Barn Concert

We're getting ready for a recital in the barn featuring Alicia and her very fine pianist Kevin Garnica.  I have to think hard to count how many times Alicia and Kevin have collaborated for barn concerts.  I know it's quite a few and it's always a wonderful performance.  This weekend will be no exception.  Saturday night the music begins at 7pm and Sunday at 3pm.  All proceeds from this event will go to Spokane Public Radio.

Today we moved the piano in.  It's always quite a project, but once again, we managed to get a grand piano up to the top of the barn.  Tomorrow the kids will go out to give it a try.  Today they worked in the house, getting to know the pieces that they will be playing this weekend.

Les, our good friend and neighbor,came over a couple days ago and helped hang the banners that his sister Louise Kodis generously donated for the weekend.  Louise has donated work for display for every barn concert.  Each piece is amazingly beautiful and the perfect compliment to the musical artistry.

Here's Les explaining something to Alicia and Baxter!

Louise carefully packs the banners for transport.

Les is supervising the hanging of the banners.

Reynald had lots of help from those on the floor, to determine the proper hanging height for each banner.

This photo and the next, do not do this artwork the justice it deserves.

You really must see these in person, which you can do here at the barn of course, but also at the Saranac Art Gallery in Spoknae, beginning today and running through the month of January.  

Next we remove the flooring to expose the north stair case.  This is where the piano will make its way up to the concert hall.

Alicia and I carried chairs from the main floor to the concert hall and then wiped them all down with a damp cloth.  Summer dust storms tend to deposit a dirty film on each chair, even though they are covered with old sheets.

Wiping down the chairs....

Les made place mats from all the past recital invitation art work that he has done for these events.  Alicia gets to take them back to Boston with her to share with Roni and David!

Place mats made from Barn Concert invitation art work.

Today the piano arrived.  The fellows that came today were new to our venue.  They didn't seem to be a bit deterred by the staircase.  Reynald has an electric winch that helps with the lift.

I guess this means they don't move couches!

Moving the piano in to place at the foot of the staircase.

The moving company guys are hanging on to the piano right now.  Our friend Crayton never has an "I'm busy that day" excuse ready when we call and ask for help from him!

Made it!  Piano at the top of the stairs.

The moving boys put the legs on and then tipped it up, almost ready to play.

So that we don't have to heat the barn for the next four days, we cover the piano with blankets, then put a milk house heater under the piano "tent".  It seems to do a really good job at keeping the instrument at a constant temperature until concert time.

If you were a little kid, this would be the perfect hide out for the next few days!

It's still quite snowy!  And now it's very cold so the snow isn't going to go away any time soon.

We had to shovel a path across the grass to the garden path, past the outhouse.

Baxter was happy to have his University of Texas sweater on today in the chilly weather!