IN A LANDSCAPE: Classical Music in the Wild Hopeful Despite Challenges of Pandemic

(IN A LANDSCAPE is the perfect socially distanced concert experience for the COVID era | Photo by Joey Hamilton)

With 50 concerts cancelled and $250,000 in lost ticket sales, IN A LANDSCAPE was hit hard by the pandemic. But a lifeline from the Oregon Cultural Trust has re-energized the innovative performing arts concept, putting it on track to present a 2021 season with 40+ classical piano concerts in wild spaces throughout Oregon and parts of Washington and California. 

“After making the difficult decision to cancel our 2020 season, our top priority was to find a way to bring music to the public while adhering to COVID restrictions and keeping our audience safe,” says Executive Director Lori Noack. “The grant came at just the right time.”

IN A LANDSCAPE received just over $86,000 of CARES Act funding via the Oregon Cultural Trust. The funds were used in part to retool concert sound systems and develop a COVID-friendly smartphone app for audiences. It also enabled the nonprofit organization to test new concert protocols and lay the groundwork for a successful 2021 concert season.

“We are really excited to offer the new app to supplement our wireless headphone system,” says Lori Noack. “What sets us apart from other concerts is that people can listen to the live music while they wander through and connect with each landscape.”

Re-Grouping & Finding Ways to Give Back in 2020

Over the years, partnerships with Oregon State Parks and the National Park system have been integral to the success of IN A LANDSCAPE, as have partnerships with regional arts groups, rural communities and tourism bureaus.

“Bridging the urban/rural divide is central to what we do,” says Artistic Director Hunter Noack. “We bring classical music to rural audiences and urban audiences to Oregon’s rural communities, ranches, farms and public lands.”

After spending the spring and summer immersed in planning, IN A LANDSCAPE tested the new systems at small, casual concerts in Summer Lake and at Sunriver Resort in Southern and Central Oregon. The Sunriver event also raised $2,500 for Sunriver Music Festival’s Young Artist Scholarship. 

Then in September and October, after cancelling several planned concerts due to wildfires across the West, Noack loaded up his nine-foot Steinway grand piano and hit the road on his own, without the crew or sound system, to play a series of healing concerts across the state.

“During our isolation, we have become more polarized, making it all the more important for us to find ways to come together, find community, respect and appreciation for one another,” he says.

Noack played music for Santiam Canyon wildfire evacuees, volunteers and first responders at a makeshift community kitchen in Gates, Oregon; and at the iconic Kesey Farm, he played a benefit concert for Breitenbush Hot Springs Retreat Center, which suffered significant losses in the wildfires. 

The mini-tour concluded with impromptu concerts staged for campers at Paulina / East Lake and Wallowa Lake, at Cottonwood Canyon State Park along the John Day River and at the M.Crow & Company General Store in Lostine, Oregon. 

“It was tremendously satisfying to bring live music to people who were hungry for it,” says Noack. “It was the perfect antidote to the rising tensions and divisions across the state.”

IN A LANDSCAPE will perform its first winter concert in Big Sky, MT in late December hosted by the Warren Miller Performing Arts Center, and will announce its upcoming season schedule in spring 2021. For information and to sign up for the mailing list visit inalandscape.org

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