Tippet Rise '24 season attracts international attention in Montana

 

Concert goers head to Domo, for a concert by world class musicians last year. This year's
season also features a brief array of sold-out concerts. There are other ways to experience
the internationally known arts, nature and music venue near Fishtail, Montana.

ARTS VENUE FEATURES GEOLOGY TOUR, BIKING, HIKING AND FABULOUS CONCERTS -- SOLD OUT ALREADY--BUT YOU CAN STILL ENJOY THE PLACE

STORY By CHRISTENE MEYERS

Expert piano tuner Michael Toia keeps the many valuable
pianos at Tippet Rise in tune each season. The collection
was assembled by Peter Halstead and is worth millions.

PHOTOS By BRUCE KELLER

IF YOU are anywhere near Montana or Yellowstone Park this summer, you are within reasonable driving distance to the wonders of Tippet Rise Arts Center near Fishtail.

This unique and beautiful place offers multiple pleasures, from stunning artwork to fascinating geology tours, coveted concerts and more. All in the serene setting of cottonwood trees and birdsong.

"Inverted Portal" by Ensamble Studio, welcomes visitors
to walk around or through its vast expanses. 

SO DON'T despair if you didn't get concert tickets. (Most of us didn't.)  Drawings for tickets to the small, acoustically perfect venue were in March so the drawing is long over. Do check the website weekly to see if something becomes available, which it occasionally does.

MEANWHILE, you can still bike or hike this gorgeous area.

A youngster enjoys ice cream
at Tippet Rise opening last week.

During visits and the concert season, you can bring a picnic or purchase food from Prerogative Kitchen, a much loved dining enterprise and two-time semi-finalist for the James Beard Awards. Guests are welcome to bring their own provisions to enjoy out on the trails, or within the main Cottonwood Campus.
Developed as a venue for art and music in the backdrop of nature, by founders Cathy and Peter Halstead, Tippet Rise blends world class musical performances with sculpture.
The first thing you see is a stunning sculpture by famed artist Alexander Calder. His "Two Discs" sets the scene for. more delights, including Calder's "Stainless Stealer," also on loan to Tippet Rise from the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden at the Smithsonian Institution’s museum of international modern and contemporary art, in Washington, D.C.

School buses take participants around to Domo
and other pieces too far to walk comfortably to.

Go to the website for more on hiking, biking, and sculpture van tours, all designed by the heirs of a vodka fortune as unique ways to experience Tippet Rise.

Bruce Keller and Christene Meyers last week at a 
neighbors barbecue kicking off the new season.

THIS YEAR, the complex welcomes back the Yellowstone Bighorn Research Association (YBRA) for the sixth annual Geo-Paleo Tours of Tippet Rise. We took one of these specialized tours last season and enjoyed learning about geological and paleontological features scattered across the art center. Tippet Rise is uniquely located -- poised at the convergence of two vastly different regions – the Beartooth Mountains and the Great Plains. Knowledgeable guides take tour participants in vans with short hikes to various phenomena.
Tours  are three upcoming Thursdays – July 11, 18, and Aug. 1 – beginning at 9 a.m., and lasting under three hours. 

SCULPTURE Van art tours are also available and we highly recommend! 

Then the weekend of Aug. 3 – 4, Tippet Rise presents three separate events in collaboration with guests including poet Jenny Xie, photographer James Florio, and actor and professor Dr. Ben Leubner.

Stephen Talasnik's "Satellite No. 5: Pioneer" incorporates space,
and the artist's desire to show connection to land and our roots.

THE WORKSHOPS range from poetry to photography and  literature, and include films and discussions.

Xie's is Aug. 3, from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The New York-based poet will lead a workshop on the ekphrastic poem—one provoked by a work of art.   Xie is at Tippet Rise for a weeklong residency. She is the author of "Eye Level," a finalist for the National Book Award and is recipient of the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets.

Patrick Dougherty's "Daydreams" enraptures
visitors, with its artful curves and detail.

Also Aug. 3, Tippet Rise’s longtime collaborator and artist-in-residence, photographer James Florio will present a screening of "James Florio at Tippet Rise," followed by a Q&A with the film’s director Jeffrey Peixoto. This 17-minute documentary follows James as he moves through the radical landscape of Tippet Rise, struggling against the elements to create images of expressive power.

ON SUNDAY, Aug. 4, actor and MSU professor  Ben Leubner returns to Tippet Rise for a literature recital at 11 am. Outdoors at Xylem, Leubner will recite Elizabeth Bishop’s 1971 dramatic monologue “Crusoe in England,” followed by an excerpt from Virginia Woolf’s 1931 novel, "The Waves," moving to the Olivier Music Barn.

Cookie & Keller in front of
Stephen Talasnik's "Galaxy." 

THE RANGE of artists includes well known names new to tippet rise as well as "regulars" such as pianists Julien Brocal, Marc-André Hamelin, Anne-Marie McDermott, and Yevgeny Sudbin, violinist Jennifer Frautschi, cellists Christopher Costanza, Sterling Elliott, Arlen Hlusko, and Nina Lee, and flutist Jessica Sindell. Baroque Music Montana and mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska, pianists Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Kunal Lahiry, and Evren Ozel, and a host of top orchestral string, reed and horn players also make their debut.

Reservations for all are available on Tippet Rise events page. Don't despair if what you'd like is sold out. Check for cancellations and try to book something else. Cancellation tickets for the sold-out concert are posted.

  

FOR BOOKINGS or information: tippetrise.org

Always with a smile, and kindness for all, John Speight
celebrated his March birthday with us more than once.

UP NEXT:  Next week, before a celebration of his life, we salute a dear friend and fellow traveler who passed away after a heroic seven-month battle with cancer. John Speight was a Yorkshire  farmer, a devoted student of travel, a genial family man, prodigious reader -- especially of travel books and literature -- and a lifelong animal lover.  He raised many dogs and horses through his years, and had a gentle touch with all creatures. He will be deeply missed by us, his widow Sue, his children and legions of friends met on their international travels. More about John and our long friendship and adventures together.