(Tom) This week on Arizona Illustrated, meet a lively conductor and the local orchestra he leads.

(Linus) Music for me has always been a mysterious because I believe truly that I did not choose music.

Music choose me.

(Tom) Visit a new museum in the Morley Arts District in Nogales, Arizona.

(Evan) Everyone could agree that yes, we need the arts and we need more to enrich our lives and quality of life here.

(Tom) Learn about an ornamental grass that's invading our desert.

(Tony) A massive, massive problem plant for the Sonoran Desert and something that you should get rid of whenever you have the chance.

(Tom) And experience Oktoberfest atop Mount Lemmon.

(upbeat music) (Tom) Hello and welcome to Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara.

And today we're joining you from the Desert View Performing Arts Center in Saddlebrook.

Why are we here?

Well, it has to do with the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra.

They got their start in a trailer in Wilcox, Arizona back in 1979.

Since then they have persevered and prospered to the point where now they're in Tucson and this community-based group will open their brand new season in this auditorium on October 12th.

Let's learn more about this eclectic group from their members.

(Linus) Okay, hold on for a second.

Well, I'm going to start.

Found it.

Yeah?

♪ CLASSICAL ORCHESTRA (Tim) My name is Tim Secomb and I'm a professor in Physiology and Mathematics here at the University of Arizona.

As a scientist, I think it's really good to have another interest.

I encourage my graduate students to do other things.

I don't say, "Okay, you have to do science to nothing else."

I say, "You should have other interests."

The resistance is 0.005, 0.1, 0.0676, 0.0666... ♪ SOFT VIOLIN Actually, I started learning the piano when I was six.

And, then, when I was 11, at my school, they said, "Anyone who wants to can learn the violin."

And I said, "Okay."

My parents encouraged me, actually, but I took it up and really enjoyed it.

So I played the violin through my 20s and And, actually, when I came to Tucson in 1981, I. at that time I bought a viola, which is a larger version of a violin, and played that.

(Dee) My name is Dee Schroer.

I play the violin.

I'm in the first violin section.

I started with the orchestra, I think, in 2007.

In 2008, they found out that I had been on boards of directors before.

That was my fault for telling them.

I got on the board, then they made me the secretary, then the treasurer, and then I was the president for six years, and I was on the board for 15.

♪ SOFT CLARINET My name is Todd Weiner, and I am the president of the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra.

I live in Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago, and I was an environmental lawyer.

My wife and I started to come down to Tucson, because it's beautiful down here, beautiful mountains.

I was an avid cyclist, and we rented a home and eventually bought a home here.

I was complaining about not having any music down here, for me to perform and my wife started to research who the symphony orchestras were in Tucson.

She said, "Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra?

They look great."

♪ SWEEPING ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS ♪ I auditioned for the orchestra, hoping they'd at least let me play some time as a substitute, and they called me the next day and asked if I could be at rehearsal the next day and start playing with the orchestra.

That was in January 2022, and I've been in the orchestra ever since as a clarinetist.

♪ SWEEPING ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS ♪ [ MUSIC TEMPO INCREASES ] (Linus) My name is Linus Lerner.

In America they say Linus, right?

That reminds me of Charlie Brown.

I am the Artistic and Music Director of the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra for about 16 years now.

[ CONCERT HALL CHATTER AND MUSIC WARM UP ] [ APPLAUSE ] ♪ UPBEAT HORNS PLAY (Linus) Music for me has always been a mysterious because I believe truly that I did not choose music.

Music choose me.

Because if you want to choose music as a profession, you're starting wrong because you know that you're going to have to study, practice a lot, suffer, maybe have money, maybe not.

If you are a lawyer, for example, and you finish your career at the school, you can be a good or a bad lawyer.

You're still going to make some money.

But when music chooses you, it's like saying, in other words, that that's the only thing I can do to be me.

So I can be really sick, ill, and music will take me to another place.

That's how I feel, I-I I can do almost anything while I'm doing music.

It's like almost a superpower, I don't know how to explain.

♪ SOMBER CLARINETS PLAY I had conductors, very high rate conductors coming to perform with SASO, and they love it.

Because one thing that is different, SASO, from so many professional orchestras, is not a job for them.

