Western Strings presents “Around the World in 80 Minutes,” featuring 406 Winds, the faculty woodwind quintet of Montana State University in Bozeman. The Quintet’s musicians are:
Katie Mess, flute, Beth Antonopulos, oboe, Gregory Young, clarinet, Liz Schmidt, horn and Derek Bannasch, bassoon.
The headline work on the concert is the Carl Nielsen Quintet. This brilliant piece, by a prominent Danish composer, feels classical and substantial and is expressed in fresh, new sound colors.
Continuing the voyage, we visit with Oscar Navarro, a Spanish composer born in 1981, for his Juego de Ladrones (Game of Thieves). The musical idiom is accessible, noticeably Spanish at
times and contains all sorts of sly and playful details.
We will also hear a new American work by Nicole Chamberlain entitled “Everything is Fine.”
Nicole is a flutist as well as a composer, and her focus is on the coloristic possibilities of the related but diverse instruments of the woodwind quintet. You will hear sounds and combinations
that you might not have previously imagined.
Finally, the Quintet will travel to Japan to play “My Neighbor Totoro,” a suite, derived from the eponymous Anime movie.
406 Winds will give demonstration performances and clinics in Cody at the High School on April 14th and at Northwest College on April 15th. Admission is pay what you wish, free will offering.