406 Winds This Saturday at Star Theatre

Whitehall non-profit Gold Junction Presents is proud to announce this weekend’s concert by 406 Winds. The event will begin at 7 PM on Saturday, May 6 at the Star Theatre, with doors opening at 6:45 PM. Admission is $5 per person; donations towards bringing future productions such as 406 Winds to the Whitehall area are much appreciated as well.

The evening will begin with five easy dances for the wind quintet, featuring a polka, tango, bolero, waltz, and rumba. This will be followed by 406 Winds’ own Gregory Young’s original composition, “Swimming with Dolphins,”, followed by Peter and the Wolf by Sergie Prokofiev, and the Montana State Song by Joseph E. Howard.

“We chose Peter and the Wolf because it is engaging and everyone can relate to it,” said Young. “The five easy dances are just a lot of fun for us and I think for the audience. And even if the audience is reluctant to sing, we think Young’s arrangement of the Montana state song will be fun for everyone in a good way to end the concert.”

The 406 Winds are comprised of Joanna Berg on flute, Beth Antonopulos on oboe, Young on clarinet, Derek Bannasch on bassoon, Elizabeth Schmidt on the horn, and Kristin Harney will serve as narrator.

Joanna Martin Berg, flute, earned her Bachelor’s degree in Flute Performance from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and her Doctorate in Flute Performance from the University of Texas at Austin. Joanna was a prizewinner in the Myrna Brown Competition and winner of the Byron Hester Competition.

Joanna has performed with orchestras such as the San Antonio Symphony, Austin Symphony, Abilene Philharmonic, Great Falls Symphony, Helena Symphony, and Aspen Music Festival. Joanna is a co-principal flute of the Missoula Symphony.

Beth Antonopulos has taught oboe, music history, and theory at Montana State University since 2011. She earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts in oboe performance at the University of Washington where she studied with Rebecca Henderson. She plays English horn and oboe with various Bozeman, Big Sky, and Helena symphony orchestras.

Dr. Antonopulos also holds a Master of Arts degree in music history from UW. While in Seattle, she was the academic director of the Seattle Conservatory of Music where she taught music history and theory. She also taught oboe, performed, and recorded in the Seattle area. Her Bachelor of Music degree was completed at the University of Montana where she was named Presser Scholar. She is a member of the International Double Reed Society, the American Musicological Society, and the National Association for Music Educators. Prior to her post-secondary studies in music, she earned a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and was a software engineer for NASA. She enjoys mathematics, gardening, hiking, skiing, and traveling with her family.

Gregory Young joined the music faculty at Montana State University in 1988 and was the founding director of the Undergraduate Scholars Program. In 2009 he got a U.S. Department of Education grant to start the MSU McNair Scholars Program.

He has served as Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, Assistant Dean of the College of Arts & Architecture, and Director of the School of Music. Currently a clarinetist with the Intermountain Opera and Bozeman Symphony Orchestras, he received a bachelor’s degree in music education from the University of Western Ontario, and master’s and doctoral degrees in music from the University of Michigan. Young has taught at the University of Prince Edward Island, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and the University of Western Ontario, and has lectured or performed on five continents. The United States Information Agency sponsored his concert tour of Brazil with the Kreutzer Trio and soprano Elizabeth Croy, and he has toured as a soloist and conductor of the MSU Cello Ensemble throughout Europe and China. As a clarinet soloist and composer, he toured Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand with the MSU Symphony in 2009. His book, “Creative Inquiry in the Arts & Humanities: Models of Undergraduate Research”, with co-editors Shanahan and Yavneh, was published in 2011 by the Council on Undergraduate Research. In 2017 Routledge Press released Shanahan and Young’s textbook, “Undergraduate Research in Music” and the MSU Wind Symphony performed his “Rocky Mountain Elk Suite” at the Kennedy Center.

Bassoonist, conductor, and educator Derek Bannasch, joined the faculty of the Montana State University School of Music in 2021, where he teaches applied bassoon, and music education courses, and serves as the conductor of the University Band. Professor Bannasch retired from the U.S. Army Bands in 2021, after serving with the U.S. Army Europe Band & Chorus, the 1st Cavalry Division Band, and the 77th Army Band. From 2015-2019, he served as a bassoon and chamber music instructor at the U.S. Army School of Music, where he was one of the first people in the Army awarded the Master Instructor Badge, the Army’s highest award for excellence in teaching. He has performed numerous guest appearances with the U.S. Army Field Band, the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command Band, and the U.S. Air Force Heritage of America Band, as well as the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and numerous other orchestras in Michigan and Georgia. A longtime member of the International Double Reed Society, he has performed as a soloist and chamber musician multiple times at their annual conference. Additionally, he has also taught bassoon at Reinhardt University and instrumental and general music in the public schools of Saginaw Township, Michigan, and Fulton County, Georgia. A native of Clarkston, Michigan, he holds degrees in bassoon and music education from Central Michigan University and the University of Michigan and is a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.

He is thrilled to explore Bozeman and all that Montana has to offer with his wife Jessica, who teaches K-4 General Music at Monforton School in Bozeman, their four sons, and Melody, their yellow lab.

Elizabeth Schmidt is a Montana-based horn player who is constantly looking to challenge the role that classical music, and the horn, occupy in current culture.

She currently serves as part of the brass faculty at Montana State University. She holds a doctoral degree from SUNY Stony Brook, where she worked as a teaching assistant in theory and ethnomusicology and a Master's degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Her research focuses on the Gender and Sexuality in music, through which she has engaged in the study of gendered instruments and the effect presumptions of gender have on brass players’ developmental and professional experiences. In addition to her position at MSU, Elizabeth enjoys a career as an active freelancer and clinician.