Havre Hometown Humanities hosts 'Music in Montana' featuring Eric Funk

Press release

Havre Hometown Humanities will host "Music in Montana" with Montana State University professor Eric Funk Tuesday, Dec. 15, at 7 p.m. in the Fifth Avenue Christian Church.

The presentation is open to the public free of charge. There will be a coffee and cookie reception for professor Funk at the end of the program.

Funk will combine samples from his seven-time Emmy Award winning Montana PBS show, "11th & Grant with Eric Funk‚" as well as live performance to discuss the basics about musical genres, stylistic differences, and how these inform individual preferences in music. Through the lens of his television series, he will explore the deep connection between a humanistic approach to life and music.

Funk is an American contemporary classical composer and a professor in the School of Music at Montana State University. Originally from Deer Lodge, Funk's family lived in Havre when he was young. He has received, among many awards, a 2012 Humanities Hero, a Governor's Award for the Arts, and a 2011 Innovation in the Arts Award. He also received the 2013 James & Mary Ross Provost's Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Havre was selected as Montana's Hometown Humanities community earlier this year. The select program is designed to support Havre's cultural interests and offer opportunities to explore the capacity of the humanities to enrich lives, foster inquiry, and stimulate and inform conversations about the human experience. Humanities-based cultural programs are being scheduled every few weeks in the schools, the Havre Hill County Llibrary, Montana State University-Northern and various locations around the community.

Partial funding for the Humanities Montana Speakers Bureau program is provided by a legislative grant from Montana's Cultural Trust. In addition to Humanities Montana, organizations supporting Havre Hometown Humanities include the National Endowment for the Humanities, Stockman Bank and the Havre Daily News. This program is supported by the National Alliance for the Humanities and the College of Letters and Science at Montana State University-Bozeman.