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Performing for the Bitterroot Valley since 2021, we were born out of necessity. 

All public performance halls were closed. Our music making needed an outlet. 

In the sanctuary of private homes, Regal was born. 

We found it was the home we had been missing all along.  

 

Specializing in the salon concert, our unique music ensemble fights the stereotypical experience of the distant concert stage, and instead creates an intimate experience ripe for inviting conversation with both musicians and patrons alike. Bringing the concert experience home is not a new concept.

The salon concert has existed since the 1800s, and we believe it's time to have a resurgence. 

Once you attend a salon concert with Regal, you'll be as enthralled as we are. 

 

​Regal Ensemble musicians perform locally, nationally, and internationally. 

We come together in the Bitterroot Mountains. 

Dr. Joel Schnackel, bassist and arranger
Dr. Joel Schnackel, Co-Director

In addition to leading the bass section in the Missoula Symphony, Dr. Joel Schnackel is an avid performer throughout Montana as bassist with the String Orchestra of the Rockies, the Billings Symphony, and the Helena Symphony. He is also one of the founding members of Regal Ensemble in Hamilton, Mt.

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Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Montana, Dr. Schnackel was adjunct professor of double bass and musicology at the University of Central Arkansas. He also taught the courses: Introduction to Music, History of Rock n Roll, Folk and Popular Music, Music Theory, and Music Appreciation at the University of Memphis. He performed throughout the mid-south as principal bassist with the Conway Symphony and section bass in Jackson, North Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tuscaloosa Symphonies, as well as the Savannah Philharmonic.

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Dr. Schnackel is co-author of the popular music appreciation text, The Musical Experience, which is used in several universities across the United States. He holds a Ph.D. in historical musicology from the University of Memphis, a M.M. in double bass performance from the University of Memphis, and a B.A. in music composition and technology from the University of Montana.

Rachel Fellows-Schnackel, violinist and violist
Rachel Fellows-Schnackel, Co-Director 

In addition to her time with Regal Ensemble, Rachel serves as Principal 2nd Violin with the Missoula Symphony, as well as in the violin section of String Orchestra of the Rockies. Most recently, she joined the Montana Youth Symphony summer festival as violin coach. Prior to moving to Montana, Rachel performed across the Mid-south with the Memphis Symphony, Nashville Opera, North Mississippi Symphony Orchestra as Associate Concertmaster, and Tupelo Ballet as Concertmaster.  
 
An avid teacher, Rachel shares a private studio here in Hamilton with her husband Joel. Her expertise emphasizes Suzuki philosophy: where anyone can learn a musical instrument through ability development. Great influencers in her journey include teacher Kevin Lawrence at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts where she received a Bachelors and Masters in Music Performance. Schnackel concluded her university studies with an Artist Diploma at the University of Memphis studying with teacher Soh-Hyun Altino.
 
Schnackel has recorded for Netflix films, and on the Tocatta Classics and Naxos labels. She shares her days on their farm, The Music Farm, with her husband Joel and homeschooling their 4 energetic children: Kelton, Aubrey, Riley and Melody
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Dr. Margaret Nichols Baldridge

Dr. Margaret Nichols Baldridge, combines an extensive and diverse performance calendar with an active teaching schedule both in the United States and abroad. These performances include concerts, master classes, festivals, and tours with The Sapphire Trio, and as Leader of the String Orchestra of the Rockies, concertmaster of the Missoula Symphony and as professor of violin and viola at the University of Montana.

