At the end of the year, we like to take a few minutes and reflect on the events of the past 365 days. In the world of Arts & Entertainment, 2019 was a mixed bag of fun news, major anniversaries and sad passings of Durango icons.
Arguably one of the biggest local A&E moments of 2019 was the announcement that after 32 years, the area’s summer classical music festival, Music in the Mountains, was moving its Festival Orchestra performances from under the white tent at Purgatory Resort to the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College.
“This is simply the next chapter in our story,” Angie Beach, MiTM executive director, said in a Jan. 17 story. “We are grateful to Purgatory for the many wonderful years of support and partnership, but we believe both of our organizations have grown to the point that the experience will be improved at the Community Concert Hall.”
The festival’s 33rd season got underway July 6 and ran through July 28.
One of my favorite stories of 2019 came to my attention in May, when a couple came into the Herald office looking for help getting the word out about their Kickstarter campaign.
Seventy-year-old Cindy McEntire’s granddaughter, Durango native Alicia Hansen, and Hansen’s boyfriend, Colter Niendorf, were launching the campaign to help raise money to give McEntire a “once-in-a-lifetime journey across America.” The route was to take the trio from Durango to Rochester, Michigan, where McEntire is from. There, they were going to visit with McEntire’s friends and family and then continue east, hitting Philadelphia and possibly driving to the coast.
The heavy metal twist came because both Hansen and Niendorf are major metal fans. In fact, Niendorf is in the local black metal band Vile Aesthetic. The two planned to make metal stops along the way back east, visiting bands they know.
“Since we know so many bands, especially all along that strip, we were like, ‘How can we do something with them?’ We thought it would be a cute little idea for a Kickstarter with a photo book that documents the trip, while meeting up with different metal bands,” Hansen said.
It was pretty cool when Farmington teen Chevel Shepherd won the TV singing competition “The Voice” at the end of 2018. It was even cooler to catch up with her a few months after to see how her life had changed.
“I’ve met so many amazing artists that are in the music industry – a whole bunch of country artists. I’ve headlined my own shows, opened for multiple people such as Little Big Town, Brothers Osborne, Lee Brice. I’ve gotten so many opportunities – the whole performing and touring thing is just amazing and probably my favorite thing – I love doing it; it’s a dream,” she said in August ahead of her performance at the La Plata County Fair. “It’s still sinking in. Things have changed immensely – it’s crazy how much things have changed. I do school online now. I travel constantly, I go into public and people ask to take pictures with me – it’s crazy, but I love it; it’s amazing.”
And with the fun stuff comes the somber: We saw the passing of Dennis Johnson, Greg Ryder and Mick Reber.
Johnson died at age 83 at the very end of 2018 – on Dec. 24. A longtime actor who got his start acting in 1959 at the Diamond Circle Theatre, Johnson will be remembered for nurturing community theater. He and his wife, Anna, were also known for owning Stuart’s of Durango for almost 60 years. The two were also the founders of The Company, which was later renamed The Durango Repertory Theatre.
Singer-songwriter Ryder died in a head-on crash April 23 north of Durango. He was 67. Ryder was a longtime, regular performer at the Diamond Belle Saloon and The Office Spiritorium in the Strater Hotel. He was also a former member of the Bar D Wranglers, playing with the iconic cowboy band for about a decade starting in 1989.
Reber, professor emeritus of Fine Arts at Fort Lewis College and a professional artist, died May 10 in Bayview, Texas, at age 76.
Despite the fact that he spent his whole life creating, Reber was never content to just float.
“The way I see it, to stop exploring would be to stop growing in art, and that could never be my way of doing things. So I’m going to continue to work; I’ve really enjoyed all of it anyway, it’s great, it’s an experience,” he said.
When artist Ann Salviazul opened her show, “Reflections on Homelessness: New Work from Ann Salviazul,” on Jan. 25, it was personal. The show was a study of both her time without a home and the people she met.
Studio & had an anonymous donor offer a $1,000 grant to an artist who would create an exhibit on the theme of “Cultural Consciousness.” The gallery put out a call to artists and accepted applications, and then chose the one they felt best fit the theme, the gallery said in a news release. The winner was Salviazul, who approached the topic by highlighting homelessness. She and the gallery chose to donate 10% of sales from the show to Manna.
“My experience of being at the soup kitchen and being with other people helped me to look within and re-evaluate my judgments, not only of my brother but of other people, and to recognize what a close ... I was really not any different than the people I was sitting with and eating with for the time I did at Manna,” she said. “It’s been a big learning curve for me, and I just felt a need to express this.”
Local entertainment mainstays celebrated big birthdays in 2019: The Durango Bluegrass Meltdown turned 25, and Durango Choral Society is currently celebrating its 50th season.
The Meltdown, held in the spring every year, began as a way to get through the late winter/early spring shoulder season. It has since grown into a major local event.
“It’s recognized all over the state of Colorado as being one of the last traditional bluegrass festivals” said longtime board member Elwin Johnston. “We’ve evolved to the degree where we accept bands that aren’t just strictly traditional bluegrass, and we also feature a lot of up-and-coming bands that we think will identify as a band that’s going somewhere. We get them while we can still afford them, and we’re still a total nonprofit. Everyone volunteers on this thing and they have for the last 25 years.”
The same holds true for the Durango Choral Society. It started as an informal meeting of friends who just wanted to sing. It, too, has grown into a force to be reckoned with – DCS has performed multiple times at Carnegie Hall in New York City and on stages all over the world.
And, said Dawn Spaeder, executive director of DCS, the music is good for the soul.
““To look out into that audience and see a smile or a tear or someone’s eyes closed just reflecting – you’re touching souls with a language that goes beyond words. And that’s really special, and that’s why we keep on going,” she said.
November was a big month for theater in Durango – Durango High School Troupe 1096 kicked off its season with “The Little Mermaid,” Merely Players staged “Every Brilliant Thing” and Fort Lewis College Theatre Department brought “Gypsy” to life. That all three companies had productions that opened at the same time was a scheduling fluke, but one they embraced as a way to encourage people to get out and catch a show. In fact, November was proclaimed Theatre Month by Durango City Council.
So there you have it – 2019 was a year filled with entertainment, sad farewells and big anniversaries. For 2020, we look forward to another round of the Durango Voice, more theater and whatever else our local creatives throw our way.
katie@durangoherald.com
