250 Express pulls into Coeur d'Alene on Thursday
Coeur d'Alene Press | UPDATED 1 day, 2 hours AGO
Pianists Melody Puller and Matthew Goodrich are inviting the community to board the 250 Express at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Midge and Pepper Smock Family Theatre at the Kroc Center in Coeur d'Alene.
Courtesy photo
Pianists Melody Puller and Matthew Goodrich are inviting the community to board the 250 Express at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Midge and Pepper Smock Family Theatre at the Kroc Center in Coeur d'Alene.
This spirited excursion through 250 years of American piano music will make 12 station stops, alternating between performers and including solo and four-hand works.
The piano has been America's instrument from the early days, an essential medium through which composers found their unmistakably American voices. Each piece creates a distinct world, each composer staking their own claim in the ongoing discourse about what American music sounds like.
Departing with Copland's boot-stomping "Hoe-Down" from "Rodeo," the journey travels through music by Gottschalk, Griffes, Beach, Walker, MacDowell, Barber, Menotti, Bolcom, Glass and Antheil before arriving at its final destination — a tour de force "Wizard of Oz Fantasy" for two pianists. Narrated introductions at each station connect the music to American history, geography and cultural identity, inviting audiences of all backgrounds to hear familiar and unfamiliar works as chapters in an unbroken American musical story.
As a piano duo, Puller and Goodrich have developed a reputation for imaginative, deeply researched programs, including The Beautiful Mind of Robert Schumann, a two-concert event devoted to Schumann's piano universe, and Camino del Corazón, a celebration of Latin American piano music. 250 Express is their most ambitious collaboration to date.
250 Express: An American Piano Journey is a presentation of America's Soundtrack: Exploring American History Through Music, presented by Practicing Musician in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities on America 250 Programming and in association with Music Conservatory of Sandpoint and Music Conservatory of Coeur d'Alene. The concert has been officially selected for the Society for American Music's Sounding the Nation at 250 project and is an official America 250 in Idaho event.
Tickets are $20 for general admission and $10 for students.
The Midge and Pepper Smock Family Theatre at the Kroc Center is at 1765 W. Golf Course Road, Coeur d'Alene.