RENEWAL

Juvederm™ 30% OFF

(offer valid December 1, 2018 through January 31, 2019)

Let the youthful way you feel on the inside now reflect on the outside. Juvederm fillers will add volume and fullness to your face to help soften your appearance.

Halo™ Hybrid Laser

Skin Resurfacing25% OFF

(offer valid January 1 – 31, 2019) string director at Stella Maris Academy Holy Rosary Campus. She even plays rock ’n’ roll music with her string ensemble, Four String Rock, at weddings, special events and at schools to encourage kids’ interest in music.

Great results with minimal downtime. The Halo™ hybrid laser uses wavelengths to repair visible signs of aging, sun damage, discoloration, enlarged pores, and uneven skin tone.

“People come up to me and tell me, ‘I saw you here or I saw you there.’ It’s fun to hear how they remember me,” Gribbon said. “One boy gave me a drawing he made of me — a stick figure with spiky hair and a black dress, with the words ‘rock and roll.’”

She’s a graceful presence in a room, with spiked auburn hair and a fashionable wardrobe. She often wears clothing pieces that she purchased during her many musical trips to Europe, such as her above-the-knee black leather skirt bought in a little shop in Paris, topped with a longsleeved black silk blouse. She has a look, style and talent all her own.

Gribbon runs her music school, Sound of Strings, at a charming location on Highway 53 in

FACT:

Hermantown. Walk inside, and it’s as if you’re stepping into the studio of a European music master. The studio includes a baby grand piano, dark wood faux fireplace, mahogany desk and large framed art pieces and photo portraits of Gribbon and Alia (who also is a musician) in concert.

It’s here that Gribbon teaches her students violin, viola, cello, piano and chamber music. Over the years, she has shared her gift of teaching with many students.

IN THE NORTHLAND, WE STILL THROW AWAY MORE THAN 870 TONS OF CARDBOARD EVERY YEAR. THAT’S ENOUGH TO COVER THE LENGTH OF THE LAKEWALK 74 TIMES.

We’ve made great progress in keeping recyclable products out of our landfills. But the facts show that we have a long way to go. Learn what you can do to recycle more at wlssd.com.

WESTERN LAKE SUPERIOR SANITARY DISTRICT

2626 Courtland Street, Duluth, MN 55806 218-722-3336 • wlssd.com

“We are grateful to Michelle Gribbon for her amazing gifts she shares with our children,” said Jill Holsinger, a doctor of radiology at Essentia Health in Duluth. Holsinger’s two daughters take violin lessons with Gribbon.

“Our daughters’ violin skills, note reading and overall confidence have exponentially increased under her direction,” Holsinger said. “I appreciate the way she gets my daughters to practice regularly without my intervention. Not only do they practice on their own, they enjoy and desire to pick up their instruments regularly. Michelle is an accomplished violinist who shares her secrets and style with her students. It is a true joy working with Michelle and her studio.”

A community resource

Gribbon doesn’t keep her music inside the studio; she also takes it out into the community.

“Sound of Strings is my umbrella,” Gribbon said. “Through it, I’ve made more than 250 visits to schools to encourage students to sign up to play a musical instrument. I’ve gone in and started playing rock ’n’ roll, and they loved it.”

She has also taken groups of nine to 27 young musicians on numerous Sound of Strings international tours to countries including England, Germany, Austria, Canada, Finland and Russia. Alia went on her first international tour with the group when she was 5. Memory pages with photos of the trips are posted on a wall at her school, highlighting the group’s overseas travels and concerts.

The ACE award program was established in 2008 and has recognized more than 70 noteworthy individuals for their outstanding contributions to the choral arts.

This is Gribbon’s fifth year working as accompanist with the Duluth East choir. In this role, she accompanies the choir on the piano. “The accompanist enhances people’s singing,” Gribbon explained. “I enjoy it. The students kind of cheer when I enter the room each day.”

Upton said he appreciates the enthusiasm she infuses in class.

“Michelle, as an accompanist with me, is always trying to capture musical ideas and how the artistry reflects life,” he said, then laughed. “If you want to get deep. It’s not just notes and rhythms; it’s idea, it’s feeling, it’s communication.”

Upton likes to challenge his choirs with unusual pieces from a variety of singing traditions and cultures. Gribbon is always right on board.

“The simple stuff is kind of boring for her,” Upton said. “I’ll pick a certain piece of music, and she’ll say, ‘Ooo, good, I’m glad this is something interesting. I’m glad that it’s going to be fun for me, too.’”

Continued on page 20

One Level Patio Home on Golf Course (For Driving Directions type in 1580 Carlton Avenue West, Cloquet MN) 10 have been sold • Only 2 left!

Details: 1500SF single family home, 3BR, 2BA, 2 car attached garage with 18’ wide garage door, 8’x12’ deck on the golf course. Association takes care of the snow plowing, lawn and trash disposal fee. Ask me about a purchase agreement that allows you to sell your cur rent home while reser ving one of our Patio Homes.

A musical family

Gribbon grew up in San Diego. Her mother was from Minnesota, her father from Germany, and both were amateur musicians. Gribbon and her two brothers and one sister are all musical. Since she was little, Gribbon has played the violin and the piano. While still a child, she started taking violin lessons from the concertmaster of the local symphony. She would go to his home for these lessons and stay there learning as long as he wanted. He would ask her, “What do you want to learn today?”

“It wasn’t just a lesson, it was a life,” she said.

The teacher believed that Gribbon should not continued playing both the violin and the piano; he said that she should choose to focus on the violin. “You can only be a violinist,” he told her. But she loved playing both, and she continued to do so.

“I would not have been as happy and well-rounded as I am if I didn’t play both,” she said. “I understand both, and I’m equally good at both. I don’t get bored.”

In sixth grade, Gribbon took a career aptitude test, and the results stated that she should spend her life working as a musical performer and teacher. Even then, Gribbon knew these results were the right fit for her. In ninth grade, she started teaching violin lessons in her home. Gribbon majored in music as an undergraduate at the University of WisconsinSuperior, and she earned a double master’s degree in violin performance and piano accompanying at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

A changing path

After graduating, Gribbon was performing in the orchestra of the Dallas Opera and as a freelance musician when her life changed. While riding her bicycle, she was hit by a car, and her right shoulder was permanently injured. Long periods of playing the instruments she loved became impossible.

Only days before the accident, she had been offered the violin professor and performance position at East Texas State University. She had to decline.

“I just had to change gears,” she said of her performing career. From that point on, Gribbon decided that teaching would become a major part of her life. She would perform only at the level she felt comfortable with. She started Sound of Strings.

Gribbon said she knows she made the right choice in moving to the Duluth area all those years ago. To illustrate this point, she told a story of a time she brought a group of music students to play at a Duluth nursing home.

“I’ve always liked to do a lot of things with nursing homes,” Gribbon said. “I always wanted to teach my daughter that music is a gift to be heard.”

She had brought students there before, and each time they visited, a man with dementia sat near them and said lowly to himself over and over, “Sound of Strings, Sound of Strings.” Despite his disease, the man seemed to remember this musical group. He was there again for this performance, enjoying the music and saying the group’s name.

“From him, I knew we were enriching people’s lives with our music,” Gribbon said. “There are reasons for me to be here.” D

Alison Stucke is a Duluth freelance writer. Features editor Beverly Godfrey contributed to this report.

Learn more about Gribbon’s music school at soundofstringsmn.com.