Founders
Dr. Ted & Tricia Dickenson
Bernard & Erma Hast
Girts & Ina Krumins
Wilma Lowell
Robert Phillips & Joan Fetters Meikle
Robert & Norma Vold
History and Founders
In 1970 a small group of classical musicians met in the parlor of Wilma and Charles Lowell's Eckert home, joining the talented Lowell family in their love of making music together. Learn more about the beginnings of the orchestra from Wilma Lowell's daughter, D.Jo.
By October 1971, the group, calling themselves the Delta County Community Orchestra, was under the baton of Walter Birkedahl of Mesa State College. With hand-typed mimeographed programs to offer their patrons, the orchestra performed their first concert on March 2, 1972, at Cedaredge Hunsicker Elementary School.
On March 16, 1978, the nonprofit known as the Valley Symphony Association was formed to sponsor the orchestra. At that time, nearly 50 musicians from Montrose, Delta, Grand Junction, Ouray, Gunnison, Paonia, Hotchkiss, Cedaredge, and Eckert practiced once a week in Delta and performed four annual concerts.
Wilma (Kendrick) Lowell
Wilma (Kendrick) Lowell had a passion for music that took flight when she left Eckert, CO, in 1941 to attend the University of Denver on a music scholarship. Within the span of a year, her life path changed dramatically with the onset of WW II. She traded learning music theory and practicing, for weather forecasting and decoding as a Navy Wave. While in the Navy, she married an Army Air Force officer from Cedaredge, Charles (Chuck) Lowell.
After the war, Wilma settled into life as a military wife and mother of daughters, Terry and D.Jo. In the mid 1950s, her love of music emerged from the shadows and again became a priority. Wilma returned to college and completed her music degree. She taught piano from then until her death at the age of 88. Throughout Chuck’s career in the Air Force, Wilma honed her skills for organization and developing programs to meet community needs: a 24/7 military base day care center, Turkish/American liaison for language and music, Girl Scouts, and a hobby store in Delta, to name a few.
Ted and Tricia Dickenson
Ted was a young intern at Vancouver General Hospital in Vancouver, BC, Canada, where he met Tricia, a nursing student. They married in 1958.
What followed is an amazing story of commitment to family and community. Tricia, the youngest and only daughter of four children, was born and raised in a small town on Vancouver Island where her father was the superintendent of the local lumber mill. Ted came from Champaign, IL, where his father was a professor of economics at the University of Illinois. The importance of community was foundational to their upbringing.
Shortly after marrying, Ted and Tricia moved to Georgia, where Ted served as a flight surgeon in the United States Air Force. Next, they were off to Denver, where Ted completed his surgical residency and established his own practice in general surgery. Tricia worked as a surgical nurse at National Jewish Hospital and volunteered at the Molly Brown House Museum.
Then the unexpected happened...