Overture Magazine - 2015-2016 Season March-April 2016 | Page 46

{ impromptu

44 O v ertur e |

L aura Farmer

Lisa Steltenpohl
Principal Viola

A concert musician with a clone.
Sometimes, when you find yourself on the side of
a mountain road in the Poconos, pushing your car
out of knee-deep mud while being pelted by rain,
that’s the moment you really appreciate having
your sister along for the adventure. Even better
if that sister is your twin who shares your wacky
sense of humor and penchant for finding fun in life.
“My twin sister, Anna, is my best friend,” says the
BSO’s charismatic principal viola Lisa Steltenpohl.
“She and I talk all the time.”
Last summer, the pair found themselves on that
soggy Poconos adventure because they wanted
to spend time together, as they now live in
separate cities.
“Anna is also a professional musician and performs
with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra,”
says Steltenpohl. “We decided to meet halfway
between Baltimore and Rochester and rented a
yurt on Airbnb. It sounded like fun at the time! But
with the rain, the whole trip was sort of abysmal.”
So that adventure may not have worked out. But,
not to worry, as the two have quite an album of
other hilarious and wonderful memories. Like
the time when they were listening to Vivaldi’s
lute concerti in their basement, pretending to be
gymnasts in the Atlanta Olympics — and Anna
injured her nose. Or the time when they were
living together in New York City and only paid
for one gym membership and just took turns
using it. Or like every time when they perform in
orchestras together, when they try to catch each
other’s eye from across the orchestra to make
each other crack up.

Mitro H o o d

“I can’t look at Anna when we perform! She
always makes me laugh,” says Steltenpohl. “Anna
and I grew up performing together in the same
youth orchestras. She plays oboe and English horn
and I play viola. People ask if we were competitive
with each other when we were younger. We really
never were. Music was always just one more thing
that we enjoyed doing together.”

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