Community briefs for Jan. 29

Film Festival

Montana Wilderness Association and the Winter Wildlands Alliance are hosting the 15th annual Backcountry Film Festival on Tuesday, Feb. 4 at 6 p.m. at the O’Shaughnessy Center in Whitefish. Doors open at 6 pm, films start at 7 pm. The festival will feature numerous short films that tell compelling and entertaining stories about backcountry, human-powered recreation and environmental preservation.

Montana Wilderness Association works with communities to protect Montana’s wild heritage, outdoor traditions, and quiet beauty, now and for future generations. Winter Wildlands Alliance is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and preserving winter wildland and a quality human-powered snow sports experience on public lands through education, outreach and advocacy. Proceeds from the film festival benefit Montana Wilderness Association Flathead-Kootenai Chapter, and support their scholarship program along with other local Montana Wilderness Association initiatives.

Tickets are $15. To purchase tickets, go to https://impact.wildmontana.org/filmfest. This event sells out and tickets will not be available at the door. For more information, contact Allie Maloney at MWA at 406-233-9223 or amaloney@wildmontana.org.

Flathead Audubon

The Flathead Audubon Society meeting will feature guest speaker Nicole Nelson with the Montana Wild Wings Recovery Center on Monday, Feb. 10, from 7-9 p.m. at the Gateway West Community Meeting Room in Kalispell. The program is free and open to the public.

This is a unique opportunity to see several live raptors, learn about birds of prey and find out about the important work done at the Wild Wings Recovery Center. She will be assisted by Flathead Audubon’s own Kathy Ross and Barbara Summer.

Montana Wild Wings is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping Montana’s wild birds. Their primary mission is to rescue, rehabilitate, and release birds of prey that have been injured, sick, and/or orphaned. Birds that are too badly damaged to return to the wild are kept by the Center and used for educational purposes. The raptors that will be part of the Feb. 10 program are in this category.

Nelson is a volunteer bird handler with the center. She has a degree in exotic animal training and management from America’s Teaching Zoo, Moorpark College, California, and is now completing her bachelor’s degree in fisheries and wildlife science at Oregon State University.

Her assistants, Kathy Ross and Barbara Summer, are also volunteer bird handlers with the center. Ross is a primary observer for Flathead Audubon’s Jewel Basin Hawk Watch, and is currently serving on the FAS Board of Directors. Summer has been a primary observer for the Jewel Basin Hawk Watch for many years, and was previously also a member the FAS Board.

For more information, visit the Flathead Audubon website: www.flatheadaudubon.org

FVCC concerts

Flathead Valley Community College Music Department’s spring concert series opens Friday, Feb. 7 with performances by FVCC music faculty members and guest artists.

Emmy-Award winning composer Lance Bendiksen will perform two of his newest pieces with Broadway singer and actor Mike Eldred, singer/song writer Halladay Quist, cellist Jessica Chen and violinist Lauren Welch. The concert will also include violinist Wai Mizutani, pianist Natilee Radosevich and Chen performing pieces by Bach, Paganini and other classical composers.

The series will continue Wednesday, Feb. 26 with a guest performance by the University of Montana (UM) Chamber Chorale. Under the direction of Coreen Duffy, the chorale is UM School of Music’s select touring ensemble and performs under-represented and little-known choral works, as well as beloved music from the Western canon.

On Friday, March 6, UM music faculty members will join FVCC music faculty and students on the stage to perform pieces by Beethoven, Vivaldi, Sarasota and other classical composers. Faculty guests from UM will include Margaret Baldridge on violin, Christopher Hahn on piano and Adam Collins on cello.

Free and open to the community, all concerts will begin at 7 p.m. in the large community room inside the Arts and Technology Building on the FVCC campus.

For more information about the concert series or FVCC’s Music Program, contact Nicole Sanford at (406)756-4813 or nsanford@fvcc.edu.

Scholarships

Flathead Electric Co-op is accepting applications for its $500 spring student-teaching scholarship between Jan. 1 and Jan. 31. The scholarship opportunity is provided for students completing their education degree while student teaching in Montana. The funding will be distributed in February.

To be eligible, the candidate (or their parent or legal guardian) must be a member of Flathead Electric Cooperative (served by the Co-op at their primary residence), and they must be attending an accredited post-secondary education institution in Montana. FEC offers scholarships for student teachers in both the spring and fall. FEC scholarships are funded through unclaimed capital credits which are dedicated for educational purposes by Montana statute.

FEC For more information or to apply, visit: www.flatheadelectric.com/scholarships.

Chef’s Table

The Culinary Institute of Montana will present several Chef’s Table events this spring in the FVCC instructional kitchen. This unique program allows guests to experience exceptional fine dining while supporting culinary arts students as they complete their first-year internships. Patrons will enjoy an hors d’oeuvre, a multi-course meal and dessert prepared, plated and served by students under the instruction of Chef Manda Hudak and Chef Howard Karp.

American regional cuisine is the focus of each of the events. Students will apply their knowledge of how geographical, cultural and economic variables combine with culinary techniques to develop America’s unique regional flavors.

Tickets are available for the following events:

- Jan. 31 – The Southland

- Feb. 14 – New England Valentine’s Winemaker Dinner (featuring wine pairings with select courses)

- Feb. 28 – Gulf Coast Mardi Gras

- March 13 – Southwestern

- April 10 - Pacific Rim Winemaker (featuring wine pairings with select courses)

All Chef’s Table events begin at 6 p.m. Reservations are required, and patrons are encouraged to purchase tickets early due to limited seating. Tickets are $60 per person for the Jan. 31, Feb. 28 and March 13 dinners and $150 per person for the winemaker dinners on Feb. 14 and April 10. Tickets can be purchased online or by calling 756-3632. To view menus and purchase tickets online, visit www.fvcc.edu/chefs-table.