Piano Concert by Laura Dean
Week of April 8, 2023
A look at the Westward Expansion through the lens of music. This compelling solo piano program weaves together first-hand accounts and songs of the 1800s American West. The musical lineup includes Northern Cheyenne courtship flute improvisations, Spanish Fandangos, dance tunes, old time hymns, Stephen Foster favorites, cowboy songs, selections from Thunderbird Suite by Charles Wakefield Cadman, American Ballads by Roy Harris, and more! This program takes inspiration from Laura’s book, Music of the Westward Expansion: Songs of Heart and Place on the American Frontier. (McFarland Publishing, 2022).
Sing Along with Laura: Join Laura in the lounge for a casual and entertaining sing along featuring standards, folk songs, musicals and pop favorites. Laura provides the song sheets.
Laura Dean’s dynamic music career spans over twenty-five years and includes audiences in the United States, Europe, and Mexico. Originally from Montana, Laura lives in Seattle, Washington where she performs, teaches, adjudicates, writes, and offers private and public concerts along with school/community residencies and music education workshops. She thrives on travel to both domestic and international destinations where she collects stories, photographs, videos, and music which inspire and inform her solo performance programs, writing, and educational residencies.
Her first book, Music of the Westward Expansion: Songs of Heart and Place on the American Frontier (McFarland Publishing), was published in 2022. Laura created Hear It, Sing It, Move It: A North American Folk Song Collection – a complete curriculum including song book, teacher’s curriculum guide, and recordings (2018). Romanza de Amor, her first solo recording, released on Yellow House Records (2011), features a selection of piano works from Mexico’s most beloved composer, Manuel M. Ponce. Women with a Past, released on Yellow House Records (2015), features piano works from five women composers from the Baroque through the twentieth century. For more information on Laura and her musical projects, please visit her website: www.lauramusic.biz.
Author of Music in the Westward Expansion: Songs of Heart and Place on the American Frontier