerleader, part high priest and part village doctor. It takes all of that and more to get a hundred musicians excited and energized to play with passion as if they’re one. “There are some things that can be taught in schools about conducting and some things that can’t. A lot of it, I think, is your own passion for music. And, as a musician myself, I respect how much each musician brings to the table,” said Abrams. Abrams, 26, has brought a lot to the Sun Valley Summer Symphony this summer as a pianist and as its new assistant conductor. He has tickled audiences with his youthful exuberance as he’s joined longtime music director Alasdair Neale in sharing conducting duties and introducing various pieces. One night he conducted one piece, his brown curls falling in his eyes as he bobbed up and down on the podium. Then he joined Peter Henderson in a rousing duet of Hector Berlioz’s “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath” from “Symphonie Fantastique.” “He is so much fun to watch,” enthused Libby Holtz. “I love watching how excited he gets, the way he moves.” “He seems to feel the music with his physicality,” added Jeanne Cassell. “He brings a lot of emotion to his conducting.” Abrams was improvising on the piano at age 3. “I never took lessons. I just heard pieces and improvised on them. Mozart did it. They’d put him on stage at age 5 and blindfold him or put a cover over his hands. Or they’d put a sheet of music
Teddy Abrams, who studied under Michael Tilson Thomas of the San Francisco Symphony, says that Leonard Bernstein’s “On the Town,” which he conducted Sunday evening, is one of his favorite musicals. COURTESY Photo
that he’d never seen before in front of him to see what he could do. He knew the nobility couldn’t read music so he’d play the first couple measures then he’d improvise,” said Abrams, who still spends countless hours improvising and recording his improvisations on his iPhone. On a fast track Abrams joined band in third grade. He wanted to play saxophone but his fingers were too small so he took up the clarinet. When he saw Michael Tilson Thomas conducting a free outdoor concert featuring the San Francisco Symphony at age 9 his future was set. “It was like magic watching how he got a hundred people to blend together. It was as if I’d seen Harry Potter himself,” Abrams recalled. “It was one of the best youth orchestras there was. People couldn’t tell it from a regular orchestra in a blind test.” Abrams auditioned for the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra led by Alasdair Neale when he was 10; the Palo Alto youth was devastated when he was turned down. But Neale invited him to join the orchestra a few weeks later when a clarinet player had to leave. Neale gave him a chance to conduct the youth orchestra when he was 13. “Every time I left rehearsal, I felt sad— the youth orchestra was the highlight of my life growing up. I wanted to never lose that magic,” said Abrams. With area schools struggling and private school full, Abrams’ parents enrolled him in Laney College, a community college in downtown Oakland, as an 11-year-
old fresh out of elementary school. “It was very urban, very raw, but no one looked at me funny for being so young,” he recalled. “My entire life I’ve engaged with people who’re older than me—most of the orchestra musicians are between 40 and 50.” At 16, Abrams transferred to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Two years later he went on to graduate school at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he studied under Otto Werner Mueller, Alasdair Neale’s teacher at Yale. “By then he was 80 years old, very intense, famous for being strict. He taught lots of great students, like Leonard Bernstein,” Abrams said. At 17, Abrams soloed Beethoven’s “Emperor Concerto.” Since, he has performed with a number of symphony orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony and even a YouTube symphony at Carnegie Hall. He has performed with the St. Petersburg String Quartet and other groups. And he’s conducted the new World Symphony in concerts at Carnegie Hall and elsewhere. Abrams served as resident conductor of the MAV Symphony Orchestra in Budapest for a year before becoming assistant conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2012. The orchestra, like so many, is emerging from years of red ink by engaging in new ventures, such as taking concerts to people in the suburbs. A young guy like Abrams gives the or-
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