It's pleasure.

And when it's pleasure, like I said about myself, I do what I love.

They play because of, they love playing.

♪ DRAMATIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC (Dee) Being a part of the SASO family, I mean you make so many friends, uh, colleagues, um, people that you admire that are such wonderful players.

We all do it because we love to play.

And that's really important.

It keeps your mind alive.

You've got to concentrate.

You've got to think about something.

You got to think, concentrate on what you're doing.

You can't be thinking about the weather, politics, you know, whatever you want to think about.

No, you're gonna play the music.

(Linus) So that's, I think, the most important things about SASO.

And of course, I love the people of SASO, who I've been in a very good relationship.

I don't think we have really ever major crisis in this 16 years.

So the symbiosis is working.

And they're still getting, showing that they can get better.

That's the inspiration for me.

♪ DRAMATIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC ♪ (Todd) It's been a wonderful thing and a great reason to be in Tucson.

I've come down here because I love how it is outside here.

I love the hiking.

My wife loves spending all her time outside.

And we've been able to add to those activities, of my getting to play in the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra.

And it's been a very important part of my life over the last two years.

(Tim) I joined SASO in 1981, in October of 1981, and at that point the orchestra had only been going for two years, so this was quite early in the history of the orchestra.

And I've been continuously involved, not only playing, but also as a member of the board, currently as vice president, ever since that time back more than 40 years ago.

So yeah, the orchestra has really been a big part of my life for many years now.

♪ TRIUMPHANT MUSIC SWELLS [ APPLAUSE ] (Tom) For more information about upcoming concerts here at the Desert View Performing Arts Center or at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Tucson, or for information about the staff or the group's history, just visit sasomusic.org Next, we take you down to Nogales to see how an unlikely friendship, backyard chats, a piano and a crazy car led to a new museum.

Paula Wittner started showcasing her art as the pandemic began, quarantining them along with her.

But with the help of Evan Kory.

they found a permanent home for her paintings on Morley Avenue.

This story was produced in part by Liliana Soto, but was completed by Diana Cadena when Liliana accepted a position in the governor's office.

[ CARS PASSING AND TRAIN HORN ] (Evan) We just spent a lot of time imagining what this street could be, because we were seeing businesses close and it's just getting harder and harder.

We realized that maybe arts and culture was the answer.

♪ LIGHT UPBEAT GUITAR Around four year ago, we started a gallery called La Linea Art Studio.

And that was really a group of artists that I met when I moved back, that got together and made that project a reality.

We have shows that rotate around once a month.

It's amazing to see all the artists that have come forward with interest to show their work there.

It seems like it's focusing more and more on border artists, because they're very underrepresented too.

(Paula) Evan asked me if I wanted to have a show at La Linea and I said yes.

(Evan) We met in Patagonia.

She invited me over to her studio, which is around the block.

And of course I went and I was just immediately blown away by the paintings, because they were so fresh and I hadn't seen anything like that.

As it turned out, I had a big show across the line.

And it was only open for two days because the pandemic started.

And everything shuts down and the paintings were in quarantine as well for 13 months.

And that's really where our friendship started.

And we started dreaming about what if we made something permanent, not just a one time show.

Through the pandemic, we would hang out in my backyard and brainstorm.

And he came up with the museum.

Luckily, our Santa Cruz County government created a nonprofit grant program.

And we applied and we got the grant to do the renovation of the space.

Evan miraculously, in six months he renovated it into that palace.

We donated our piano to La Linea because no one was playing it.

So then Evan was locked in there with the piano practicing and he liked playing with the paintings.

♪ WARM PIANO (Evan) As a musician, I'm a pianist.

We're always thinking about what is this music about?

What does it all mean?

So when you see the looks on their faces, sometimes they give you answers.

So I might be playing the piano behind me.

And as I'm playing, I see a face and realize, hey, that's what this is about.

So it's all about how the humanity within every person and everything they feel and how we relate to each other.

♪ WARM PIANO Paula paints her life experiences and the people she knows and that she's met.

And it's been very fascinating to witness her process because often a painting as she's working on it will evolve depending on what's going on in her life.

