Utah
A student orchestra experience rooted in rural Utah is here to ‘bring the music’
Wayne County is nearly 2,500 square miles of alpine peaks, green farm fields and red rock deserts in south-central Utah. The scenery is plentiful, but people are not — especially if you’re looking for orchestra kids.
“There’s probably three or four people that play violin, and we all have to drive down to Torrey to go to the same teacher,” 11-year-old violin student Journee Pace said of her hometown of Lyman.
These kids come from very small towns. Lyman and Torrey have around 200 residents each, and unlike many urban or suburban school districts, Wayne County doesn’t offer an orchestra program.
That’s why, for kids like Pace, getting to take part in a one-day youth strings workshop in their backyard is a big deal. Two dozen students came together at the county community center in Bicknell, population 323, to learn from world-class symphony musicians from as far away as England and Germany.
“They’re professional violin players, and just seeing how far they went makes me want to do it, too,” Pace said.
Opening small-town kids’ eyes to those types of big dreams matters, said the county’s only local strings instructor, Lynsey Shelar. She started to teach private lessons in 2011, and her Sleeping Rainbow School of Music now has 12 students from all over the county.
“The best part for me is when I see my own students … to see that ‘A-Ha’ moment on their face,” Shelar said. “This is what music is about.”
The workshop is part of the Torrey Chamber Music Festival, which has used donations and grant money to host similar classes and camps for strings students since 2017. Even though the kids may not grow up to play in a symphony, the lessons they learn now about connecting with themselves and with others can have far-reaching ripple effects.
“Music is about playing with emotion and expressing and having that ability to communicate beyond words,” Shelar said. “So if we can get kids to feel that, we are building empathy in our communities — and compassion. I feel like we need a lot of that right now.”
There are plenty of barriers when it comes to picking up strings in rural areas like Wayne County, she said. First, there’s often a lack of exposure to these instruments and this type of music.
Geographic isolation plays a factor, too. The nearest music store that sells, rents or repairs string instruments is a 2.5-hour drive away, Shelar said. There are also financial barriers. Students often borrow their first violin or cello from school to try it out, but Wayne County’s district doesn’t give them that option.
Even for those who can get the right equipment and learn to play, there aren’t many chances to perform as a group, which Shelar said is vital for keeping kids engaged and helping them see the progress they’ve made.
“They love playing together,” Shelar said. “It’s exciting to see the light in their faces.”
Viola student Brigette Winters from the nearby town of Loa, population 595, agreed isolation can be a downside of learning these instruments in a community where there aren’t many other people your age who play. But that also makes the rare occasions when they come together all the more special.
“Sometimes I think it’d be nice to go out and be with people who are really good to help push me, but I really enjoy doing it here,” Winters said. “It’s just fun to think, ‘Oh, this small town that has not much of anything has a pretty awesome orchestra group.’”
The challenges strings students in Wayne County face can be seen statewide. Utah State Board of Education Fine Arts Coordinator Laurie Baefsky said small-town schools deal with several obstacles when it comes to adding string music programs.
First, there’s a lack of orchestra instructors broadly. The typically smaller salaries for teachers in small towns also make it harder to keep them in those positions for the long term.
“We’re very aware, statewide, of a teacher shortage, and that is not exclusive to rural areas. Although we see it more acutely in the rural areas.”
Demand for music education in small towns is not the problem, she said. As a matter of percentage, participation in the secondary school band in Wayne County outpaces that of much more populous Salt Lake City or Utah County. The smaller tax bases in sparsely populated places, however, can make ongoing funding for extra programs hard to come by.
“If something gets cut, are they going to cut the football team or the strings program?” Baefsky said. “So I think there’s a sense of insecurity with our arts educators in Utah, where we always have to make a case for the arts.”
This can be especially challenging, she said, because some small-town residents may not see the value of teaching kids an instrument when the local economy is based on something different.
While each elementary school in the Salt Lake City School District has a dedicated music education specialist, Wayne County only has one fine arts teacher — the local strings instructor, Shelar. In that role, she splits her time between music and visual art and doesn’t teach strings at all.
Festival Chair Ada Mae Crouse, who grew up in a musical family, said passing these opportunities on to the next generation — as well as making classical music more accessible to the public — is central to the workshop’s mission.
“We wanted to not just bring the music, but also bring people together with music.”
