MCS presents '250 Express: An American Piano Journey'
Bonner County Daily Bee | UPDATED 2 hours, 35 minutes AGO
Pianists Matt Goodrich and Melody Puller, pictured above, will perform at "250 Express: An American Piano Journey," a concert celebrating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. through 12 works of American piano music.
Photo courtesy MUSIC CONSERVATORY OF SANDPOINT
Music Conservatory of Sandpoint is inviting the community to board the "250 Express: An American Piano Journey," a concert celebrating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. through 12 works of American piano music.
The performance will take place Friday, March 20, at 7 p.m. in the Conservatory’s Little Carnegie, 110 Main St., in downtown Sandpoint.
Pianists Matt Goodrich and Melody Puller perform an evening structured as a musical train journey, each piece a station stop along 250 years of American musical history. The program opens with the wide-open energy of Copland’s “Hoe-Down” from “Rodeo” and travels through works by Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Charles Tomlinson Griffes, Amy Beach, George Walker, Edward MacDowell, Samuel Barber, Gian Carlo Menotti, William Bolcom, Philip Glass and George Antheil before arriving at its final destination: a spirited “Wizard of Oz Fantasy” for two pianists.
The range of the program is itself the story. Romantic miniatures share the bill with minimalist etudes. A ragtime ghost story meets a midnight nocturne. A witches’ dance gives way to a driving toccata. No single style dominates — American composers have never agreed on what classical music should sound like, and 250 Express celebrates every stop on that magnificent argument.
The weekend celebration continues Saturday, March 21, with an afternoon dedicated to American music at the Conservatory. At 2 p.m., MCS faculty member and music scholar Rory Creigh (correct spelling?), Ph.D., leads an engaging conversation titled “What Does American Music Sound Like?” At 3 p.m., the discussion comes to life in a concert featuring Conservatory students, faculty and guest performers. Saturday’s events are free and open to the public.
Goodrich, director of performance at the Music Conservatory of Sandpoint, describes the weekend as “an invitation to take a ride through the kaleidoscope of music imagined by America’s great composers. All aboard!”
Tickets for the Friday evening concert are $35 for adults and $15 for students, with Avista Seats for Seniors available for $15. For tickets and information, visit sandpointconservatory.org/events or call 208-265-4444.