So all of the paintings have layers of symbolism and meaning and people find their own stories within them too.

[ CLAPPING ] I found this stamp collector, John Birkenbein, in Tucson and we took my father's stamps there.

And in his driveway was this vehicle.

I'd never seen anything like it.

I didn't even, I couldn't like wrap my head around it, what it was.

It just came out of my mouth.

I said, "Are you selling that?"

This lawyer custom ordered it from the Philippines and my father was in the Philippines during the war.

And I don't know, it just connected me to my father.

♪ FUNKY CAR HORN SONG (Evan) The paintings all talk to each other and relate to each other.

So it's really a universe that she's created within her palette, her colors, the people she paints, the faces.

And it's for me and I think she would agree, it's all about the expressions on their faces.

And to create those from memory is quite astounding.

There's a painting at my house of my mother that I could never draw or paint her when she was alive, but after she died I did a painting of her from memory and the computer recognized her.

(Evan) Everyone could agree that yes, we need, we need the arts and we need more, more to enrich our lives and quality of life here.

I want Morley Street to be revitalized and be just a vibrant arts district.

It is frustrating to see what the national narrative is and the way people talk about the border with never having even visited or seen it for themselves.

I think that eventually we will redefine what the border is as we outreach and let people know what we're about.

Like this project here with the museum, with Paula's artwork.

It's a way also for young people to be proud of their home.

And that's always very, very important I think because then it inspires them to do something and to create the home that they want to see.

(Tom) If you liked that last story and you're a fan of painting, you may have heard of a guy by the name of Leonardo da Vinci.

Well, on Thursday, November 7th, in this auditorium, I'll be hosting a special Arizona Public Media screening and panel on the new Ken Burns documentary, Leonardo da Vinci, and you are invited.

Over the past few seasons, we've been showing you the trees and shrubs and cactus that make our region unique in our ongoing desert plant series.

Now we're introducing non-native plants and this will do very well in this region, but they become invasive, in this case, an ornamental grass that moves from the yards to our desert.

[ BIRDS CHIRPING ] (Tony) This is fountaingrass, Pennisetum setaseum.

I've seen this plant growing all the way up to my eyeballs in riparian areas and it's 100% covering the ground.

You can hardly see the rocks that you're walking on and this thing is just sucking up our precious water supplies before it ever makes it down to the city.

[ CAR DRIVING NEARBY ] Up in the foothills of Rincon Mountains or the Santa Catalinas, if you're hiking, you might be running into this plant.

Where did it come from?

It came from most people's front yards and landscaping.

This is one of those landscaping atrocities that would just be put in everybody's front yard and HOAs so that you can have this ornamental grass growing in your front yard, erupting like a fountain.

Slowly but surely you see it creep into your neighbor's yard, you see it creep into your wash nearby, and soon you just have these monocultures of fountain grass.

[ BIRDS CHIRPING ] It originates from Africa in the Eurasian area of the Middle East.

Very drought adapted species, unfortunately brought here as an erosion control mitigation, typically by the U.S. government and the agricultural department.

And then it was sold in nurseries up through the 2000s.

This plant is now on the Arizona noxious weed list.

It is a tremendous fire threat.

Once it dries up, it turns into this biomass that can burn in fires that are 1,500 degrees.

It is drought adapted and a perennial plant, so it's not going anywhere.

That's why people liked it for landscaping.

But you can see here on its inflorescence, these are the flowers that it produces, and eventually this is going to produce that number of seeds.

It blows in the wind and along our roadsides, it's what we call the pseudo riparian area.

You get that extra water runoff from the blacktop, and it allows these plants just enough water to grow and thrive, just like they're growing in a riparian area along a creek.

A massive, massive problem plant for the Sonoran Desert and something that you should get rid of whenever you have the chance.

Kill it when you see it.

(Tom) Perched atop Mount Lemmon Ski Valley, Tucson's Oktoberfest turns the slopes into a festive haven.

You have the cool mountain air and the fall colors.

You can savor delicious German food, dance, play games, or even take in the views from the chairlift.

[ WIND BLOWING ] (Graham) So, we are in southern Arizona on top of Mount Lemmon at Ski Valley.

