History

First Began As A Studio When the All Strings Attached Orchestra Studio opened its doors on September 11, 2001, it was the culmination of months of conversations between its director, Ms. Rebecca Windschitl, and members of the Carroll community who envisioned a program that would provide string instrument instruction to all interested students in Carroll and the surrounding communities.  Ms. Windschitl brought [exact number of] years of experience teaching violin, viola, cello, and bass in Carroll’s parochial school system to the enterprise, and she set out to provide the same opportunities for string instrument lessons and participation in an orchestral symphony to students in the area’s public school systems as well.  In the very beginning, the studio relied heavily on the carry over from students familiar with the orchestral experience from the parochial system, but it soon became an organization firmly rooted in the broader community.  The Carroll Armory was the first to offer space for the studio’s Carroll Area Symphony to rehearse, but when post-September 11th security measures made the Armory unusable by civilian groups, Carroll’s public school system stepped in to offer space for the group, first in its High School, and later at Adams Elementary School.  The group’s first concert in October of 2001 featured seventy-eight string players between the ages of ten and eighteen.
Adults Began to Join The remainder of that first season brought continued expansion of the program.  Realizing that her string students would benefit greatly from the opportunity to play symphonic literature that included parts for wind and percussion sections, Ms. Windschitl called on longtime friends and music teachers Jacqueline Montgomery and Joan Gronstal to help recruit wind instrument players from Carroll High School and community adults.  The Symphony’s Christmas concert in December of 2001 included a wind section of eighteen players, and this addition expanded the group’s potential repertoire even as it expanded the range of ages and instruments present in the group.  By the time of the group’s third concert in March of 2002, adults who had once been Ms. Windschitl’s students began to participate, filling out the depths of each section and providing mentoring assistance for younger and newer members.  The March concert featured twelve adult players sitting among the studio’s school-aged students, and the performance drew a larger audience than the season’s earlier efforts.  In May 2002, even more concert-goers attended the Symphony’s outdoor concert on a beautifully sunny Sunday afternoon at the band shell in Carroll’s Graham Park.  This performance was an omen of things to come and a symbol of the group’s staying power; the day of the outdoor concert was the only Sunday that May that it did not rain.
More Communities Involved As the seasons have progressed, the numbers of participants, adult mentors, and primary aged students have grown.  Communities beyond Carroll, where the band programs started to hear about All Strings Attached and wanted their best players to come on board and play in a symphony, began sending their best and brightest to audition. The transition from an in-school program to an out of school one was a challenge, but Ms. Windschitl’s long-term subbing in schools in the community and the power of word of mouth spreading the news about exciting opportunities for musical experiences continued to strengthen the program. It was a slow, sometimes uncertain process, but the group steadily expanded to its current makeup of nearly 120 students and thirty-seven adult mentors, ranging in ages from four to sixty-eight, who come from twenty-three communities that represent seventeen Iowa counties.  All Strings Attached has become a major organization that is respected and appreciated by the communities it serves.  And in turn it has increasingly given back to those communities, providing residents of rural west-central Iowa the opportunity to participate in or attend musical events they would otherwise have to travel seventy-five to two hundred miles to experience.
Prefessional Musicians, Tours and Competitions Over the past few years, the group has performed in three National Festival Competitions, earning the highest overall rating in the large group competition area in both 2005 and 2007.  Patron donations have allowed the group to repair and acquire instruments and purchase music.  The increasing number of adults in the group, many of whom are professional or semi-professional musicians, has helped the group to become more diversified and has allowed the group to be a true “teaching” symphony, with a strong emphasis on the educational values of learning from each other and learning continuously.  From the strictly string orchestra repertoire it presented in its first concert in 2001, the symphony has grown to the point where it can perform any genre of literature, from Latin to Broadway and Classical to Jazz.  Plans for increasing the accessibility of this music to audiences throughout West Central Iowa are moving forward, with a tour of the region scheduled for June 2009 and possible collaboration with the music department at DMACC in Ankeny being discussed for the spring of 2010.
New Groups Develop With this boost in numbers, repertoires, and performance venues, All Strings Attached saw an opportunity to introduce several smaller ensembles, giving its members the opportunity to perform more advanced literature.  As of 2008, the studio boasts two small string ensembles, a brass choir, and a jazz band, and a woodwind ensemble is in the planning stages.  These groups perform at various concerts, weddings, and community events in Carroll and throughout the region.  The Jazz Band introduced a Music in the Parks series during the summer of 2008, presenting live jazz to enthusiastic crowds in an outdoor setting in Carroll, Sac City, and Manning.  In 2009 they will bring their show to Audubon and Lake City as well.
Collaborative Efforts True to its broad communal roots, All Strings Attached continues to contribute to and benefit from other organizations in the community.  The Symphony has collaborated with the Carroll Community Chorus for their annual Christmas concert, and they in turn assist the Symphony with its Christmas concert.  The group enjoys the support of many local entities, in particular the Carroll Public Schools and the First United Methodist Church, who provide the symphony’s practice space, and the Carroll Daily Times Herald and the radio stations of the Carroll Broadcasting Corporation, which help to promote the group’s performances and achievements.  Supporters in the community have established a scholarship program to help students in need pay their tuition, and they have also built committees and a core group of members who form the studio’s backbone and help make sure it continues to grow and give back.  The All Strings Attached Studio is still Carroll’s best kept secret, but with continued support and participation, it won’t be a secret for long.