The Sapphire Trio has performed in Bogata, and Medellin, Colombia, Italy, Spain, Israel, Palestine, Ireland, Austria, Germany and Japan. In April 2012 and 2010 Dr. Baldridge and The Sapphire Trio traveled to the West Bank of Palestine as judges on the international juries for the Palestinian National Music Competition. While there in 2012, 2011 and 2010 the Trio performed and gave master classes in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nablus and Ramallah, The Golan Heights and the Galilee area of Israel. Additional recent engagements with The Sapphire Trio included a seven-state US tour and concerts at the national conventions of ASTA, MTNA, AAMC, ICA and at The Mayo Clinic. During May of 2006 the Sapphire Trio were Cultural Ambassadors for a US State Department funded tour of Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait where the Trio performed concerts at US Embassies, schools, and for the Kuwait International Music Festival. Future engagements with the trio include concerts South America, and Paris.

The violin and viola professor at The University of Montana since 1992, Dr. Baldridge is also a sought after teacher and adjudicator. She maintains a large studio and her former students are successful professional musicians and teachers. Recently her students won the MTNA National Chamber Music Competition and were competitors at the National MTNA Solo string competition. As a dedicated teacher and proponent of string teaching Dr. Baldridge incorporates educational outreach into her trio tours. Additionally she served as the Montana State ASTA President and as a reviewer for the ASTA journal and the Guide to Teaching Strings 7th Ed. As a member of MTNA she also served on the national One for All committee.

From 1998-2008 Dr. Baldridge was Artist Faculty at the internationally acclaimed Brevard Music Center Festival in Brevard, North Carolina, violinist with the Affetti Festival in Anchorage, Alaska and the Park City Beethoven Festival in Park City, Utah. Her performances with the String Orchestra of the Rockies, and the Park City Beethoven Festival have aired on Public Radio. And she can be heard on the String Orchestra of the Rockies CD recordings: Under the Northern Sky and We’ll Be Together Again with the Jeni Fleming Trio.

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Jason Bell

Mr. Bell is an active violinist, chamber musician, and pedagogue in the Pacific Northwest. He owns the Spokane Violin Studio in Spokane, WA. He has been a member of the Spokane Symphony since 2002 and has been Principal Second Violin, Associate Concertmaster, and Section Violin. He also plays on occasion with the Seattle Symphony and the String Orchestra of the Rockies. Jason is originally from LaCrosse, WI, and began playing at the age of 4. He has studied violin with Dorothy DeLay, Kurt Sassmannshaus, Piotr Milewski, Doris Preucil, and Margaret Baldridge. He attended college at the University of Montana, Missoula and the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. Mr. Bell has taught and performed violin from coast to coast. He has been an adjudicator for MTNA Music Festivals, both for state and divisional rounds. He has been a proud faculty member of the Brevard Music Center in Brevard, North Carolina, where he was once enrolled as a student. He joined the Gonzaga Music Department in 2015. Jason is also a certified motorcycle safety instructor and teaches safety classes during the summer months.

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Dr. Adam Collins

Dr. Adam Collins enjoys an international career as a chamber and orchestral cellist. He has performed in orchestras across the United States, Canada, and Korea, having recently served as the principal cellist of l’Orchestre de la Francophonie, Sinfonia Gulf Coast, and the Mobile, Pensacola, Albany, and Columbus Symphony Orchestras. As a sought-after and innovative chamber musician, Adam has performed on the Master Players Concert Series and on chamber music series at the Busan Maru International Music Festival and the Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy. Adam’s interests in interdisciplinary collaboration and engaging new audiences are reflected in his recent endeavors such as a recording project with the Martha Graham Dance Company, an interactive chamber music recital at the University of Delaware Museum of Art, and performances of string quartets of Beethoven and Shostakovich at jazz clubs and coffee houses in Tallahassee, FL. A fierce advocate of new music and music by underrepresented composers, Adam has premiered numerous works and collaborated with prominent contemporary composers such as Ellen Taafe Zwilich and Louis Andriessen.

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Prior to joining the faculty of the University of Montana, Adam has taught cello, chamber music, music theory, and string methods at Florida State University and the University of Delaware as a graduate assistant. Adam completed his doctorate at Florida State University, where he studied with Professor Greg Sauer and a member of the award-winning Eppes Quartet. Adam also holds a certificate in music theory pedagogy from Florida State University. A native of Aberdeen, NC, Adam has also studied at the University of Delaware with Lawrence Stomberg and at Furman University with Christopher Hutton.

