Pianist Melissa Evans Tierra breaks the classical mold

Most performers insist the audience be quiet while they perform, but classical pianist Melissa Evans Tierra is turning tradition on its ear.

She will urge concertgoers to scream at the top of their lungs during her free concert at 5 tonight at the Greene Music Recital Hall in Miramar.

It’s all part of transporting her listeners on a musical journey from hurt to healing and hope that starts with an angry, emotional composition by Jacob Adams, then transitions into music that stimulates a meditative mood.

It’s an avenue for the audience to release pent-up tensions and negative emotions, Tierra explains.

“It’s a very risky, vulnerable thing to do,” says another classical pianist, Brendan Nguyen, co-founder of the Project [Blank] concert series.

Tierra, a longtime colleague and friend of Nguyen, performed the piece at his concert series in January, where she invited attendees to join in when she yelled. They did.

“I knew everything that was going to happen, and I was still shocked,” Nguyen says. “She is such an amazing performer . ... She knocked it out of the park and was able to pull it off.”

Tierra explains that two years ago when she was going through a frustrating period and was creatively blocked, she acted on the advice of a friend who had attended a primal therapy workshop in Costa Rica.

At her friend’s suggestion, she screamed into a pillow for 10 minutes straight once a day for seven days.

“After the screaming ended,” she wrote in her concert program notes, “I felt a weight lifted. I then found myself gravitating toward playing the piano, and I realized that music uniquely amplifies this experience.”

She is sharing her epiphany with her listeners, enhancing it with theatrical lighting that intensifies the mood engendered in the