Brian Michalenko

Brian Michalenko of Minot will be inducted into the Dakota Musician Association Hall of Fame Friday, Sept. 12, in Aberdeen, South Dakota.

According to a submitted biography, Michalenko began learning the violin at the age of 9 through the Minot Public School system. His first instructor, Bert Skakoon, the elementary string instructor, could tell early on that Michalenko wasn’t into classical music so introduced him to bluegrass and fiddle music. When Michalenko reached his junior high through high school years, his fiddle playing was advanced by Jim Tengesdal, an accomplished North Dakota fiddler.

At the age of 12, Michalenko began competing in fiddle contests. Among his accomplishments were:

– youngest and last winner of the Makoti fiddle contest Open Division at age 13.

– three-time North Dakota Junior Champion.

– one-time North Dakota Open Champion.

– two Norsk Hostfest Open Championships.

– More in ’84 Fiddle Contest winner in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, which entitled him to play on the WeFest stage, opening for Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard.

– two-time winner of the Instrumentalist Division of the Dickinson Country Western Music Jamboree, hosted by the Dickinson State University Rodeo Club.

Michalenko also won or placed in several other contests over the years.

He has been part of judging panels for several area contests, including twice for the North Dakota State Fair contest. As part of those duties, he performed with contest division winners in the opening acts for the grandstand stage country artists who included John Michael Montegomery and John Berry.

Around the age of 10 or 11, Michalenko taught himself to play drums by listening to old-time polka and waltz and Buck Owens recordings. Around the age of 12 or 13, he became the fill-in drummer in his father’s band, The Redbirds, and the band’s regular drummer for the last six months of the band’s existence.

Later he was part of The Michalenkos, a band featuring his father, Darrell, on acoustic guitar and accordion; his sister, Jennifer, on bass guitar; and Brian, playing fiddle, acoustic guitar/banjo. The band performed fiddle and old-time music variety shows and an occasional dance.

Brian Michalenko’s grasp of the banjo came from listening to his father’s favorite accordionist, Frankie Yankovic, and wanting to recreate his sound when he performed live using a bass guitar and banjo for the rhythm section for polkas. The variety show performances continued through Michalenko’s college years.

Once he turned 21, Michalenko’s itch for playing country fiddle music kicked in and he began attending open jam sessions at a few of the Minot bars. In 1992, he was asked to join his first country band, Highway Blues, for which he mainly played bass guitar with a little bit of fiddle. He performed with the band for just over a year.

Near the end of 1993, he joined the Red Horizon band, playing fiddle as his main instrument, along with some rhythm guitar and mandolin. The band performed for dances throughout North Dakota over a 10-year period. Over this time, the band had the privilege of opening for several of the Party in the Dirt concert acts of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Rhett Atkins, Teri Clark and Montgomery Gentry, and once on the grandstand stage for Chris LeDoux at the State Fair.

Following his time with Red Horizon, Michalenko continued what has been his 46-year music career by performing at church and at the occasional dance or show with his father, playing fiddle, accordion and old-time country music.

The Dakota Musician Association includes musicians from North and South Dakota. Michalenko will be Minot’s 13th inductee into the association’s Hall of Fame, established in 1980.