Tasha Athman Fain, violinist and soprano
Tasha Athman Fain

Tasha Athman Fain wears many hats as a singer, actor, violinist, and private music teacher. After training in classical violin and voice, she returned to the Bitterroot Valley to raise her family, where she is fortunate to engage in opportunities that combine her varied skills and interests. Tasha is frequently seen onstage with Intermountain Opera Bozeman, appearing as the Dew Fairy in Hansel

and Gretel, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Mrs. Nordstrom in A Little Night Music (in collaboration with Montana Shakespeare in the Parks), and at numerous Sweet Pea Festival performances. She has sung in operas with Montana Lyric Opera, Bel Canto Northwest, Flagstaff in Fidenza, Italy, and OperaWorks. She was featured as soprano soloist with the Missoula Symphony Orchestra on Beethoven’s Fidelio Quartet and Choral Fantasy and appears as soprano soloist with the Bitterroot Valley Chorus. Tasha most often is seen locally stepping into her musical theatre shoes in memorable roles with Missoula Community Theatre and Hamilton Players. Tasha is a section violinist with the Missoula Symphony Orchestra and previously was a member of the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra. Not able to stay too far from the musical theatre stage, when she is not singing in the cast, she enjoys playing violin in pit bands with Missoula Community Theatre, Hamilton Players, and AM Theatricals. She serves her community as an adjudicator for music festivals and competitions, directs youth programing and musical theatre camps, is a long-time church musician, and teaches violin, viola, and

voice. Tasha holds undergraduate degrees in voice and violin from Saint Olaf College, a Master's in Violin Performance and Suzuki Pedagogy from Northern Arizona University, and a Master's in Vocal Performance

from The Boston Conservatory.

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Kathy Melander

Kathy Mellander, violist (and violinist), has made her way to the Bitterroot Valley via New York State and Wyoming.  Her roots in chamber music were formed in college, where she participated for four years in a chamber music program at Haverford College, coached by the DePasquale Quartet from the Philadelphia Orchestra.

 

After college, she performed in chamber groups in upstate New York including the Keuka Quartet, Geneva Chamber Orchestra, Festival Chamber Players of Elmira, Lake George Opera, Delaware Valley Opera, the Syracuse Candlelight Quartet, the Ontario Chamber Orchestra, and the Syracuse based Candlelight Quartet. She was also a section violist with the Albany Symphony and the Rochester Festival Orchestra. 

 

From being a full time musician, she acquired a degree in environmental science and began work with the National Park Service in 2002.  She and her husband moved to Wyoming, where Kathy worked in Grand Teton National Park until 2017, when the Mellanders moved to Corvallis, Montana. She retired from the National Park Service in 2017, returning to her roots as a chamber musician.  She is currently associate principal viola with the Missoula Symphony Orchestra and a violist in Bitterroot Baroque, a Hamilton based orchestra performing Baroque music on period instruments.  Kathy also performs with the Classical Strings, a new trio/quartet based in Hamilton.  She is very happy to join with the Regal Ensemble for this exciting concert series!

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Christine Ranf Sopko

Christine Ranf Sopko is a native Montanan raised in Helena. She received her

Bachelor’s Degree in Cello Performance from The University of Montana, studying with Fern Glass Boyd and Florence Reynolds, and has participated in master classes with Lazlo Varga, Marcy Rosen, Gabor Rejto and Gary Hoffman.

 

As a soloist she has performed with the Billings Symphony and the University of Montana Chamber Orchestra. Christine is a founding member of the String Orchestra of the Rockies and is Assistant Principal of the Missoula Symphony Orchestra. She frequently plays with other regional orchestras as well. Recently retired from the U.S. Forest Service Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula, Christine can frequently be found hiking, golfing, or travelling to see beloved grandchildren.

