A night of art and melody

By KYLE McCLELLAN The Western News

A nationally acclaimed pianist performed his signature ragtime compositions Friday night at the Memorial Center.

Scott Kirby, a distinguished interpreter of original and contemporary ragtime music and "ace pianist", in the words of Time Magazine, also put his visual work on display.

Kirby began drawing and painting in 2004.

His visual art project, known as "Main Street Souvenirs," sat on display in the Memorial Center lobby as Kirby sat on stage and performed 21 musical pieces.

Ragtime music, which originated during the early 20th century, combines elements of jazz and classical music and is considered the first form of truly American music.

He performed his interpretations of pieces by Scott Joplin, Arthur Marshal and Guy Beart.

Scott Joplin, a posthumous Pulitzer recipient, is considered the most important composer in ragtime music.

Though he died in 1917, Joplin's legacy has long been cemented in national discourse.

He has been the subject of a biographical film, a commemorative U.S. Postal Service stamp and star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

Kirby's compositions, visual art and personal discourses during the show carried strong themes of an affinity for earlier times.

If a simpler, more wholesome past is Kirby's island paradise, then his boat is nostalgia.

Visually, he sought to transport viewers there on a road reoccurring in several paintings.

In most, the single abandoned road bisects a cluster of rural structures somewhere in the Great Plains.

The road extends, sometimes curves, to a nightscape or sun setting on a distant, simpler horizon.

Between musical compositions, Kirby offered personal interjections. He reminded the audience of the youth of earlier generations, who sang and danced to ragtime, their hip-hop.

He spoke of the "deterioration" of pop music into what it is today.

His artwork reinforced the message.

It was hardly a metaphor for nostalgia. It was nostalgia.

It was devoid of human figures and full of swirling colors in a sky above simple structures - a windmill, a church, a farm, a fence.

It showed the perfect nonexistent prairie. A composite image of a Midwest typically conjured by non-Midwesterners.

But the images are so close to a Midwest scene

Kirby, who is a native of Ohio and is personally familiar with images of wide-open spaces in Montana, Nebraska and Kansas, states on his art Web page that the images come to him when he is half asleep or in the middle of a performance.

Kirby's devotion to these scenes is strong.

He has recently lived in southern France, where, to the chagrin of the locals, he continued to paint his Midwest pictures while surrounded by French countryside and Parisian cityscape realities.

In August, another esteemed pianist will make an appearance at the Memorial Center.

George Winston, an eastern Montana native who has devoted significant compositions to his childhood here and won a Grammy Award in 1994, will be at the Memorial Center at 7 p.m. on Aug. 17. Winston performs his melodic folk style piano 110 times a year for audiences worldwide. He is currently touring in Japan. Winston collaborated with actress Meryl Streep to produce an audio accompaniment to the classic story, "The Velveteen Rabbit."