The pianist Hunter Noack, 36, is taking the road less traveled by, and that makes all the difference. As the founder and star attraction of “In a Landscape: Classical Music in the Wild,” inaugurated in 2016, Noack will be concertizing from May to September in Pacific Northwest and West Coast wildernesses, where weather can whiplash in a heartbeat. Fortunately, as a native Oregonian, he’s an outdoorsman for all seasons.
“I’ve been in places where it’s been 110,” Noack said recently over Zoom from his home in Portland, “and the day after, the same place has snow. When it’s cold, I tape heat packs all over my arms to keep the circulation going. At another concert, when the temperature was 107, there was a sprinkler going nearby. So I just jumped in and started the show soaking wet. The key is, kind of, to dress in layers. At Big Sky, in the winter, I’ve done concerts in negative two degrees.” Rain dates? Not on your life.
