NBC Nightly News Features VT Musician
A piano concert in every town across the state.
David Feurzeig wants to make music and to save the environment.
Below is a post I published on Artful just about two years ago. Since that time, David Feurzeig has been making good on his promise to play a concert in every single one of Vermont’s 252 towns, while choosing to limit his carbon footprint.
Last night, NBC Nightly News featured Feurzeig and his Play Every Town project. Click here to view the video clip on NBC or click below to see it on YouTube.
And, on September 23, 2024, none other than the Wall Street Journal found and reported on what has been Vermont’s feel-good story (paywall, unfortunately).
Previously published on Artful: October 31, 2022–If you live in Vermont, pianist and UVM music professor David Feurzeig will be coming to your town to make music, unless he has already done so. He believes it’s the least he can do to help foster the storied sense of community in Vermont’s small towns. Having begun with an inaugural concert in May, 2022, his “Play Every Town Project” aims to bring a performance of live music to each and every one of the state’s 251 (or as his website seems to have corrected, 252) towns in the next five years. Each concert will feature Feurzeig on piano; he plans to tailor the concerts to reflect the unique character or history of the town. Local musicians in each location will join him.
The isolation of COVID times was not the only motivation for the project, but the pandemic did play a role. Feurzeig recalls: “In November 2021 I played my first full-length solo gig since the start of the pandemic. I felt rusty! I asked myself what would be the opposite of not performing a single recital for over two years. How about 251 in under five?”
Even before the pandemic, though, Feurzeig had a different concern: climate change and the effects of touring on the environment. “Long-distance jet-dependent concertizing is not limited to star performers: for academic musicians as well, like me, there are incentives to fly, fly, fly. The farther the gig, the more prestige and promotion/tenure brownie points earned—even at UVM, my green-branded employer. (Look at my bio: I still boast about my premiere in Dresden! my performance in Bangkok!)”
And so he has given up flying, and plans to tour using public transportation and his solar-charged electric car. That will restrict his radius, but he’s content for now to confine his project to the state in which he lives. Not that there won’t be other challenges, David acknowledges:
OK, every town in Vermont. But for a pianist, that’s easier said than done. The median town in Vermont has about 1300 inhabitants, and towns that size do not necessarily have a decent piano in a public space. (I live in a town of over 1900, and we don’t.)
My preference will always be to find a good acoustic instrument in good working order. Living rooms are eligible! Where there is no viable option, I will use an electronic keyboard. But I welcome tips and suggestions: if you know a good place to play, especially in smaller communities, please let me know! [playeverytown@gmail.com]
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And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.