The all-female Hiland Mountain Orchestra is rehearsing for its annual concert in December. The string ensemble has gained national recognition for being the first women’s prison inmate orchestra in the nation.
This year, the orchestra’s members have a lot to celebrate. They’ve matured as musicians and they are expanding the orchestra.
Eight members of the prison inmate Hiland Mountain Orchestra are rehearsing a piece called “Double Trouble.”
About eight years ago, Gabrielle Whitfield took the offer to conduct the group from Arts on the Edge, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the Hiland Mountain string ensemble.
Patti Crofut, a musician and teacher, is a founder of Arts on the Edge and the force behind the orchestra.
These days, the orchestra has about 30 members, but it started with only a handful of women. Whitfield says the prison music program has expanded in ways not expected at first.
Although only two of the orchestra’s original members are still involved, a former member, now out of prison, is coming back to join the other musicians for the show on December 8.
Nathan Havey, who works with Arts On The Edge, is doing some orchestrating of his own. He’s doing promotion for the concert
Although Arts on the Edge gains most of its funding through concert ticket sales for the once a year Winter Concert, orchestra musicians benefit from the program all year long.
Dana Hilbish is one of the orchestra’s original members, and plays cello. The four-hour Saturday rehearsals are a respite from day to day prison routine. Hilbish says it’s the best part of the week.
The Hiland Mountain Orchestra plays two performances of the Winter Concert at the prison in Eagle River on December 8. This year, they will be joined by acclaimed cellist, Zuell Bailey.
APTI Reporter-Producer Ellen Lockyer started her radio career in the late 1980s, after a stint at bush Alaska weekly newspapers, the Copper Valley Views and the Cordova Times. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Valdez Public Radio station KCHU needed a reporter, and Ellen picked up the microphone.
Since then, she has literally traveled the length of the state, from Attu to Eagle and from Barrow to Juneau, covering Alaska stories on the ground for the AK show, Alaska News Nightly, the Alaska Morning News and for Anchorage public radio station, KSKA
elockyer (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8446 | About Ellen
