Miki Sawada
Piano Concert and Gather Hear Louisiana Film Screening
Wednesday, October 11
$18 Member / $20 General Admission
Doors 6pm / Event 7pm
All ages / Seated

Join us to explore how classical music intertwines with America through the lens of pianist Miki Sawada.

Through her Gather Hear Tour, Miki travels to all 50 states with a piano, performing in community gathering spaces, finding what we might have in common in a divided country. Her Gather Hear mission is to bring high quality live classical music to communities across socioeconomic and political boundaries.

In 2022, She made stops in Louisiana with a U-Haul and an upright piano, performing spontaneously anywhere people would listen. We will screen the short film about this adventure, which premiered at Independent Film Festival Boston.

Miki will also perform solo piano works by Florence Price, George Walker, and Franz Schubert.

The evening will close with a brief talk back with the artist.

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About Miki Sawada:

Pianist Miki Sawada's performance made The Boston Globe’s Best Of Arts 2021 list “The classical concerts that made me fall in love with live music again." Through her signature project Gather Hear Tour, Miki travels with a piano in a van to perform in community gathering spaces with a mission to connect with Americans across socioeconomic and political divides. Gather Hear has so far given 70+ free performances in 5 states and created three films.

Miki has been featured at venues and occasions such as: Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Helsinki Music Centre, The Arctic Philharmonic (Norway), Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater (NYC), and Roulette (Brooklyn). In 2022, she made her soloist debut with the North Mississippi Symphony Orchestra and Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra. In the summers, she is a faculty member of Heifetz Institute in Virginia. Miki holds degrees from Yale School of Music, Eastman School of Music, and Northwestern University.

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About the film, Gather Hear Louisiana:

“For Gather Hear's first venture to the Deep South, I decided to do things differently. All my previous Gather Hear Tours had itineraries that were meticulously researched and planned. For Louisiana, I really had no idea where to start looking. The South is foreign to me. The weight of its heavy and dark history, its own unique culture - I didn’t know how they would intersect with my form of music making (which comes with its own associations and baggage), much less in a state like Louisiana, which comes with its own exceptionally rich and complex heritage.

It felt wrong for me to pre-plan the journey, as a foreigner in more ways than one. So I came up with an idea: do a tour with no plans. I would just show up, source a piano and van, and then let the people I met and land I encountered dictate where I would head to and where I would play. Sure, it had the possibility to be an epic failure, but best case scenario, I would get to know Louisiana and Louisianans in a way I never could’ve otherwise.” - Miki

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Thank you to our year-round Lead Sponsors: AC Hotel Portsmouth, MacEdge, and Raka.