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Dr. Jordan Neiman

​Dr. Jordan Neiman is an active teacher and performer in the Flathead Valley. A graduate of Flathead High School, he received his BM at UNC School of the Arts, MM and GPD at the Boston Conservatory, and DMA at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, with a cognate in pedagogy. Primary teachers included: Kay Lund, Clifton Matthews, Jung-Ja Kim, and Awadagin Pratt.

At the Boston Conservatory, he was the winner of the H. Wilfred Churchill Piano Competition in 2013 and attended Pianofest in the Hamptons 2014. Jordan has played concerts and recitals around the South, the Pacific Northwest, New England, New York, Canada and Switzerland.

A former professor at Northern Kentucky University School of the Arts, Jordan keeps busy through teaching, performing, and collaborating. Jordan is the music director at Bigfork Community United Methodist Church, performs keyboard with the Glacier Symphony and Chorale, and is the current president of the Kalispell Area Music Teacher's Association.

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Mary Papoulis

Mary Papoulis celebrates her 30th season with the Great Falls Symphony’s Cascade Quartet and the String Orchestra of the Rockies. Her musical performances have taken her as far as China, Korea, Japan, Italy, Norway, and Cambridge, England. Summer activities have included: the Assisi Performing Arts Festival in Italy, the Houston Spanish and Flamenco Festival, the Amadeus Festival, the Big Sky Alive Contemporary Music Festival, and the Big Sky Classical Music Festival in Montana. In addition to her private studio, she has taught at the Olympic Music Festival in Washington, the Summer Youth Orchestra Workshop in Bozeman, and workshops with the Ying Quartet. Papoulis holds a DMA from SUNY Stony Brook, a MM from The Eastman School of Music, and a BM from Indiana University. She has attended numerous baroque performance workshops and her jazz violin studies have included work with the Turtle Island String Quartet. Mary has had numerous solo appearances with the Great Falls Symphony, and she has also won the Long Island Pops Concerto Competition. She can be heard on recordings with the Cascade Quartet and the String Orchestra of the Rockies. Mary can also be heard playing folk, blues, and gypsy music with guitarist Rich Matoon and alto saxophone in John Gemberling’s UGF Jazz Band. She is a certified Blue Belt instructor of Nia Technique, a sensory-based movement practice that leads to health, wellness, and fitness.

FERN GLASS BOYD, cellist
Fern Glass Boyd

Fern Glass Boyd has made her home in Western Montana since 1979, when she joined the music faculty as Professor of Cello at the University of Montana in Missoula.  During her long career at UM, she taught various courses in music, as well as in the performance areas of applied cello and chamber music.  She also served as Principal Cellist of the Missoula Symphony Orchestra and performed as a member of the Montana Piano Trio, a UM faculty resident ensemble.  In 1985, she co-founded the String Orchestra of the Rockies [SOR], the only professional conductor-less orchestra in the state of Montana, and served as its Principal Cellist until her retirement in 2018.  As the SOR’s Artistic Director for ten years, she managed and oversaw the orchestra’s many outreach activities and performances throughout Montana and the region.  She has appeared across the US and Western Europe as a soloist, educator, and clinician, and been featured on two commercial albums with the SOR:  Beneath a Northern Sky and We’ll Be Together Again.  

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Fern began her early music training at the Settlement Music School in her native Philadelphia and went on to earn a Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY and a Master’s degree from Yale University.  Her lifelong passion for the arts continues to be a major focus and she currently serves as a Board member of the Seeley Lake Community Foundation.  As residents of Seeley Lake, she and her husband, Lance, enjoy exploring the outdoors and staying connected to the community and its beautiful natural landscape.

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Jim Fellows

James Fellows is instructor of bassoon at the University of Tulsa. Currently serving as principal bassoon with the Signature Symphony, Fellows’ affiliation with the orchestra dates to 1984. For 19 years, he also served as manager of the orchestra. 

