Faculty
Don Beller
Don D. Beller is in his 25th year teaching double bass at the University of Montana. Mr. Beller is a graduate of Flathead County High School, in Kalispell Montana, and earned his B.A. in Music Education from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota (1968) and his M.M.Ed. from VanderCook College of Music in Chicago, Illinois (1975). He has done post graduate work on the Double Bass with Warren Benfield, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, DePaul University (1978) and Roma Vayspapir, Leningrad Philharmonic and the Spokane (WA) Symphony.
Mr. Beller spent 33 years teaching grades 4-12 in the public schools, including 16 years in Great Falls MT and 17 years in Missoula. He taught orchestra, band and jazz band, and served for 14 years as chairman of the Music Department, North Junior High School, in Great Falls, MT. In Missoula he was Director of Orchestras at Hellgate, Big Sky and Sentinel High Schools and also the Director of the Missoula Youth Symphony for 17 years.
He has performed as Principal Double Bass with the Fargo/Moorhead Symphony Orchestra, the Concordia College Orchestra and Band, the Great Falls Symphony Orchestra and the Montana Chamber Orchestra. He has also performed with the Gold Coast Chamber Orchestra in Chicago, currently serves as Principal Double Bass with the Missoula Symphony Orchestra, is a founding member of and string bassist in the the String Orchestra of the Rockies and plays regularly with the Billings Symphony Orchestra and the Glacier Symphony. Mr. Beller is Past President of the Montana String Teachers' Association.
Contact Don Beller: don.beller@mso.umt.edu