By Jack Reaney SENIOR EDITOR
On Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, the Warren Miller Performing Arts Center brought back a popular and unique outdoor show, this time aided by balmy, springlike weather.
“In a Landscape” is a nonprofit music production featuring pianist Hunter Noack, who transports a 1912 Steinway grand piano into various wild spaces, mostly in the Pacific Northwest. He has now performed three times during Big Sky’s winter, and said it’s definitely his coldest venue.
“This is the only winter ‘In a Landscape’ concert we do,” Noack told EBS after his Saturday show. “I love it. My favorite thing is for people to be actually in the landscape, exploring and moving. So, to see people out on cross-country skis, far out, and being in the cool, delightful winter air is a total dream come true.”
Across both shows, 362 attendees experienced music through headsets broadcasting the live concert, and impressive range allowed Nordic skiers to explore Big Sky Resort’s groomed trails.
John Zirkle, WMPAC executive director, said the experience is wonderfully different from a concert in a performing arts center, in which audience members share a very similar experience.
GALLERY BY JACK REANEY
“Skiing is both a social sport and an individual experience. Similarly, listening to piano… I had that little moment, kind of away, looking at the mountain while you [Hunter] were playing Chopin,” Zirkle told EBS. “It’s that kind of ultimate individual connection with the land.”
He believes Noack has “cracked the code” with his unique performance series.
“Out here, you can experience a live show in an impossibly intimate way… Kind of the ultimate arts receiving experience,” Zirkle said.
The experience is different for Noack, too. He feels close to listeners trekking in the distance, and enjoys that many aren’t actually watching him—although a solid crowd did gather near the piano to enjoy the majestic display.
“It’s less of me, kind of, performing at a crowd,” he said. “I enjoy that a lot.”
The WMPAC winter series continues Feb. 15, with Scottish Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis, back indoors at the traditional WMPAC concert hall.
