Flute choir Howlin Winds to perform

Howlin Winds, Maine’s premier flute choir, will perform From Mozart to Jazz, a program featuring Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, three operatic selections, a selection of Gaelic melodies and a jazz composition, July 23 at 6 p.m. on the Bates quadrangle. The performance is part of the Bates College Midsummer Concert Series, and the public is invited to attend free of charge.

Directed by Joan Curtiss, Howlin Winds is composed of flutists Karen Hawthorne Denton, Becky Eldridge, Susan Heath, Jeff Pelletier and Kay Sullivan.

Curtiss, a registered Suzuki flute instructor, has played with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and was principal flute with the Hartford Chamber Orchestra. She holds a bachelor’s degree in music from Hartt School of Music and currently is working on a master’s degree in music from the University of Maine.

Denton is an elementary music instructor at Dover- Foxcroft Academy. She plays saxophone with the Eastern Maine Winds, bass guitar with the New Society Band and flute with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra. Denton, who has studied with Carl Bergner, Bill Moseley and Claude Monteaux, holds an associate’s degree in American popular music and a bachelor’s degree in music education from the University of Maine.

Eldridge, principal flutist with the Augusta Symphony, has performed with the Colby College Orchestra, Kennebec Valley Jazz Band, The Lakewood Theatre and Mainely Baroque Flute Ensemble. She teaches music in SAD 54 in Skowhegan and holds a bachelor’s degree in music from the University of Maine.

Heath, principal flutist with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, is a flute instructor at the University of Maine and maintains a private music studio at her home in Orono. She has performed in Russia and the Near East with the University of Michigan Symphony Band and in Ireland with pianist Lillian Garwood. She also performs concerts with pianist Patricia Stowell throughout New England.

Pelletier of Lewiston plays principal flute with the Bates College Orchestra and the Androscoggin Valley Community Orchestra. He has presented several recitals at Bates and has been a featured soloist with the Bates College Orchestra. He has studied with Carl Bergner and Julius Baker and has been accepted at the Hartt School of Music.

Sullivan has a degree in psychology from McGill University and works as a computer consultant at the University of Maine-Farmington, where she also sings with the University Chorus.

Next in the Bates College Midsummer Concert Series will be Chainon, a Franco-American trio, with Quebecois music July 30. All concerts are held on the Bates College quadrangle at 6 p.m. The public is invited to attend free of charge.