RVS concertmaster Carla Ecker’s career swings between the Southwest and Northwest; next up is ‘A Judy Garland Christmas’ at the Bowmer

By Jim Flint

At first glance, the mileage alone is enough to make you tired.

Each season, concert violinist Carla Ecker moves in a steady triangle between Phoenix, Arizona; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and the Rogue Valley — performing opera, symphony and chamber music while maintaining a second career in real estate and championing young musicians whenever she can.

But talk to her for even a few minutes and it becomes clear: The movement is part of her fuel.

“I carve out roughly six to eight weeks a year to come to the Rogue Valley,” she said of her long-standing post as concertmaster for the Rogue Valley Symphony. “And then I am in Santa Fe for 10 weeks from mid-June through the end of August. It can definitely feel hectic and tiring at times, but I do it because the diversity feeds me. I get something unique and fulfilling from each place and each group.”

Early inspirations

Ecker, 56, grew up in Tucson in what she calls a working-class, music-in-the-public-schools household. She and her three siblings were all raised playing instruments.

“My mother was not formally trained but she loved to sing and could accompany herself on the guitar,” Ecker said. “She was a naturally artistic person in many ways.”

Like many violinists, Ecker didn’t begin with a blazing inner conviction — she simply picked up the violin when it came her turn.

“If I’m being honest, I wasn’t that kid begging for a violin,” she said. Her parents simply believed their children should learn instruments. The violin had been passed down from an older sibling, and so she took it up.

Was there a turning point that led her to pursue music professionally?

“I cannot say that there was an ‘aha’ moment. Instead, it just came naturally,” she said. “It starts with a natural aptitude at a young age. And if you’re lucky enough, you have the desire and discipline to keep going.”

By the time she was in college, that path had taken hold, and a teacher’s encouragement helped her claim music as a profession.

What began in Tucson’s public-school music rooms eventually placed Ecker on an impressively broad stage. Today, she is a first violinist with the Phoenix Symphony, a veteran of more than 30 seasons with the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, and a performer whose résumé stretches from chamber ensembles to tours with guitarist Ottmar Liebert and recording with the indie rock band Calexico. She’s also appeared with the El Paso Symphony and the Tucson Symphony, where she was once a schoolchild in the audience.

Those early encounters with live performance still echo in her memory.

“I remember the hall being full of boisterous, noisy school children having the time of their lives,” she said of the Tucson Symphony’s young people’s concerts. “There is something really electric about being a part of a live musical performance.”

The pull of Ashland

It’s that same current that brings her back again and again to the Rogue Valley Symphony, where she has served as concertmaster since 2011.

“I always like to call this my ‘quality of life’ corner of my career,” Ecker said.

She was immediately taken with Ashland and the surrounding region: “I was drawn to the uniqueness of the community, the physical beauty of the location, and the spirit you feel from the people here. The orchestra felt like a beautiful little microcosm of the community as a whole.”

She names RVS Music Director Martin Majkut as a key artistic partner.

“I never take for granted the trust he honors me with in my position, as do my colleagues, and it keeps me striving to always be worthy of it.”

The concertmaster position, she noted, is both musical and diplomatic.

“We all need to feel respected but also driven to expect the most of ourselves,” she said. “I try my very best to understand what maestro Majkut needs from us, and to help translate that to my colleagues in a clear and logical way. It’s a pretty magical feeling when we can emerge from our solo experience in our individual chairs and ride the wave with the orchestra as a whole.”

A second path

That leadership is also fed by her life outside the orchestra. During the pandemic, Ecker did something unexpected: She got her real-estate license.

“When the pandemic came, I was suddenly gifted with time on my hands and more time to think outside of my usual box,” she said.

Real estate, she found, required a different kind of communication and trust — skills she already uses as a concertmaster but in a fresh context. Balancing the two careers means adjusting season by season.

“This season my playing schedule is incredibly busy so there’s less real estate, but I just have to keep the skills up however I can.”

Her curiosity and willingness to stretch have shaped her as a musician as well. From opera to cross-genre collaborations, she has learned to embrace variety.

“Openness and flexibility are key,” she said. “Different styles are not always comfortable, but every new thing you do will make you a better musician.”

Her long tenure in Santa Fe, especially, has been formative.

“Opera requires an extreme amount of careful listening, quick adjustment and sensitivity,” she said. “After all, we are all trying to sing through our instruments.”

One of her most cherished recent memories in the Rogue Valley came last season, when she performed Vaughan Williams’ “The Lark Ascending” with the orchestra.

“It was such a privilege to perform such a beloved piece of music with my own orchestra,” she said, calling it both a highlight and a challenge.

Facing the unthinkable

And then there is the chapter of Ecker’s life that changed everything, even as she refused to let it stop her: breast cancer. She learned of the tumor while finishing a season in Santa Fe.

“I just told my radiologist, ‘Can’t I just wait to do all of this when I get home in a week?’ That was a resounding NO,” she said.

What followed was a flurry of finding a surgeon, scheduling appointments and then surgery within weeks. She returned to playing quickly — sometimes on the same day as chemotherapy treatments.

“I don’t know if it gave me a sense of normality, or my way of showing the cancer who was boss, but I just needed to keep going,” she said. She credits “epic support” by way of family, great friends and the symphony community.

Lessons forward

Today, Ecker views her journey — from Tucson school auditoriums to multiple symphony halls, from genre-crossing collaborations to beating cancer — as something she hopes young musicians will learn from.

“You will experience great moments and enormous highs. Cherish them,” she said. “You will also have periods of insecurity, uncertainty and disappointment. Fight through them, discover the lesson and remember those too. Because later on you will look back and see how far you’ve come. I guarantee it.”

For Rogue Valley audiences, the guarantee is simpler: Every time Ecker lifts her violin, she brings all of that experience, resilience, humor and hard-won wisdom with her, helping to shape the sound of an orchestra she now calls one of the most meaningful corners of her musical life.

Next on stage

Coming up next for Ecker and the Rogue Valley Symphony are the holiday pops concerts at OSF’s Angus Bowmer Theatre — 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 19, and 1:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 20–21.

This year’s program, “A Judy Garland Christmas,” features vocalist Joan Ellison performing Garland’s greatest hits with the original orchestral arrangements that the legendary singer used. Rounding out the concert are holiday favorites made famous by Andy Williams, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Peggy Lee, Eydie Gormé and Lena Horne, plus two cherished seasonal instrumentals.

For more information and tickets, visit rvsymphony.org.

Jim Flint’s Curtain Call column publishes on the second and fourth Mondays of the month. Email Jim at [email protected].