Art in search of the heartland
Pianist Scott Kirby performs a multimedia concert at TC
Pianist Scott Kirby is known well here in Texarkana for his interpretations of Scott Joplin’s music, having performed locally on such occasions as the Texarkana Symphony Orchestra’s “Rhythm & Ragtime” concert last year.
Kirby soon returns for a multi-media concert that shows a more personal side: his own artwork, photography and compositions.
Kirby presents “Main Street Souvenirs: In Search of the American Heartland” at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Stilwell Humanities Music Hall on the Texarkana College campus.
As Mary Scott Goode, music professor at Texarkana College, can attest, Kirby is known to local audiences as a ragtime expert who can perform Joplin’s rags. But he’s a man of many talents, she said, including painting and photography. She and some others here discovered this last year after that TSO concert.
“He showed a little preview of this particular show,” Goode recalled.
“What he does is he plays compositions, some by him, some by other composers—Stephen Foster, John Philip Sousa—and there’s a visual running. It’s got his artwork infused with actual photographs of different places,” Goode said. “He talks about America and the landscape: fields and the prairies, grain silos … the heartland of America.”
Goode was reminded of Ken Burns’ history documentaries. “Where you have original pictures and documents and somebody talking, music in the background. Scott’s doing all of this himself,” she said. In the music world, they’d called it mixed media.
“He’s basically gone to the next level,” Goode said, calling the full concert an homage to America. “He does this show and he’s doing it all over America.”
At his website, Kirby describes it this way: “A multi-media stage performance featuring live piano music, a spoken narrative, and a video presentation. This visual ‘projected’ dimension of the program will accompany both the narrative and the music throughout, and will consist of Kirby’s original artwork, his video footage, his photography, and archival photos.”
Kirby’s wide-ranging experiences include serving as music director for the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival in Sedalia, Mo., and working the streets of New Orleans as a street performer. He’s played ragtime festivals across the world.
“This particular program, we’re involving our art department. We’re trying to
get not just music people but art people coming to this … we like that where we have a program that fits with several of our disciplines. Students like that, a crossover like that,” Goode said. “Scott’s a natural performer. He’s very entertaining. People warm up to him real well. He’s real comfortable on stage.”
The performance should run about an hour-and-ahalf, including an intermission.
(Admission: $5. For more information, contact Mary Scott Goode at 903-823-3371 or mary.goode@texarkanacollege. or Dee Harrison at 903-823-3360 or donna. harrison@texarkanacollege. edu.)