INSPIRED by the Ancient Greek deity Aeolus, “Keeper of the Winds”, one of Canberra longest-lasting musical groups, is still going strong in its fortieth year.

The Aeolus Wind Trio, founded in 1983, was the brainchild of flautist Jane Linstead, but also included bassoonist David Whitbread and clarinettist Brian Martin.

Martin moved to Wollongong after only two years and was replaced by Lis Hoorweg in 1985, while Linstead moved to Cairns after about 20 years with the trio, first replaced by flute teacher Amelia Tyler-Skinner, then by Jodie Petrov, who has been with the trio now for nearly a decade.

As they were busy preparing for a celebratory concert in Gunning Courthouse, I caught up with Whitbread, who told me the story.

He had met Linstead at Stirling College as teenagers, but although he studied bassoon under Ric McIntyre, he went to Melbourne to study graphic design, while she went to Canberra School of Music.

Back here again for a job in 1983, he ran into Linstead, now a graduate in flute, at a meeting in Woden about forming a community orchestra (now the National Capital Orchestra) and they decided to form a trio, so advertised for a clarinet player and found Martin.

A wind trio, Whitbread says, is “a bit like a free version of a string trio, the sound blends naturally”.

Aeolus were quickly engaged to perform at Sunday in the Park in 1983 and later at Floriade from which, during the ‘90s, they were broadcast live by ABC FM. They played for Pro Musica’s chamber music festival in the Polish, Irish and Greek embassies and were the first musical group to perform at The Street Theatre in “Pentagram”, composed by Jim Cotter. They were a regular feature of the Jane Austen balls at Albert Hall.

Asked to provide music fitting in with the 1920s origins of the Hyatt Hotel, Hoorweg and Whitbread devised 16 hours of music covering movie themes, classic songs, folk songs and traditional music, recalling the sheet music in people’s pianos stools.

Whitbread is a well-known personality in the Canberra arts scene. The son of the legendary choirmaster, Don Whitbread, he has been for many years by day a graphic designer and by night a pianist who performed 11 seasons at the School of Arts Cafe in Queanbeyan, also performing bassoon when needed with the NCO and other ensembles.

This is the 50th year that Whitbread has played the bassoon and naturally he’s quick to assert the characterful nature of his instrument. He’s noticed that Jack Sparrow in “Pirates of the Caribbean” is always backed with bassoon and Jason Bourne, too. 

The grandfather in “Peter and the Wolf” is the bassoon and it was quickly seized upon by Mozart, who wrote it in to his compositions as a solo instrument

Aeolus is his mainstay and to fit in with the historical atmosphere in Gunning, he’s been putting together a concert of popular music that features two brackets of music that he reckons could’ve been played in Gunning in 1875, appropriate because the Gunning Railway Station was last year restored to become an arts centre.

“We figured there were tunes that would’ve been played on pianos in homes, at balls and by touring performers – folk songs and tunes from opera and ballet – and they are all still popular and some of them are so well known that we are humming them,” he says.

There will be their own arrangement of “Danny Boy”, a modern arrangement of “Camptown Races” by Stephen Forster, some tunes from Rossini operas and a sailor’s hornpipe arranged by Paul Arden Taylor in the style of Bach.

But they’ll start off with a baroque trio sonata by Johann Joachim Quantz, which sounds beautiful in the courthouse, where they have performed before. “It just hangs in the space, it will just melt you,” he says.

Aeolus Wind Trio, The Courtroom, Gunning, 2pm, February 4.