Out of silence comes music. It's a powerful experience, especially when that music enhances a beautiful natural landscape among cattle, sheep, and the mystery of Montana's Beartooth Mountains. That's idea behind the Tippet Rise Art Center in Fishtail, Mont. Last summer was the festival's inaugural season. It left a tremendous impact on those who attended, including me.
As I was enjoying the final afternoon concert of the six-week season, what made the performance with pianist Lucas Debargue even more memorable was watching the landscape of the mountains shift as the afternoon sun began to set. You see, the backdrop for the performers inside the intimate setting of the Olivier concert barn is a large picture window. Scarlatti's Four Keyboard Sonatas, Maurice Ravel's "Gaspard de la Nuit," and Nikolai Medtner's Piano Sonata No. 1 in F Minor provided a cinematic score to the natural beauty unfolding outside. When I spoke with festival founders Peter and Cathy Halstead, Peter mentioned that the day before the concert, Lucas toured the more than 10,000-acre ranch to get to know the land so he could shape his music to reflect what it had to offer. "What an amazing idea is that!" Peter concluded.
Peter's lifelong friend, Christopher O'Riley, was music director for the inaugural season at Tippet Rise. I talked with Christopher just before the final concert of the season and noted a hint of wistfulness in his voice. I asked if maybe he felt a spiritual connection to the Tippet Rise Art Center. "Well, everybody's experienced that," he told me.
"You know, we've had a lot of big-city artists who have been trepidatious about spending time where it's just so quiet," Christopher continued. "It's unlike any place else on earth, and you just don't want to leave once you get here. You know, I'm happily living in Los Angeles in a house that they'll have to carry me out of in a box. But I haven't missed my house in Los Angeles for three months."
Cathy Halstead agrees. She says it's been amazing watching a dream become a reality. "And one of the things I have been so struck by this summer is what our dream has come to mean for our audience, for our visitors to the land and to the sculptures," she said. "They have embraced our vision and are taking it beyond Tippet Rise, into the world, into their own lives, into their hearts, to their friends, and to their families and to what life means to them. And that has been absolutely extraordinary."
After leaving that final concert of their first season last August, I turned to watch the sun set on the horizon. And then I realized just how quiet it was as 150 people silently strolled down the hill, leaving the venue yet forever changed by their experience at Tippet Rise.
Scheduled Broadcasts of Tippet Rise Performances
These performances will be featured on YourClassical's Radio Stream. All times listed are Central Daylight Time.
Thursday, April 13, 10 p.m. (will also air on Classical MPR)
Stephen Hough - Schubert: Piano Sonata
Monday, April 17, 9 a.m.
Jenny Chen - Schumann: Allegro
Wednesday, April 19, 5 p.m.
Matt Haimovitz - Selection from Bach: Cello Suite No. 5
Wednesday, April 19, 11 p.m. (will also air on Classical MPR)
John Adams' Hallelujah Junction
Resources
Tippet Rise Art Center - official site
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