Twenty-seven years ago, Anchorage school teacher Steve Posegate founded the Anchorage Civic Orchestra with the goal of providing "more opportunities for symphony quality musicians to practice and play with musicians of similar caliber."
"The orchestra exists to share the joy of making music," he said.
The joy of listening to music was a different matter. As happy as music lovers were to have chances to hear classical concerts in addition to those given by the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra, sitting through some of the early performances required a sense of civic obligation to outweigh aesthetic delight. Reviews noted high points and praised the effort, but regularly noted missed entrances, weak strings, bad intonations and other hallmarks of amateurism. Regarding a 1991 performance of Haydn's Symphony No. 93, a critic observed that the conductor "could do no more than coax the orchestra to play the notes in an general approximation of Haydn's intent."
Yet over time -- the last 10 or so concerts -- listeners have noticed an increasingly pleasant and polished sound.
"So far this has probably been the ACO's finest season," said current conductor Philip Munger. "Many who heard our winter concert thought it to be the best performance we've ever given."
A recording of the big piece from that concert, Vasily Kalinnikov's Symphony No. 1, bears out that opinion. The playing is precise and fully involved, the notes correct and, no less important, presented with a feeling of enthusiasm and certainty.
Munger attributed much of the improvement to the presence of concert master Lee Wilkins, who came on board in 2012. Munger praised his sense of humor, leadership and confidence and called him "the best concert master in Alaska."
Wilkins, who directs the UAA Sinfonia, provides the ensemble with a first-class professional violinist for the solos, as in his beautiful rendering of William Grant Still's "Mother and Child" earlier this season.
Still's name may be unfamiliar to even frequent concertgoers, yet he is the most prominent African-American composer of symphonic music in the 20th century. Finding him on an ACO program is hardly a surprise. The concerts have often featured less-known works by both major composers and relative unknowns. In past years they've presented rarities like a violin concerto by Neils Gade, Emil von Reznicek's "Eine Lustspiel Overture," three movements from Tchaikovsky's "Winter Dreams" Symphony and Liszt's tone poem "Tasso."
Last fall, under guest conductor Tammy Vollom-Matturro, director of the Kenai Peninsula Orchestra, the program featured a new arrangement of Astor Piazzola's "Concerto Hommage a Liege" for guitar and bandoleon as prepared by UAA wind professor Mark Wolbers. Wolbers played the bandoleon part on the clarinet and UAA guitar instructor Armin Abdihodzic joined in a piece that was a clear hit with the crowd.
In the upcoming concert, another UAA professor's work will be featured, John Lutterman, who teaches theory and lower strings, will solo in his own edition of the Alaska premiere of the Cello Concerto by the prolific (27 symphonies!) Soviet composer Nikolai Myaskovsky.
In 1988, Posegate described the orchestra as way talented musicians could perform concert staples by Beethoven, Brahms and Dvorak. Though well-known pieces are still there -- Dvorak's Symphony No. 6 will be on Saturday's program -- Munger said the orchestra's mission has evolved to include lesser-known music "that deserves to be heard."
And lesser-known performers, too. From the beginning the ACO has supplied a sounding board for local talent, including professional pianists Timothy Smith, Svetlana Velichko and Juliana Osinchuk, all of whom have had turns with the Anchorage Symphony as well. There have even been some national figures, like jazz violinist Randy Sabien.
But some of the best ACO concerts have featured soloists making their orchestral debut. Remy Libbrecht, a West High senior who plays oboe, was featured in March as the orchestra's annual Concerto Competition winner. Thirteen-year-old Peter Asminov astonished the audience in 2005 with his performance of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1. More recently, Freya Wardlaw-Bailey gave a sensational reading of Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2.
Munger said he sees the ACO as "something that provides more continuity in the musical community. I see so many young people go to college, come back, then never play again. Over the years I've seen all these kids that I know are underutilized. I want to involve more young people who have the talent, but not the opportunities."
One such young person who got an opportunity with ACO was Sterling Maffe, a Palmer High School student who got to conduct the premiere of his own work "Cajolery of the Forest" with the orchestra in 2013.
Posegate started the orchestra in part as a way to hear new music by himself and other Alaska composers. The ACO's track record for presenting such work is impressive, it includes music by Posegate, George Belden, Corliss Kimmel, Curtiss Blake, Gordon Wright and Munger himself, who was a recognized composer long before he took over the post of conductor three years ago.
Perhaps the ACO has more flexibility in programming local music precisely because of its amateur nature. While guest conducting the group in 2001, the late Fairbanks conductor and composer Gordon Wright reveled in the spirit of the players. "What attracts me is their musical idealism," he said. "After all, these people are playing solely for the love of music, not for money."
"It's an evolving, community-based orchestra with roots in the desire of people who are capable of playing challenging music, but can't commit to the time required to play with the Anchorage Symphony," Munger said. "There's always some rotation. People think of ACO as a family they can come back to. We try to have enough people so that someone can take time off if they have a baby or a job out of town."
Money, however, is a concern. "We have a small budget and no big benefactor," Munger said. Among the biggest issues is paying for scores of music under copyright. It can cost up to $600 to rent the music for a contemporary work.
"Rentals are killing us," he said. "And the rental companies are used to working with professional orchestras who only need the music for a few weeks. We need it for at least three months."
Nonetheless, the next season will include the Alaska premieres of two major 20th century works, Paul Hindemuth's suite from his opera "Mathis der Maler" and the Symphony No. 3 by Polish minimalist Henryk Górecki. UAA voice professor Mari Hahn will be the soloist.
"The challenge with the Górecki is intonation and getting the musicians to believe in the piece," Munger said. "It's not that hard, technically. A lot of youth symphonies do it. Our players are up to the challenges and we have this terrific soprano who's eager to sing it."
Munger hopes that next year's string section will tackle the Górecki with additional talent from the UAA string program. He's trying to arrange schedules for concerts and rehearsals so that they mesh with the university's semester system and would like credit to be earned by students of Wilkins', Lutterman's and Wolbers'.
"We have six or seven horns now, and two tubas, both good," he said. "But we can always use more violins. I know there must be dozens of string players out there, and we would welcome them."
Another wish for next year is a more even distribution of practice sessions so that each performance gets the same number of rehearsals. The upcoming concert has not had as much preparation as concerts had earlier in the season and the priority has been the Myaskovsky concerto.
"I'd like to have more time with the Dvorak," he said. "I really wish we had two more rehearsals. But I guaranteed John (Lutterman) that we would do him justice in the Myaskovsky. And we're going to do it."
THE ANCHORAGE CIVIC ORCHESTRA will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 9 in Sydney Laurence Theatre. Tickets are available at centertix.net.