Musicians from far and wide are flocking to the valley because Music Land, directed by violinist Michelle Quinn, is hosting its Winter Concert in conjunction with the Star Valley Youth Orchestra at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Center Theater.
An after-school program for high schoolers, Music Land provides âtalented young adults a creative outlet to appreciate and perform classical music in and around Jacksonâs natural splendor,â its website states.
Quinn started her music school for violinists but has been expanding her reach to woodwinds and brass instruments to cultivate a program suitable for all types of burgeoning musicians.
âThis is an opportunity for kids to play in an orchestral setting,â she said. âSo theyâre not only playing with other string players, but theyâre also playing with other kids that are in the band programs at the high school.â
Lessons from the bears
Through her research and professional career, Sarah Elmeligi has come to appreciate bears in a new light, seeing them as more than just data points and graphs or newspaper articles. Partnering with photographer John E. Marriott, she showcases amazing photos of bear behavior to complement the text of her book, âWhat Bears Teach Us,â to describe what she has learned from the endlessly charismatic creatures over her two decades of conservation work.
The National Museum of Wildlife Art and the Yellowstone to Yukon conservation initiative host Elmeligi for a webinar in which she will share excerpts from her book, personal stories from the field, current science about bear behavior and coexistence starting at 5 p.m. Wednesday.