Features

Home Stage Advantage

WHEELING -- The Wheeling girl is there. Stage left of conductor John Devlin. A homegrown note in a sea of black-garbed musicians who've trained all over the nation. Think Julliard, Curtis, Rice, Eastman.

Violist Michelle Stack's path to the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra -- and other music groups in the Ohio Valley -- began, in fact, in a way that would feel familiar to nearly any family who has lived in the city for a generation or two.

"The teachers came in and showed you all the instruments," Stack recalled of a visit Ben Podolski and Dave Belchick made to her fourth-grade class at West Liberty Elementary. Podolski still teaches at Wheeling Park High School and directs the Wheeling Symphony Youth Orchestra.

"I think I tried a trumpet and a flute and couldn't even get a sound out of them," Stack said with a laugh. But, when the stringed instruments came out, she was entranced. "I went home and was like, 'Mom, I'm playing the violin.' "

At the time, Ohio County Schools' music program wasn't the power house that it is today, she added. Podolski was pretty much the entire strings program. There were only a few strings players in her grade.

By fifth grade, Stack said, she was the only player left and Podolski moved her into his sixth-grade group out of necessity.

"Our practice area was in the weight room in the basement," she said of the former Warwood Middle School and explained it as another marker of that era's comparative modesty of program.

That was OK with Stack. It's not like she wanted to play violin professionally.

"I actually wanted to be a marine biologist. I became certified in scuba when I was 12, following my father and my mother," she said. "I would go to the library and check out books about fish and about the ocean."

A music camp the summer before her 1998 graduation changed everything, however. "The conductor was from Colorado," she said, noting she had switched to viola about that time. "He told me, 'You're really a good player. You could do this for a living.'"

Stack said she weighed both possibilities as college loomed and opted for music with nearly the randomness of a coin toss. She studied string performance at Duquesne and Slippery Rock universities in Pennsylvania and at West Virginia University. She is currently finishing up a doctorate in music at WVU.

TWO PATHS

Not that Stack has entirely made music her career. Like many of the 100 or so musicians who perform with the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra in a given season, playing at the Capitol Theatre and other WSO venues is a side hustle.

Stack's full-time work is as administrative director of the West Liberty University College Union and mail room.

Yet, music surrounds her university job like patchwork-quilt edging. In addition to playing with the local symphony, Stack sometimes plays both viola and violin in Pittsburgh ensembles. She's performed with the Eagles and Andrea Bocelli in these kinds of urban venues.

She also teaches strings at WLU and the Linsly School as adjunct faculty. Until her son was born, she had a slate of private students. And, there are the weddings and similar one-shot gigs. "They're always there, especially in the summer," Stack said.

Some of her fellow WSO musicians do the patchwork-music thing full time, she noted. Others don't. "Everyone's story is different," Stack said.

Stack said one musician likes to take on far-flung gigs -- such as one in Iceland. Another is a Realtor by day. Some are music teachers. Some, she said, perform with multiple symphonies around the great Ohio Valley, such as those in Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Akron, Waynesburg and Altoona.

"I think it would be amazing to do it full time, but it might be too much," Stack said. "It's nice to have a day job."

But, it's possible that day job could get more musical down the road, she acknowledged. Already deep into her doctoral program in music, she will be qualified to be full-time music faculty.

LOGISTICS

As anyone who has ever hot footed it back to the parking garage outside the Capitol Theatre after a WSO concert knows, it's common to encounter symphony members equally interested in beating traffic. Many live in Pittsburgh, Stack explained.

She noted that combining varied locations of residence and day jobs only works because all of the players are skilled enough that minimal group rehearsal will do. Each musician practices the music on her own and the group generally gets together just once before a concert.

The gatherings may be few, but Stack said they are fun - particularly given the adventurous spirit of Music Director John Devlin.

"All of the concerts are so enjoyable," she said. "We've gotten to have all sorts of experiences ... Yo-Yo Ma was such a treat. He was so kind."

When Ma performed with the WSO and progressive hip-hop artist Christylez Bacon last fall, Stack said the superstar cellist stayed on stage after the single rehearsal and spoke and took pictures with each symphony member.

Stack said she also enjoyed the symphony's recent concert that involved performing the score to "Jurassic Park" in real time while the movie was playing. She said it was especially fun as she remembered first seeing the movie as a young teen.

Childhood is yet another spin on Stack's story. Her son is 7, and she can't help but notice he is developing a seriously good ear.

Fourth grade is coming and Wheeling's stage venues seem both endless and peculiarly in reach. You never know, she said. "He sings all the time."