Lunchtime Concert Series brings grand music to Lincoln Community Hall

Adele O'Dwyer admitted she was delighted and a bit surprised at the crowd that filled the Lincoln Community Hall for the first in a series of three Lunchtime Concerts celebrating both the 5th Anniversary of Blackfoot Pathways and the 100th Anniversary of the Lincoln Community Hall.

"I don't think a lunchtime concert is a common place event, so I didn't know if the first one, would they respond?" she said. "There seem to be school children and all sorts of different people, every age group. It was fantastic to see the hall full like that."

O'Dwyer said they opted for lunchtime concerts, every Wednesday at 12:30 for the duration of the Sculpture in the Wild Artist in Residence program, in the hopes more people would attend a 40-minute event during their lunch hour, rather than trying to bring them in during the evening, when they might have other things they want or need to do.

The idea seemed to work, and the audience was treated to a concert designed to highlight the particular three instruments - O'Dwyer's cello, her daughter Aoise's viola and the grand piano, played by Lincoln school music teacher - and trained classical pianist - Melissa Gilbert.

The concert began with three back-to-back compositions by Tchaikovsky before turning to solo pieces for each instrument.

Gilbert demonstrated her skill on the grand piano with Schmidt's "Waterfall," followed by Aoise's performance of "Mediation from the opera 'Thais,"' by Massinet. Aoise, a professional violist who currently live and works in Santiago, Chili, explained later that the viola – a larger instrument than a violin, but played in the same manner- occupies a unique spot in the world of stringed instruments, producing a sound one octave above the cello, but lower than the violin.

"A lot of composers have compared it to the human voice. It actually fits the register of the human voice perfectly," Aoise said. "It's an interesting instrument. It can play high, it can play low, but the middle register is where it really starts to get its character."

Following Aoise, O'Dwyer tackled Monti's "Czardsaz," a gypsy-inspired composition intended for the fiddle, on her cello.

The short concert also included young singers from Lincoln School, who performed a foot-stomping rendition of the Irish classic folksong "I'll tell me Ma."

"We wanted to incorporate the children because they're going to have a concert in two weeks' time, and we wanted to show them off and give them an opportunity to perform," O'Dwyer said. "We think that's kind of really important. This whole event should really be encouraging the young people to get involved."

The final Lunchtime Concert scheduled for Sept. 26 will be a bit longer than the first two. Planned for a little over an hour, O'Dwyer said it will celebrate the Hall's historic purpose.

"We're inviting all the seniors in the community to come down and celebrate the dance hall nature of the Hall," she said. The performers that day will include a jazz pianist visiting from New York and a violinist from Wisconsin.

Adele hopes people will find the time to experience and appreciate the unique nature of the concerts, whether it's the Lunchtime series, the Festival in the Wild Concert Sept. 23, the Youth Concert Sept. 27 or the final chamber music concert Sept. 28.

"Unlike a sculpture that is left in the park for people to go and visit many, many times ...part of the magic is to actually be present and witness the performance of a piece of music," she said.