(Ellen Waterston with Hunter Noack at Mt Bachelor | Photo courtesy of IN A LANDSCAPE)

Ellen Waterston, Oregon’s newly appointed Poet Laureate will present an original poem commissioned by IN A LANDSCAPE: Classical Music in the Wild at the IN A LANDSCAPE concert on Sunday, September 22, 2024. In collaboration with IN A LANDSCAPE Artistic Director, Hunter Noack, Waterston has created poems for several IN A LANDSCAPE concerts in its nine-year history, inspired by the desert locales.

Hunter Noack, classical pianist and naturalist travels with a nine-foot Steinway grand piano across the American West and Canada with the classical series IN A LANDSCAPE: Classical Music in the Wild. Mountain tops, old growth forests, and sunny meadows replace the traditional concert hall in this series as audiences listen through wireless headphones, wandering afield with the music as a soundtrack to their experience.

Noack and Waterston, both long-time Central Oregonians, share a deep love for Oregon and enriching people’s connection with the land through art. Waterston and Noack had already been collaborating on the Fort Rock concert prior to her being honored with the prestigious post. “Ellie has a way of capturing the soul of a place with her poetry,” said Noack. “Our mutual passion is to connect the audience with the landscape and create new and transformative experiences.” Tickets are available for the concert to see Waterston and Noack. The $45 ticket also includes admission to the Fort Rock Historical Museum prior to the concert, and a pie social and “Barn” Dance following the concert at the Fort Rock Grange.

Noack’s nonprofit concert series is named for the piece In a Landscape by John Cage. Cage, like other post-war avant garde composers, challenged listeners to reconsider what ‘music’ is and asked us to consider all noise — and its absence —
as music. “What surprises me every concert,” says Noack, “are the moments of serendipity… when the leaves blow or the birds dance perfectly in time with the music, as if choreographed by a divine hand. In those moments of magic, I feel such gratitude for classical music and the parks and wild lands in which we play.”

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