The workshop culminates in a concert where the students perform side-by-side with the professionals. The setlist featured the kids on seven songs, including classical mainstays like “Ode to Joy” and the “William Tell Overture.” The students even requested “How Far I’ll Go” from the Disney movie Moana and the workshop had it arranged especially for their skill levels.
In the community center lobby, 9-year-old violinists Seffie Fullerton and Bethany Wing ran through William Tell’s opening bars.
“I’m nervous because I get stage fright a lot, and my mom usually puts it on video,” Fullerton said, “and it gets me super nervous.”
Fullerton made a few attempts but still couldn’t quite land the melody’s progression — adding frustration to her nerves. Fortunately, she’s learned that the instrument she’s holding can help.
“When I’m sad and I play it — like, yesterday, I got super sad … so I played the violin — and it helped me. If I’m angry, I can play it, and it will make me calm.”
Another of Shelar’s students from Lyman, 11-year-old Cru Peterson, felt a common mixture of excitement and nerves. Getting to sit next to a professional cellist, however, helped him remember why he was there.
“I just want to play cello as long as I can,” Peterson said. “I love it.”
As families crowded the community center’s main room for the performance, Keri Pace watched her daughter, Journee, in the violin section.
“It’s amazing to see it all come together,” she said. “I mean, people that are as talented as you’ll find anywhere in the world are here playing with them in Bicknell at a community center. It’s amazing.”
This one workshop and concert may not be able to erase all the geographic barriers these students face. But it can help them feel less alone, Shelar said, and give them a chance to perform together, which is vital to helping them build confidence.
“For me, to see them in this setting where they get to take the stage and they get to be first chair of their section, and they get to lead the entire orchestra for starting the piece — that is a really big deal. … It brings tears to my eyes.”
So at least for a few hours in this community center, the string students of Wayne County got to feel what it’s like to be a real orchestra.
FARMINGTON, Utah (KUTV) — A threatening voicemail caught KUTV 2News photojournalist Jeremy Dubas completely off guard near the end of his shift.
The call came from a man claiming to be Sgt. Tyson Young with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office in Nebraska. The caller told Dubas he had missed jury duty for a major case and that meant jail time.
Dubas, who grew up in Nebraska, has lived in Utah for more than two years. But the caller seemed prepared, saying the subpoena went to an old address and was signed for by someone else on his behalf.
“It’s such a different scam from what I’m used to watching out for,” said Dubas. “I’m still on the phone with him and he said, ‘Okay, so we need to get a payment so we can freeze the warrant for your arrest so you don’t get arrested.’”
About 40 minutes into the call, Dubas sent roughly $200 through PayPal. Within an hour, he realized it was a scam.
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“I’m very on high alert when I get an email, when I get a phone call, when I get a text message,” he explained. “This one just caught me off guard.”
Investigators with the Davis County Sheriff’s Office here in Utah said Jeremy Dubas is far from alone.
Megan Reid, a detective with Davis County, said the Sheriff’s Office gets at least 30 reports of jury duty scams a day. And Utah is losing a significant amount of money to them.
“Hundreds of thousands,” Reid said. “Just last week, we had a victim lose $12,000. That was their entire savings in that account.”
And it’s not limited to just older adults. Scammers target victims across all age groups, using real detective names and spoofing actual law enforcement phone numbers. They pull personal details from online sources, adding legitimacy to their predatory calls.
The feeling of shame after falling victim often keeps people from reporting what happened.
“This just happened last week,” said Reid. “He drove several cities away to a cryptocurrency ATM that the scammers knew didn’t have warning signs. He lost everything in his savings and hadn’t told his family yet. The money was gone within two minutes.”
In Dubas’ case, PayPal was able to refund his money. Now, he hopes his experience helps warn others.
“I felt dumb for not seeing the signs right away,” said Dubas, later adding, “If it seems like it’s serious and needs to be handled immediately, that’s when you’re supposed to pause and think about what’s really going on.”
The scam is being investigated at the federal level because of how much money is being lost. In some cases, it is possible to recover funds, but investigators said time is critical.
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SALT LAKE CITY — The judge overseeing the lawsuit over Utah’s redistricting process is expected to issue a ruling before Christmas on whether to grant the legislature’s request to close the case, sending it to the Utah Supreme Court.
Lawyers for the Utah State Legislature have urged 3rd District Court Judge Dianna Gibson to issue a final ruling, clearing their path for an appeal. They argued that the case effectively wrapped up once the judge issued a series of rulings on the legality of Proposition 4 and chose a new map for Utah’s congressional districts.
