Maestro Murdock orchestrates classical music culture in central Wyoming

The musicians seated on stage, ranging in age from about 12 to 80, included college students, nurses, retirees, veterans, siblings and outdoor educators. All wore black. 

Holding their violins, French horns, flutes and drumsticks at the ready, they turned their collective gaze to the small woman climbing the perch before them. Rebecca Murdock lifted her delicate baton, and the music began. 

Murdock doesn’t fit the typical conductor mold. She is female, for one, in a position long dominated by men. With her diminutive stature and reserved demeanor, she isn’t what jumps to mind for a task so public and expressive.

As she conducted the orchestra through “Jupiter” from Gustav Holst’s “Planets” series, she kept her movements fairly tight, right hand waving in time, head nodding, eyes finding the musicians to cue, left hand joining in on more emotive moments. A small contained dance. 

The orchestra played. The performance, tight and polished, earned standing ovations. 

The scene could unfold in any number of American cities, but it’s less expected in small-town Wyoming. Fremont Symphony Orchestra, based in Lander, has fielded an orchestra in a town of less than 10,000 people for decades. Today it performs two full orchestral concerts a year and brings world-class soloists to the stage as guests to play alongside the 30-odd resident musicians. 

“I would dare to have anybody find a symphony like this in a town of 8,000,” Murdock said. She’s yet to come across anything similar. “I think it’s kind of one-of-a-kind.”

How does the Fremont Symphony Orchestra do it? It’s got a few things in its favor, the most notable being Murdock at the helm. She has been an integral part of the group for its entire 40-year history, as a cellist, as conductor, as private music instructor and as the behind-the-scenes director — booking rehearsal space, advertising shows, organizing logistics and securing guest artists. 

“Becky’s a force, and she always has been,” said bass player Kate McKeage, who has been playing with Murdock since the ‘80s. “When she has goals in mind, she just figures out a way to achieve them.”

Murdock has a deep store of musical knowledge, a no-nonsense standard of excellence and the energy and organization required to herd dozens of musicians in rural Wyoming into a cohesive symphony orchestra. 

She is uncomfortable with too much credit, however. Musicians, residents, business owners and community groups have supported over the years. 

“I couldn’t have done this without the help of so many people,” she said. 

Music before words 

Murdock was the youngest of seven children born to a musical family. Her mother was a piano teacher, and she would set her baby daughter on the bench during lessons. Murdock absorbed music early and without much effort.

“I honestly don’t remember a time when I didn’t know how to read music,” she said. 

Though she was born in Newcastle, Murdock grew up in Minneapolis. As a child, she chose the cello as her instrument in an act of defiance of her piano-playing forebears. Right away, her school string teacher insisted she have private lessons, Murdock said.  

“My mother said ‘no, I can’t afford private lessons,’” she said. “And he said, ‘OK, I will come over to your house one night a week and teach her.’”

After about a year, that teacher felt Murdock had grown beyond his teaching abilities, she said, so he found a woman in the Minnesota Symphony who could take over tutelage. 

“And of course, by then, my parents said, ‘You’re paying for the lessons,’” she said. “So I babysat at 50 cents an hour for 14 hours a week, so I could pay for my $7 weekly lesson.”

Later, she studied music at the University of Wyoming in what was another act of defiance — this time against a father who forbade the music major. In her first semester, she met Michael Murdock; they married a year later. After college, he got a job in Fremont County and they moved to Lander.

Back then, in the early ‘80s, the few avid musicians in the area found one another, Murdock said. Around 1984, she and a small group of string players began playing together regularly. 

“We started a small chamber group,” she said, “and that was kind of the start” of the Fremont Symphony Orchestra. 

“But it certainly wasn’t called an orchestra then.”

Murdock never thought she would be in Lander permanently, and in the mid-’80s she and Michael moved their small children to Washington, where she secured a coveted spot in the Spokane Symphony. But this followed a major mining bust in central Wyoming, which made it difficult to sell their Lander house and sever ties. 

They returned in 1987. By then, the chamber group had turned into a string orchestra. But the UW professor who had been conducting the group was getting older. He asked Murdock to take over. 

She accepted the baton and has directed the group ever since. 

More than wand-waving 

Yes, yes, it looks simple. Stand on an upturned box in front of musicians and wave your arms like a bird. Punctuate the air now and then with the baton. Et voilà — you are a conductor. 

