Sound of silence for community concerts?

A concert series dating back more than 60 years in the Flathead Valley is in danger of being canceled if more people don't show an active interest in its fate.

The Flathead Valley Concerts Association, previously known as Community Concerts, has been clinging to life during the last few years as memberships drop and longtime volunteers have grown tired.

"We need more people interested in becoming involved," association president Cathie Bell said. "We need people stepping forward to help select the concerts, to support the organization, to take positions of leadership. We need new ideas, new blood."

The concerts, which Bell said at one time were so popular in the Flathead Valley that two series were offered simultaneously to accomodate demand, have seen a debilitating decrease in membership numbers over the past five years. With only about 450 subscriptions sold in each of the last few years, Bell said they have opened the concerts to single-ticket buyers to help make up the difference in production costs.

This approach has helped, Bell said, but it doesn't give the organization a reliable budget for planning each year's concert bill, though last year the ticket sales and donations saved the series.

"We don't have any underwriting, we don't beat the bushes for fund-raisers," she said. "That's been the whole premise of community concerts in years past."

The community concerts were conceived during the Great Depression, when artists were desperate for paying audiences and people in small towns needed a lift.

Today the series offers rural areas and smaller cities the chance to see talent of the highest caliber from all over the world. Peformers range from classic American performers such as the Southern Fried Jazz group, coming to the Flathead High School auditorium in January, to Van Cliburn competition medalist and Italian pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi, part of last year's lineup.

With newer concert venues such as the O'Shaughnessy Center and Majestic Valley Arena entering the mix and more active concert promotion in general, Flathead Valley residents are offered more choices for live theater and music than in the community concerts' heyday.

The competition has detracted from their sales, Bell said. But, she added, that at $40 for four concerts, the community concerts offer a low-priced chance to see a wide variety of entertainment.

"We have a varied cross section of talent," she said, citing past acts as diverse as Russian dancers and Chinese acrobats. "It isn't strictly classical or pop culture. It's just different."

Though the concerts traditionally attract older audiences, Bell stresses that there are also many families who have made it a tradition to attend each year.

Kalispell's Beth Pirrie - who earned her master's degree in music performance from the University of Montana said the community concerts were a memorable part of her childhood. Today, she plays flute with the Glacier Symphony and is a private flute instructor.

"It definitely gave me an understanding of how broad music and drama can be, how many different things you can do with it in your life," she said. "More than anything, it gave me good exposure to different styles that are out there."

Her mother, Betty Hanzel, is a longtime piano instructor. She spent many childhood evenings at community concerts in Great Falls.

As she used to see packed houses at every show, she hates to see the decline in interest in the series.

"The music is so wonderful," she said. "Even when I was a youngster, it would get late and I would sometimes fall asleep. But it still all rubs off on you."

Anyone interested in becoming involved or donating to the concert association should contact Bell at 257-2073.

Reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4431 or by e-mail at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com