Join the Orchestra
Local musicians are welcome to join the orchestra! Our musicians came from a variety of backgrounds and experience levels: many of our symphony members played in college, several have degrees in music, one member began learning as an adult, and one musician learned violin in our strings program and has a child in our strings program today.
Performances
The Itasca Symphony Orchestra performs three concerts each year at the Wilcox Theater in the Reif Center in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
Rehearsals
In the eight to nine weeks leading up to each performance, the ISO rehearses on Monday nights from 6:30-8:30 pm in the band room of the Robert J. Elkington Middle School in Grand Rapids.
Please contact us with any questions, requests for more information, or to tell us that you plan to join the ISO!
IOSP Concerts & Events | Watch & learn more …
Keith Swanson, Symphony Conductor
Our 2021/2022 season marks the 30th year under the direction of Keith Swanson. Swanson received his undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota and his Master’s Degree in Educational Instruction from the University of Wisconsin Superior. He retired as the Director of Music at Hermantown High School after teaching orchestra for 43 years. He has conducted the UMD Symphony Orchestra, orchestras for the Northland Opera Theater Experience and Colder by the Lake. In July of 2019, Conductor Keith Swanson lead the Lake Superior Orchestra in Rossini’s “Overture to the Italian in Algiers” and the late local composer Brad Bombardier’s “XXV.” Swanson is an avid opera fan and has conducted Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffman, Mozart’s Magic Flute, Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, Handel’s Semele, Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado.
Musicians
Violin I
Mary LaPlant, concertmaster
Kristine Arntson
Becky Kuntz
Violin II
Amanda Wirta
Katy Hafar
Kolton Graf
Kelli Bishop
Viola
Jesse Davis
Julie Takkunen
Cello
Becky Loomis
Elise Campbell
Elise Sperling
Flute
Aaron Swanson
Kirsten Siegle
Lila Dezelske
Clarinet
Jan McKinney
Kelly Yurecko
Chris Bolstad
Oboe
Kim Young
Lynnea Iverson
Amber Bolstad
French Horn
Deena Skaja
Heidi Wick
Brianna Roberts
Bass
Tom Nelson
Darrol Schmidt
Tuba
Phil Kneeland
Tympani
Peter Kneeland
Percussion
Connor Swanson
Bassoon
Suzanne Allen
French Horn
Deena Skaja
Heidi Wick
Brianna Roberts
Hannah Erickson
Trumpet
Carmen Heinecke
Cassie Thuen
Michael Wourms
Dan Carlson
Trombone
Thomas Patnaude
Ellen Bogardus-Szymaniak
David Grosland