Tippet Rise Art Center features large-scale outdoor sculptures installed throughout the landscape by some of the world’s foremost artists and architects. It is located on a 12,500 acre working ranch in southeastern Montana at the foot of the Beartooth Mountains. The popular music series, now in its tenth year, features a variety of musicians in live performances across the land’s numerous performance spaces. This year’s series kicked off Friday, August 15 and runs through October 5th.
Saturday's program featured Andy Akiho’s The War Below from Prospects of a Misplaced Year, Joseph Lanner’s Marien-Walzer, and Guillaume Connesson Techno Parade and Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring Suite.
Over a hundred people enjoyed the realization of a long-held dream with co-creators Cathy and Peter Halstead.
Since its premiere in 1944, Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring Suite, a commission for the Martha Graham Dance Company, has delighted musical purists and newbies alike with its evocation of Americana. Across the original composition's eight movements, the ballet follows a small Pennsylvania community and a family struggling with the harrowing challenges of daily life, and celebrating its many joys. The Suite’s conclusion in the Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts”, gained tremendous notice and sustained popularity.
The choreographer Graham and composer Copland had different takes on the word “spring”. Graham derived the title from Hart Crane’s 1930 poem The Bridge, an epic piece spanning time and place, and including a reference to a location in the Adirondacks. The composer Copland approached the word as a reference to the season. The communal and final effort remains a sweeping commentary on American optimism, the frontier and the importance of the land. Tippet Rise co-founder Peter Halstead told the audience how important the Copland piece is to the art center.
Saturday, August 16, 2025, Appalachian Spring Suite came alive at Tippet Rise’s The Domo performance space as thirteen musicians presented an hour-long concert curated by Tippet Rise Artistic Advisor Pedja Muzijevic.
Muzijevic curates the music selection for the Tippet Rise season, and is responsible for the artists.
Asked about his indoor/outdoor preference for performing live music, Muzijevic was quick to respond "Both!"
Appalachian Spring Suite was preceded by three pieces, a waltz from 19th century Austrian dance music composer Joseph Lanner, and two contemporary pieces, one of which, Andy Akiho’s The War Below from Prospects of a Misplaced Year, which featured violist Jordan Bak.
The Jamaican-American artist keeps the bills paid with teaching work in North Carolina, but keeps his professional career moving.
The artistic elements of the presentation aside, there are the physical challenges presented by remote outdoor performance spaces, such as moving a 9’ grand piano to The Domo for the concert.
Monty Nichols is on the support staff for the performance. He explained the physical procedure for moving pianos around the Rise’s various spaces.
The great joy of live performance is its return - Saturday’s audiences repeatedly expressed their great satisfaction with applause. As we left, we chatted briefly with one of the younger audience members, Adam, who has studied violin for 19 years, and was deeply humbled by the concert.
According to the Tippet Rise website, “Tippet Rise is anchored in the belief that art, music, architecture, and nature are intrinsic to the human experience, each making the others more powerful.”
For the lucky attendees at Saturday’s performance, a long-anticipated piece of music synthesized creativity in the powerful architecture of the land and nature.
Reporting from Tippet Rise, I’m Karl Lengel.