The reality is, of course, worlds away. In her home office, Murdock pulled out sheet music that she conducts to. It’s what’s known as a full score, which means it includes the musical parts for every instrument. It’s dizzying to look at, let alone try to understand. 

But that’s what she does, somehow keeping organized in her head when to cue the horns and when to slow the strings’ tempo and the precise moment when the timpani can crash. 

Murdock learned the basics of conducting in college — it’s a standard part of a music education. When she stepped into the FSO conductor role, the professor who preceded her gave her lessons to hone her skills. 

Starting with a string orchestra, which was only four parts, helped her learn, she said. The music has grown more intricate as the group grew into a full orchestra. 

Conducting is complicated brain work, Murdock said. “You have to really know what you are doing,” she said.

As she practices her cello every day, she also faithfully practices conducting prior to a performance — two hours a day, every day, for eight weeks. Murdock practices by playing YouTube videos of different orchestras and going “over, and over, and over” until she has the work memorized. 

“She definitely knows the music,” said Clara Cox, a viola player from Laramie who played as one of the 19 “imports” (along with her siblings and mom) in the most recent performance. “She knows when people have wrong notes or when they miss an entrance, and she’s good about working on those things. She also takes input, which is really nice. I think some conductors don’t do that so much.”

Cox, who is studying viola and harp performance at the University of Wyoming, said her appreciation for the conductor’s job has grown as she’s learned more about music.  

“You have to know so many different parts,” she said. “There might be 30 different parts, and you have to know all of them, and know the tempo changes, or how a piece starts, or know all the little nuances … It’s a lot of work. It’s very intellectual.”

Dvorak to Disney 

The orchestra grew in fits and starts. Early on, Murdock and cellist Beth Shipley juggled the duties of organizing and performing. They added brass in the ‘90s, Murdock said, and welcomed high school and Central Wyoming College players, and Murdock created a youth orchestra. The group became a nonprofit with a volunteer board in 2010. That helped it leverage grants and donations. 

Making a symphony’s finances work is difficult, she said. Music is expensive and ticket sales don’t cover costs. In the early years, Murdock said, “I begged and borrowed and stole music from people.”

Those later grants and gifts helped it grow. When Shipley passed away in 2017, her family made a $10,000 donation to the group. “That kind of got us off the ground to where we could hire soloists.” 

That includes the likes of renowned pianist Richard Dowling, who strode on stage during the recent Lander performance in a sequined blazer, sat down at a grand piano and dazzled the crowd with solos of Mozart and Addinsell. 

Murdock, who has spent many years traveling to other places as an “import” player, also relies on her large network of musical connections to bring in quality players to help flesh out the group. She makes a special effort to ensure they have nice accommodations, she said, thanks in part to generous lodgers who donate rooms. 

In addition, Murdock is a private instructor, which creates another pool of musicians to draw from.

Fremont Symphony Orchestra still has a “very low budget,” Murdock said, but it has a strong reputation for professionalism in a community that’s supportive of the arts. Where Murdock once had to search high and low for musicians, now she has to turn people away. 

The group has performed everything from difficult Dvorak pieces to the orchestral suite from “The Lion King” with an 80-voice choir. The group’s standards have inched up and up. That includes Murdock’s conducting. 

‘Highly unusual’

Nancy Brumsted first heard of the Fremont Symphony Orchestra when she was a Jackson music teacher. After retiring, she and her husband moved to Lander. She immediately got in touch with Murdock to audition and got in. 

“I couldn’t believe that in a small town like Lander, we had something like this,” said Brumsted, who now sits on the board and plays violin. 

“It’s such a high level of quality,” she said. “It’s really exciting to be able to play with a group of musicians that are so accomplished.”

The existence of the orchestra in rural Wyoming is “highly unusual,” McKeage said. Murdock has built up a funding model, a supportive community and high-caliber musicians, she said. “It wouldn’t have worked in every community, but she made it work in that community, and that’s a real tribute to the community too.”

Murdock said she’s driven by a desire to give musicians the opportunity to push themselves and audiences the opportunity to learn and enjoy classical music.

“She is small, but she is mighty,” Brumsted said. Murdock’s high standards of excellence rub off on the musicians, she said. “She’ll call us on it if we’re not doing it correctly. We have to be on our toes, which I also love, because I want someone that cares that much.”

Lander is better because of Murdock and music, Brumsted said.

“We definitely would not exist without her,” Brumsted said. “She’s really dedicated her life to it, and we’re all richer as a result. It’s such a gift to the community.”