By Glenda Eagleman Wells
A trip to the Hardin post office in 1997 changed the life of retired J-I teacher Ellena Nelson.
A postman asked her if she wanted old music that used to belong to a teacher who had since died. Nelson gladly accepted the music, which she said is 100 years old.
She formed the Bear Paw Quartet when she moved to Havre and started looking for other piano players to play the 100-year-old music with her. She said the group's members had such a good time playing it that most of them are still doing it a year and a half later.
The Bear Paw Quartet will be perform the music tonight at the Havre High School auditorium in the first concert of the Community Concert series.
The current members are piano teacher Kay Hammler, former Highland Park Elementary School music teacher Brooke Donovan, church music coordinator Mary Stevens, and Nelson. The musicians, who played piano most of their lives, will start the concert at 7:30 p.m.
They will open with the 100-year-old piece, Cortege Du Bacchus by Leo Deliebes. Their selections will include works by Beethoven, Mozart and Debussy.
Flute player Jeanne Colis, who is a Christian education coordinator at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, will perform a sonata by Bach.
"I am very excited about performing and I'm hoping for a big turnout but we will continue to play no matter what happens," Colis said.
Havre High School music teacher Ron Coons will be playing a blues saxophone piece. A handbell trio Havre Middle School special education teacher Karen Nave plus Donovan, and Stevens will play Bach. The concert will conclude with Colis playing a flute piece by Faure titled "A Fantasy."
