Concert pianist Hunter Noack brought his touring series of classical music in the wild to Los Angeles for the first time, playing beneath the Hollywood Sign to audiences wearing wireless headphones on picnic blankets
Bach In The Hills
GRIFFITH PARK. A concert pianist towed a Steinway grand piano into Griffith Park and played beneath the Hollywood Sign, according to LAist’s report on the pianist who trucked his grand piano into Griffith Park. Hunter Noack, who has performed in places from Yosemite Valley to Joshua Tree National Park, brought his series In a Landscape: Classical Music in the Wild to Los Angeles for the first time in its 11-year run, with shows on September 26 and 27 at 3200 Canyon Drive and an added show at Elysian Park on September 25. The series is organised with the Trust for Public Land, which helps preserve Cahuenga Peak and the surrounding ridgeline.
The piano, the same Steinway model used at Carnegie Hall, arrives towed by a Ford F-350 on a flatbed that unfolds into a stage. For Los Angeles, a city in which a large vehicle unfolding into a stage in a scenic location almost always means a commercial shoot, the experience was disorienting. Several hikers reportedly waited politely for someone to shout cut.
The Headphones
Audience members receive wireless headphones that deliver concert-hall-quality sound, allowing them to wander, sit, lie down or picnic while listening. Some, Noack told LAist, just set up their picnic chairs or blankets right near the stage. From a distance, the scene resembles a silent disco organised by very sophisticated people: hundreds of Angelenos sprawled across a hillside in headphones, swaying gently to music no passer-by can hear.
A hiker from Los Feliz who stumbled across the concert without a ticket said it was one of the strangest things she had seen in the park. I saw a grand piano on a truck, she said. I saw a man playing it with total passion. I heard nothing. Everyone around him was crying in headphones. I thought I had walked into a performance art piece about loneliness. Then someone told me it was Chopin. I still felt lonely. But in a classier way.
The Piano’s Journey
Noack has given 370 concerts and counting over a decade, often in rough terrain. According to LAist, the piano has survived wind, a fire on the trailer tires and extreme temperatures, and it went out of tune after a rough tow in Idaho. Piano technicians across Los Angeles, told the instrument’s history, responded with the horror of veterinarians hearing about a show horse taken on a monster truck tour.
A piano tuner in Pasadena said he had spent his career protecting instruments from humidity and temperature changes. My clients keep their pianos in climate-controlled rooms, he said. They cover them with blankets. They do not let children touch them. And this man drives one up the side of a mountain on a trailer that caught fire. I admire him. I also need to lie down.
Nature Boy
The programme included Nature Boy, the song written by Eden Ahbez, who lived outdoors near the Hollywood Sign, and later made famous by Nat King Cole. Performing it beneath the same hills where it was written gave the concerts a sense of Los Angeles history that visitors rarely encounter. Angelenos who usually associate the Hollywood Sign with tourists, traffic and arguments about trail access discovered it could also be the backdrop for something gentle and moving.
The Harley Incident
Noack told LAist about a 2016 show at the Columbia River Gorge, where Harley-Davidson riders circled during a Schumann piece. It was a conversation between the piano and these roaring Harleys, he said. In Los Angeles, the equivalent interruptions might include tour helicopters, a drone filming an influencer, a man shouting into a phone about a script and a coyote. Classical music experts note that each would add its own distinctive counterpoint.
A cellist from the Valley who attended said she had been waiting for an interruption the entire time. In this city, she said, someone always interrupts. I kept expecting a helicopter, or a celebrity hiker, or a man selling crystals. But the music held. Even the coyotes were respectful. Possibly they were wearing headphones too.
Tickets And Waitlists
Both Griffith Park shows sold out, with a waitlist. In a city where people line up for hours for a new croissant, a sellout for classical music on a hillside was a welcome sign that Angelenos still crave experiences that cannot be streamed. A season ticket holder for the LA Phil said she had been delighted to see younger faces in the audience. They came for the view, she said. They stayed for the Debussy. Some of them stayed for the photos. But some of them closed their eyes. That is a start.
Preserving The Ridgeline
The partnership with the Trust for Public Land underscores the purpose behind the series: connecting people with open land and reminding them why it should be protected. The ridgeline around Cahuenga Peak, beside the Hollywood Sign, was once threatened by development, and conservation efforts have helped keep it open. Hearing a grand piano there turns an abstract land conservation issue into something people can feel.
The Last Word
As the final notes faded and the audience removed their headphones, the sounds of Los Angeles returned: traffic in the distance, a siren, a helicopter, a dog barking somewhere in the canyon. A screenwriter who had attended alone sat on his blanket for a long moment. It was the first time in ten years I have been in this city without thinking about work, he said. Then he pulled out his phone. I am going to pitch it, he said. Pianist drives a Steinway across America. It is a limited series. It writes itself.