(Photo by Arthur Hitchcock for IN A LANDSCAPE)

Hunter Noack, classical pianist and naturalist, will bring four concerts to Central Oregon in September as part of IN A LANDSCAPE: Classical Music in the Wild’s 10th anniversary 50-concert tour. The groundbreaking outdoor concert series began in 2016 with nine concerts in the Portland area. They have now produced 336 concerts from the Mojave Desert to Banff, Canada, Orcas Island to Jackson, Wyoming, traveling with a 1912 9-foot Steinway on a flatbed trailer that converts into a stage. IN A LANDSCAPE is known for creating immersive experiences in nature, where America’s most stunning landscapes replace the traditional concert hall. Headphones allow audiences to wander, whether on a mountain top, in old growth forests, or in sunny meadows, the music as a soundtrack to their experience in the wild.

The series is branching out with a Dark Sky initiative this year, with one in the Oregon Outback Dark Sky Sanctuary — the largest designated Dark Sky area in the world — and another in Sunriver, Oregon’s first Dark Sky-designated community.

Part of the final tour of the season (through September 21), the Central Oregon mini-series includes:

• Friday, September 13 – Fort Rock State Natural Area, Fort Rock
  Concert tickets include admission to the Fort Rock Historical Society Museum and a post-concert pie social at the Fort Rock Grange.

• Saturday, September 14 – Dark Sky Concert at Summer Lake Hot Springs, Paisley
  Cabins at the Hot Springs are sold out, but tent and RV camping spots remain available, along with cabins for rent at nearby PLAYA Arts & Science Residency.

• Sunday, September 15 – Dark Sky Concert at the Sunriver Stables, Sunriver
  Presented in partnership with Sunriver Resort.

• Tuesday, September 17 – Drake Park, Bend

The Dark Sky concerts at Summer Lake and Sunriver will start at 9pm after sunset while the skies grow increasingly dark. According to Travel Oregon, Dark Sky tourism is a growing form of sustainable tourism and includes activities such as stargazing, astrophotography, chasing eclipses and auroras, visiting observatories and planetariums, and other special nighttime activities such as night sky inspired artistic events. Both the Sunriver and Summer Lake concerts will feature star-viewing opportunities before and after the performances with a team led by astronomer Bob Grossfeld, a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador.

“There’s nothing quite like playing under a canopy of stars,” said pianist Hunter Noack, founder of IN A LANDSCAPE. “These Dark Sky concerts remind us that music is part of something bigger — the land, the sky and the shared human experience of wonder.”

The very first IN A LANDSCAPE concert at Fort Rock State Natural Area was in 2017. This popular destination has attracted concert attendees each year since this inaugural event. Fort Rock is a circular wall of hardened volcanic ash and rock thought to have been formed 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. Its rock formation and history provides a unique experience for concert-goers. After the concert, the Third Annual Fort Rock Pie Social will be held at the Fort Rock Grange. Pie and ice cream will be available for a $5 suggested donation, with all profits going to benefit the Fort Rock Grange and their community activities.

Summer Lake is located in the Oregon Outback Dark Sky Sanctuary, the largest international Dark Sky designation in the world. This concert will be held at the Summer Lake Hot Springs on Highway 31.

Concert-goers can take advantage of a two-night camping package at Summer Lake Hot Springs plus concert tickets to both the Fort Rock and Summer Lake concerts.

The Sunriver Dark Sky concert will be held at the Sunriver Stables along the Deschutes River in partnership with the Sunriver Resort. In 2020, Sunriver was designated the first International DarkSky Place in Oregon. This is a homecoming for Hunter Noack to the town where he grew up.

The last of the Central Oregon concerts will be held at Drake Park in Bend. Drake Park was established in 1921 and now spans 13 acres along the Deschutes River. The concert will offer a magical blend of music and the beauty of Central Oregon.

Tickets to the Fort Rock concert are $50 and include admission to the concert and the Fort Rock Museum. A special concert and camping package is available for $135 and includes admission to both the Fort Rock and Summer Lake Hot Springs concerts and two nights of camping at the Summer Lake Hot Springs.

Individual tickets to the Summer Lake, Sunriver and Bend concerts are $45. All tickets may be purchased on the IN A LANDSCAPE website. IN A LANDSCAPE offers a limited number of free tickets through the Good Neighbor Program, providing access to those who might otherwise be unable to afford a ticket to this outdoor classical music experience.

The 2025 IN A LANDSCAPE season sponsor is Jordan Schnitzer and The Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation. Additional support for the Central Oregon concerts provided by Visit Central Oregon, Black Butte Ranch founders Mike & Sue Hollern, Trish Smith in memory of Bill Smith, Bob & Janis Harrison, and by the Broughton and Mary Bishop Family. The Fort Rock and Summer Lake concerts are also sponsored by Travel Oregon, Travel Southern Oregon and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Beyond its innovative approach to classical music, IN A LANDSCAPE creates space for immersive storytelling by frequently featuring poets, Native American musicians, dancers, singers and visual artists as guest performers. The concerts are designed to inspire a sense of quiet contemplation and free-spirited play, encouraging audience members to fully engage with the music and the landscape around them.

IN A LANDSCAPE cultivates a profound feeling of togetherness between ranchers, hikers, city dwellers, families and classical music aficionados, proving that music and nature have the power to unite people across all walks of life. The award-winning series has been featured on CBS Mornings, in the Los Angeles Times and most recently in the New York Times.

Named after John Cage’s composition In a Landscape, Noack’s series embraces the avant-garde composer’s ethos of redefining how we listen to and experience music. “What surprises me every concert,” says Noack, “are the moments of serendipity—when the leaves blow or the birds dance perfectly in time with the music, as if choreographed by a divine hand. In those moments of magic, I feel such gratitude for classical music and the parks and wild lands in which we play.”

inalandscape.org • instagram.com/inalandscape • facebook.com/inalandscapemusic