It's 32 miles north of Tucson, Arizona about an hour from downtown, more or less, right in the heart of the Sonoran Desert.

It's going good, first day of Oktoberfest, it's flowing, We got beer, music, food, things are good.

So this is Ski Valley's 49th Oktoberfest, and it's just grown and grown and turned into what we have now.

♪ POLKA MUSIC We actually have a fall on Mt.

Lemmon so the colors are gonna start changing and popping.

So you know it draws people, and it's a good time.

Usually we always have it the last two weekends of September and the first two of October.

Well, we got a German band.

We've had them for quite some time, you know, and they're pretty popular.

And we have bratwurst, that we get from Wisconsin, and potato salad, that actually comes from Wisconsin too, and red cabbage, and German beer.

We got lift rides going, so you can take the ride on the lift or you can go hike in a meadow or just bring a blanket and sit and take a nap.

Lots of people just want to ride up and ride right back down.

Lots ride up, go hike for a couple hours and come back, some take a hiking trail down to the base and show up back down here.

So... (Trevor) I want to say the last five years in a row, we've been up here, yeah.

(Katie) It's a tradition for us, yeah.

The atmosphere is great, can't beat it.

Getting to do this kind of thing and listen to the live music is really special.

It's always been kind of like a little secret, and we were just commenting today that it seems like it's a little more crowded than in the past, maybe it's opening day, but secret's kind of coming out, I think.

(Inga) I'm originally from Minnesota, but I lived in Munich, Germany for 11 years and I always went to Oktorfest.

It's a huge celebration.

It's been going on for more than 100 years.

And in Munich, Germany, about six or seven million people attend every year.

If you eat like half a chicken, when you first arrive, you eat half a grilled chicken, then you can drink two or three liters of beer, and you're still OK. [ LAUGHS TOGETHER ] (Jason) Drinking beer and enjoying time with my family and friends.

I can't give you too much of a background on this outfit, the lederhosen, and I'm borrowing this from my buddy, who's who lived in Germany for three years.

Yeah, they got a bunch of dancing here, they got incredible music, and really good food, really good beer, Paulaner.

[ STUTTERS ] I, I love beer.

Yeah.

- I like it, I always like beer.

- You a beer guy?

- I like beer.

Little windy, sometimes you get a little nauseated because it's so windy.

Well, we got a designated driver, two of them, so it should be fine.

[ SLURRED SPEACH ] - This is the time, You know what you gotta do?

you just gotta enjoy life now.

Right?

And you gotta dance, and you gotta laugh, and you gotta just make jokes.

That camera's bad ass.

- [ SYNCHRONOUS SHOUTING ] - (MC) You guys are great sports, - (Inga) We love Mount Lemon.

It's something that we have and Phoenix doesn't have, so that's why we're very, very happy to be here every year.

We love the chicken dance.

And then I force my husband, Carl, to do the polka or the waltz, and he's, you know, he grits his teeth and he does it.

♪ POLKA MUSIC [ CLAPPING ] - (MC) Beautiful dancing, thank you.

(Jake) We decided we'd just come up for the day and hang out and enjoy the beautiful weather and enjoy each other's company.

- (Clary) Do you like the band, little girl?

[ BABY CRYING ] (Inga) The lederhosen we got these in Salzburg, it's a very practical article of clothing.

So like if you eat a sandwich and you've got buttery fingers, you just wipe off your fingers in the pants and it's fine.

You don't have to wash it.

And then this costume is called a dirndl.

It's original from Nuremberg, Germany, which is down there in the Bavarian region, and I got it in 1976, the first time I ever went to Germany, and it's amazingly, it still fits.

And the workmanship is so good that it's-it's holding together.

♪ POLKA MUSIC ♪ I'm very careful with my beer, It goes in my mouth It does not go on my dress.

[ LAUGHS ] Here in Arizona, Mount Lemmon, you can celebrate these wonderful German traditions.

We love it.

(Producer) What's your favorite part of Oktoberfest?

- (Speaker 1) Uhm, [ LAUGHS ] I was gonna say when it's over, Uhm, no, it's just, you know, to me it says, you better get ready, winter's coming.

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Thank you for joining us here on Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara and we'll see you again next week.