For nearly as long as she can remember, Sally Jerde has played the violin.

This is Jerde’s first season as concertmaster, the lead violinist, with Glacier Orchestra. She brings well over three decades of experience to the position.

Jerde, 36, began the Suzuki method of learning to play the violin when she was 3. The method of teaching is based on the premise that all people are capable of learning from their environment.

The music genes come from her mother’s side of the family. Her mom plays the oboe and her aunts are adept at piano and French horn.

Most recently Jerde’s mother has taken up the bagpipes. 

“She’s taking lessons and torturing the neighbors,” she said with a laugh.

It was no surprise, then, when Jerde quickly became proficient on the violin at an early age. She eventually converted from Suzuki to more traditional methods of music instruction.

When her family moved from her native Chicago to Fort Myers, Fla., when she was 7, the music followed her.

“In high school, music was all I did,” she said.

She played percussion instruments, participating in her school’s marching band that performed at local parades and football games.

Being part of a youth symphony from the sixth grade through her senior year helped her further hone her skills on the violin. She was concertmaster of her youth symphony for three years. Jerde also played with a community college orchestra. She and her mother played with the Port Charlotte Symphony as well.

Jerde took a short break from the violin after high school, but wound up at the University of Florida where she majored in music performance.

During college she began playing for touring musicians whose agents would contract with musicians. She traveled from city to city with singers such as Sarah Brightman, Johnny Mathis and Ann Marie.

“I played in the Bahamas with Connie Francis in 2004,” Jerde recalled. “Johnny Mathis was a regular in Florida, especially during the holiday season.”

One time she toured with Anne Murray from the Florida Keys to Virginia.

“It was really cool,” she said. “It was glamorous, but the music was not challenging.”

She then began playing more in an orchestra setting, which required more concentrated practicing. At the time she also was working full time for a veterinarian office and was raising her son from her first marriage.

Jerde met her husband Erik, a pharmacy technician in Kalispell, online through the eHarmony dating service.

“Erik and I are on the same wavelength,” she said. And they quickly discovered they had the same values and goals for their lives.

“I came to visit him in February [2010] in the dead of winter and I was sold,” she said. “I met his wonderful family. His family is incredibly musical.”

They were married a few months later.

Jerde began playing with Glacier Orchestra as soon as she moved to the Flathead Valley.

The coveted concertmaster position became open when former concertmaster Sam Taylor decided to go back to school to get his Ph.D. in pedagogy.

The concertmaster determines the bowings — the schedule of up and down bow strokes — for the string section so it can play as a unified group. The position means more responsibility for Jerde, as she’s charged with marking the parts of the music.

Even with her advanced ability, Jerde admits there are challenges.

“Festival Amadeus gets me edgy,” she said. “"Mozart is so delicate, but there’s no room for error ... there are a lot of dynamic contrasts.”

Gustav Mahler’s music challenged her this season. The music is “very expressive and very technical” and requires a good bit of stamina.

With three sons, Gabriel — 11, Leif, 2 1/2 and Sawyer, 10 months — it isn’t practical for Jerde to practice at home, so she sets aside time at North Valley Music School in Whitefish where she teaches violin.

She wants to nurture her own children’s musical abilities, so she’s teaching Gabriel how to play the violin.

There have been many memorable performances throughout Jerde’s music career. One that jumps quickly to mind was a music festival in Hot Springs, Ark., during a performance of Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet” overture-fantasy.

“Maybe it was where I was seated, but I had chills for quite a bit of that,” she said. The sound and energy of the piece came together in near perfect form. And it’s not one musician that can make it happen. 

“It takes everybody,” she said.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.