American classical pianist Hunter Noack takes his music to the mountains

Straits Times

30-07-2025

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Pianist Hunter Noack's In A Landscape project takes him to places in the outdoors not known for hosting concerts.
UNITED STATES – For the last decade, classical pianist Hunter Noack has been embarking on an unusual journey. He hauls a 450kg 1912 Steinway concert grand piano to places in the outdoors not known for hosting concerts.
Picture a man seated at a piano beside a lake. It could also be on a mountaintop, in a forest or a meadow.
This summer, the 36-year-old is in the midst of a 10th-anniversary tour of his In A Landscape project, which has taken him to Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen, California; Black Butte Ranch in Sisters, Oregon; and Warm Springs Preserve in Ketchum, Idaho.
'I get excited at the idea of bringing a piano where no piano has gone before,' Noack said.
Inspired by preservationist John Muir, Noack started the project as a way of getting closer to nature, and taking classical music to rural areas where it is not typically accessible.
The idea, he said, is to remove the barriers that typically limit classical music to concert venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York.
'What John Muir was trying to articulate is that we don't just need the wild to recreate in,' Noack said in an interview.
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'We need the wild to be human, and to be more compassionate and empathetic. And that's the medicine that I needed – to be outside.'
The roots of the project can be traced back to 2015.
Noack, a native of Sunriver, Oregon, had just moved to Portland, a couple of years after graduating from the Guildhall School of Music in London. He was working odd jobs and struggling with student debt.
He considered joining the National Guard, but instead applied for a small grant from a regional arts and culture council in Portland to try an experiment.
Classical pianist Hunter Noack performing in Princeton, Oregon, on June 21.
PHOTO: ALEX HECHT/NYTIMES
Noack had long been fascinated by immersive theatre.
As a student at the University of Southern California, he had been enamoured with classmates who independently produced their own shows, which included plays by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov staged in abandoned warehouses, and a piece by American playwright Sam Shepard performed in a rundown hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
'I wanted more of this in my life,' Noack said. He found the shows 'scrappy, fun and daring'.
After graduating from college, Noack, along with a friend from boarding school, created an immersive play in San Francisco. In London, Noack eagerly took in shows by experimental theatre company Punchdrunk.
'These theatre and opera companies were really pushing the boundaries, and that's what I wanted to do with my art: classical piano,' he said .
A travelling group of six helps Noack take his piano to the remote locations.
The team has developed a system for moving the 2.7m instrument. The piano sits on a custom-designed 4.8m flatbed trailer and can go anywhere that a four-wheel-drive vehicle can.
Once they arrive at a destination, the trailer turns into the stage.
The first year, Noack rented a piano from a local dealer. But when he said he wanted to take the rented piano to Mount Bachelor in Bend, Oregon, and the Alvord Desert, in the south-eastern part of the state, the dealer did not want to take on the insurance liability.
Afterwards, in 2017, a philanthropist purchased and donated the piano that Noack uses today.
Noack did not intend for the In A Landscape project to be a full-time job, but the initial audience response was so large that he kept going. The original run of the tour had nine dates, but it has since expanded to more than 50 dates a year, over a wider area.
The concerts are held rain or shine, hot or cold. The temperature during concerts has ranged from sub-freezing to more than 35 deg C .
The 2.7m piano sits on a custom-designed 4.8m flatbed trailer and can go anywhere that a four-wheel-drive vehicle can. Once the team arrives at a destination, the trailer turns into the stage.
PHOTO: ALEX HECHT/NYTIMES
The notable locales where Noack has played include the entrance to Yellowstone, Joshua Tree National Park in California, Crater Lake in southern Oregon and Banff National Park in Canada.
Most of the venues are in national parks in the Pacific Northwest.
However, Noack said the most meaningful concerts have not necessarily been at the most recognisable locations, but rather, at smaller, more intimate spots such as ranches and farms.
'It's really all about the people who are there and the relationship they have with that space and what the landscape is doing for us in that for those 90 minutes,' he added.
His shows have even appeared to attract wildlife.
He recalled that at a two-night run near the Oregon coast, the piano was located near a cliff. A whale swam up to shore for both performances and lingered for their entirety.
'I like to think that the whale was enjoying this show,' Noack said.
Among other wildlife that made appearances were free-range horses, birds and deer.
Noack's ambition to take a piano to unfamiliar territory is expansive.
He wants to perform at, among other striking sites, remote villages in Canada; at the Preikestolen, a steep cliff in Norway; during a safari in Africa; atop Vinicunca, the rainbow mountain in the Andes of Peru; and by the salt flats of Bolivia.
'My hope is that I can use this project, my love of the music and my curiosity about how public lands and natural resources are managed, to explore the world and learn,' he said. NYTIMES