(Photo by Bridget Baker)
Pianist and native Oregonian, Hunter Noack performs on a nine foot Steinway grand piano at 22 spectacular landscapes across Oregon and Southern Washington as part of the outdoor concert series IN A LANDSCAPE: Classical Music in the Wild (IAL), including five Central Oregon concerts in partnership with Central Oregon Visitors Association, High Desert Museum and Sunriver Music Festival. Noack transports the piano on a trailer that acts as a stage. To meet the acoustical challenges of performing in the wild, music is transmitted via wireless headphones giving concertgoers freedom to explore the landscape. In Central Oregon, Noack performs at PLAYA at Summer Lake, The Suttle Lodge at Suttle Lake, Smith Rock State Park (the first concert ever permitted on these public lands), on the Meadows Golf Course at Sunriver Resort and in the caldera at Fort Rock State Natural Area.
Hunter Noack was raised in Sunriver. His father worked for several years as golf pro on both the Meadows and Woodlands Golf Courses, while his mother served as executive director of the Sunriver Music Festival. Hunter’s development as a classical musician was funded for over ten years by scholarships from Sunriver Music Festival’s Young Artist Scholarship program.
Noack now has an active international solo career and also tours as a guest artist with Portlandbased band, Pink Martini. These concerts are a celebration of the many threads that have woven together to make this event possible in the high desert beauty of Central Oregon.
Noack will be joined throughout the tour by a rotating roster of special guest performers, including Poet Laureate of Oregon Kim Stafford, pianist JeanDavid Coen, guitarist Aaron LargetCaplan, pianist Thomas M. Lauderdale (Pink Martini), cellist Pansy Chang (Pink Martini), violinist Nicholas Crosa (Pink Martini), members of Eugene Symphony Orchestra and Sunriver Music Festival Young Artists Program to perform music of Grieg, Liszt, Beethoven, Debussy, Chopin and Cage.
“This project brings together two things I love most: classical music and the great outdoors,” says Noack.