The League of Women Voters of Utah and Mormon Women for Ethical Government basically got what they wanted, argued Frank Chang, an attorney for the Utah State Legislature.
“What if I told you I disagree?” Judge Gibson said to him in the midst of arguments, asking for case law that even allows a case to be closed so abruptly.
During a hastily called hearing on Monday, lawyers for the League and MWEG urged the judge to reject the request. They argued that the case is far from over with claims yet to be addressed and the legislature failed to seek the proper interlocutory appeals when the time was appropriate. The injunctions she entered on Prop. 4 and the new map are preliminary, they argued, and the legislature passed new bills rewriting some of the rules of redistricting, which keeps the case alive.
When Judge Gibson asked if the legislature was essentially right that the case is basically over with the 2026 election? The plaintiffs suggested lawmakers might still bypass the courts and pass a new map in the upcoming legislative session.
“That is sort of a question mark I have in light of some statements, the public statements that have been made by certain legislators,” said Mark Gaber, an attorney for the plaintiffs. “Sen. Weiler, on his podcast, suggested the legislature could pass a new map for the 2026 election if a permanent injunction had been entered. That’s a question I have: if it’s intended by the legislature. If that’s the case? Remedial proceedings could certainly not be done as there would need to be a proceeding as to that new map.”
When Judge Gibson asked Chang about it, he said it was what “one member said in a podcast.”
“If this court is seeking to find out what the intent of the legislature is, it’s the act of the legislature. The most recent one here was what the legislature did in the special session,” he said.
In that special session, lawmakers voted to move the deadline for congressional candidate filings to March and pass a resolution condemning Judge Gibson’s ruling.
As the court hearing as going on, FOX 13 News texted Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, about his remarks. Sen. Weiler (who is an attorney in his day job), replied that he was explaining to listeners the difference between interlocutory and final appeals and just stating “hypotheticals” in response to any stay issued by the Utah Supreme Court.
“But I’m not aware of any plans to do that,” he wrote.
In 2018, voters approved Prop. 4, which created an independent redistricting commission to draw lines for boundaries in congress, legislature and state school board. When the legislature overrode the citizen ballot initiative and passed its own maps, the League and MWEG sued arguing that the people have a right to alter and reform their government. In particular, they alleged the congressional map that the Utah State Legislature approved was gerrymandered to favor Republicans.
The court sided with them, ruling that Prop. 4 is law and throwing out the congressional map. She ordered lawmakers to redraw a new one. They did, under protest, but she rejected their map for not meeting Prop. 4’s neutral redistricting criteria. Instead, she chose a map submitted by the plaintiffs that she declared met the tenets of Prop. 4. It has resulted in a Salt Lake County-centric district that Democratic candidates have rushed to enter, viewing it as more competitive for them.
The Utah State Legislature has argued that it has the sole constitutional right to draw boundaries in redistricting, setting up a legal showdown that will go to the Utah Supreme Court and potentially the U.S. Supreme Court.
Judge Gibson said she planned to issue a ruling before Christmas on whether to finalize the case.
The goal was Connor’s 300th in the NHL. He is the third player in Jets/Atlanta Thrashers history to hit the mark, behind Scheifele (353) and Ilya Kovalchuk (328).
“Just a pretty cool milestone,” Connor said. “Once you look back on your career, that’s kind of the stuff you’ll remember. But right now it’s focusing on winning, trying to be the best player I can, and helping out.”
Connor scored his second goal at 15:23 of the third period, beating Vejmelka blocker side with a one-timer to cut the lead to 3-2.
“I think we just knew that we needed to be better,” Connor said of the comeback. “I think we were on our toes more, jumping and making plays and hemming them in.”
Barron scored just 25 seconds later, beating Vejmelka glove side with a snap shot tie it 3-3.
“That first period was ugly. It was really ugly,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said. “We got better in the second, certainly dominated in the third, but at the end of the day, you can’t play two periods in this league and look to have success.”
Crouse gave the Mammoth a 1-0 lead at 5:20 of the first period. Guenther skated in from the blue line and shot through the legs of Jets defenseman Logan Stanley to put the puck on Hellebuyck. The rebound of his shot then found Crouse in front, where he scored blocker side with a slap shot.
“We made it interesting on ourselves,” Crouse said. “Definitely not the way we wanted the third period to go, but credit to our group, that’s not easy. They scored two right away and then we went right into OT pretty much, so credit to the group for having the right mindset and being able to get the win.”
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