Pianist to give free Fitchburg classical concert
‘Gather Hear Tour’ brings classical music to the masses
Boston-based concert pianist Miki Sawada will tour across Massachusetts with a piano in tow from Thursday, May 6, to May 30 as part of the Gather Hear Tour and will perform for free in 12 towns and cities across the state, presented by various small businesses, nonprofit organizations and city entities.
The concert in Fitchburg will be at 3 p.m. Saturday, May 15, on Mill Street in Downtown Fitchburg, organized by Reimagine North of Main. All concerts will take place outdoors and masks are required.
Through the Gather Hear Tour, Sawada is on a mission to perform in all 50 states, inspiring human connection across political and socioeconomic divides.
The project was launched in 2017 in Alaska, when Sawada performed 25 concerts in cafes, bars, lodges, galleries, schools and parks. By taking classical music outside of concert halls and into beloved community gathering spaces, presenting it in a friendly and inclusive manner, Sawada aims to break down typical barriers of entry to classical music and create occasions for people to feel connected and human.
The Gather Hear Tour was founded directly in the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election, when Sawada despaired over the reality of American life that was bared, and looked for ways to use classical music as a positive force. The project chronicles Sawada’s travels and encounters, documenting American life through the lens of a musician.
In Gather Hear Massachusetts, Sawada will tour with a program that reflects the past year in pandemic-age America. Florence Price, a Black composer who attended Boston’s New England Conservatory and was the first woman of color to have a piece performed by a major American orchestra, will be represented through her “Piano Sonata.” Also on the program is Franz Liszt’s “Piano Sonata,” arguably one of the most virtuosic and dramatic pieces for solo piano.
A commission by Boston-based musician Ariel Friedman rounds out the program, with a piece titled, “Before I Die,” inspired by artist Candy Chang’s public art project of the same title which places murals in public spaces and invites passers-by to complete the sentence, “Before I die, I want to …” with a piece of chalk.
Sawada said of Gather Hear Massachusetts: “This will be a once-in-a-lifetime tour. I hope there’s no other time like this where I’m forced to take a 14-month performing hiatus, and for the public to be deprived of the joy of hearing live music together, which can’t be replicated by any technology. We’ve all grappled with the same issues in the last year — of the Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate movements, the presence of death all around us, the war on truth throughout the election process. We’ve all been waiting for the time to gather and start to heal together, and I hope these concerts will be an uplifting experience to do just that.”
The Gather Hear Tour is a project sponsored by Fractured Atlas.
Gather Hear Massachusetts in Fitchburg is supported in part by Fitchburg Cultural Council, a local agency that is supported by the Mass Cultural Council. The commission of Ariel Friedman’s “Before I Die” is supported by a grant from New Music USA.
For more information, visit the tour website at www.gatherhear.com.