 

An active freelance musician in NE Oklahoma, he has also performed extensively in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, Los Angeles and Denver. Fellows has also been principal bassoon with the Bartlesville Symphony Orchestra (OK) and the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra, and has performed with: The Denver Symphony, Solisti New York, Central City Opera (CO), Tulsa Philharmonic, North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, and numerous others in Florida, Southern California, and Colorado. 

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He has been active in church music, both as a singer, instrumentalist, and as a choral and orchestra conductor. Fellows has appeared numerous times as soloist with the Signature Symphony, as well as the Bartlesville Symphony, Denver Symphony, the University of Colorado Chamber Orchestra, and the Ft Collins Symphony (CO). Fellows studied at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and has received Suzuki Teacher Training in flute. As with J.S. Bach, he believes that performance of music should reflect all glory to God.

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Esther Fellows

Esther Fellows is a registered Violin Teacher Trainer by the Suzuki Association of the Americas (SSA). She currently resides in Mounds Oklahoma, where she maintains a Suzuki private studio. was the Suzuki Violin Teacher/Teacher Trainer at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater for 2017-2022, as well ask teaching violin and piano in the OSU Community Music School. 

 

An active professional performer as well, Fellows is a 1st violinist with the Signature Symphony (Tulsa OK), violist with the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra (Tulsa OK), and was previously Principal Viola with the Arkansas Philharmonic (Bentonville AR) and Assistant Concertmaster with the Bartlesville Symphony (Bartlesville OK). Fellows served as secretary on the Board of Directors for the SAA and has served as President of the Tulsa Area Music Teachers Association.

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Fellows has been published in the American Music Teacher and in American String Teacher. Undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder were under Oswald Lehnert (violin), Abraham Chavez (violin), Ruth Morrow (viola), and Guy Duckworth and Storm Bull (piano).

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Eric Monson

Eric Monson returned home to the Bitterroot Valley from New York City 12 years ago and has since been teaching voice lessons full-time. He also teaches the Musical Theatre class at GROOVZ studio of dance. He earned degrees in vocal performance and theatre from Concordia College where he enjoyed singing in its choir led by René Clausen. While in the Fargo/Moorhead area, he performed in The Tender Land (Mr. Splinters), The Mikado, The Merry Widow, Children of Eden (Father), A Little Night Music (Fredrik). Eric ventured on to Philadelphia and then years later on to New York City. He enjoys being in choirs, operas, musicals, and

plays. His favorites include: numerous professional church choirs, performing in Donald Nally’s Opera Company of Philadelphia’s chorus for 5 years where Eric’s two favorite productions were Don Pasquale and Les pêcheurs de perles, Regina, Der Schauspieldirektor (Monsieur Vogelsang), Bastien und Bastienne (Bastien), La finta giardiniera (Contino Belfiore), Die Fledermaus (Eisenstein), Candide (Candide), Wuthering Heights: A Romantic Musical (Edgar), Saddam: The Musical (Andrew Lloyd Webber), The King and I (King), Sweeney Todd (Sweeney Todd), Into the Woods (Cinderella’s Prince), Thoroughly Modern Millie (Trevor Graydon), Fiddler on the Roof (Fyedka, Bottle Dancer), Damn Yankees (Joe Hardy), Chicago (Billy Flynn),

Tony n' Tina's Wedding (Michael Just), The Diary of Anne Frank (Mr. Van Daan), Pride & Prejudice (Mr. Darcy), 12 Angry Men (Juror #3) Eric also enjoys being creative off the stage by music directing and directing shows: Return to the Forbidden Planet, The Sound of Music, Singin' in the Rain, Fiddler on the Roof, Once Upon a Mattress, Boeing Boeing, Oliver! This spring will be filled with singing in Dolce Canto and with being mesmerized while listening to Jacob Collier’s music.

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