Music is a universal language.  Enjoying it is easy but creating it is hard, unless you’re 18-year-old Anwen Borgo.

“I’ve been playing piano for close to 14 years now.”

Borgo, a western slope native, is currently a college freshman attending Berklee College of Music and honing her musical talent. But she first found music at age 4.

“Started piano, and then I went to flute for a little while, all still while, and then I found the viola which was my one true love.” 

Anwen doesn’t just love the viola; she says she’s part of it.

‘You can feel it.  When it’s on your shoulder it reverberates through your collarbone, it vibrates with your entire body and you can create music not only with your hands like with the piano but with your entire body as well.”

But playing wasn’t always enough for the young musician.

“I wanted to create something that was uniquely mine and not someone else’s.”  

So she started composing.  Staying true to her Colorado roots, Anwen is one of three young composers who will compose pieces for the Montrose Valley Symphony organization’s  upcoming young composers concert February 4th and 5th. 

“For me composing has always been something I’ve done.”

Composing for a symphony as a college freshman is impressive, but it’s nothing new for Anwen who composed her first symphony at 12 years old.

“That was for the valley youth orchestra.” 

Anwen and the Montrose Valley Symphony hope to hit all the right notes with students everywhere.  Hopefully inspiring them to pick up an instrument and find their own music.