Grand Junction Musical Arts Association

Grand Junction has always been recognized as a meeting place. Set between the weathered canyons of the Colorado National Monument and the flat-topped Grand Mesa, the city is named for the confluence of the Colorado (formerly Grand) and Gunnison rivers and centered on the spot where the final spike was driven to connect Salt Lake City and Denver by rail.

Today, the city remains a natural meeting place – for outdoor enthusiasts, professionals, and, perhaps surprisingly, first-rate musicians. Since 1978, the Grand Junction Musical Arts Association (GJMAA) has supported symphonic music and diverse musical experiences – including classical, jazz, pops, and opera – for audiences and musicians throughout the area.

The GJMAA is an umbrella organization that supports the Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra as well as smaller groups, like the Western Colorado Chorale, the Grand Valley Children’s Choir, the Grand Junction Centennial Band, and the Western Colorado Jazz Orchestra.

Thousands of audience members benefit from GJMAA concerts, including season ticket holders, concert-in-the-park attendees, and over 11,000 classroom students. GJMAA Executive Director Cindy Rhodes elaborates: “Outreach in elementary schools is particularly important because kids here don’t have the opportunity to study instrumental music until middle school; we see a strong need to connect with future musicians and future audience members.”

Though the orchestra’s venue – Grand Junction High School Auditorium – is sometimes a disappointment for transplants from big cities, overall, the Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra combines some of the best qualities of a professional and a community orchestra. “The quality is excellent, but the orchestra still has room for passionate musicians with day jobs, talented high school and college students with the desire to excel, and retired music teachers,” says Rhodes.

Rhodes recognizes Music Director Kirk Gustafson as one of the reasons behind the high standards of musicianship. “Kirk has really contributed to the steady growth of the orchestra; he’s a great match,” Rhodes observes, “demanding but understanding.” Gustafson has been a steady presence, too; he’s spent nearly two decades at the helm of the Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra.

Another reason for the orchestra’s growing talent is the Musicians’ Training Fund, an initiative supported by funding from the Colorado Council on the Arts (CCA). Through this program, musicians obtain new skills by traveling to work with world-class instructors, taking part in national workshops, or importing teachers to work with local students as well as individuals, sectionals, or the whole ensemble in Grand Junction. “In the coming year, Utah Symphony principal trombonist Larry Zalkind and Philadelphia Orchestra concertmaster David Kim will work with brass and string players. Individual musicians as well as entire orchestra sections have studied with Colorado flutist Karen Yonovitz, New York Philharmonic oboist Joe Robinson, and University of Northern Colorado retired professor and hornist Jack Herrick. CCA funding has also made it possible for Symphony string quartets to participate in national chamber music workshops in San Diego and Wisconsin,” says Rhodes.

Rhodes is confident that Grand County’s growth will be a boom for the GJMAA and its programs. “Mesa County and Mesa State College has a wonderful theatre program and a growing music program, both of which contributed to our putting on our first locally-cast opera this year. When new schools open, new music teachers are hired who might play in the orchestra. And we hear from many of Grand Junction’s newer residents that the orchestra was a factor in their choice of where to live.” Along with the confluence of two mighty rivers, Grand Junction may also be recognized by its musicians, who have found a natural setting in which to come together and make beautiful music.