Elmker to perform ‘tiny house concert’ Sept. 20

The public is invited to watch a 'tiny house concert” featuring Fairfield resident Werner Elmker on piano and keyboard. The event will be at 8 p.m. and last 30 minutes. To view the concert live on YouTube, click this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQKXGJxLav8&feature=youtu.be.

The concert will feature Werner's commentaries as well as piano and keyboard performances about music by Grieg, Schumann, Satie, Pärt, Massenet, Bach and improvisations by the artist himself.

The concert is recorded at Werner Elmker's tiny house, which he built in 2004 in the middle of a prairie field outside Fairfield. It serves as his music studio and home with a grand piano, keyboard and other instruments.

The music will be performed on Werner's white grand piano as well as his brand new ‘Native Instruments' keyboard with thousands of great sounds. The sound chosen for this concert is the ‘Una Corda' instrument developed by David Klavins. It is sampled by the ‘Native Instruments' company in intimate detail to deliver everything from up-close realism to resonant overtones. Please check this video for more information about this fascinating instrument.

The name of this concert is inspired by the 'Tiny Desk Concerts” video series of live concerts hosted by NPR music host Bob Boilen. The first of these concerts came about in 2008 after Boilen and NPR Music editor Stephen Thompson left a bar show frustrated that they couldn't hear the music over the crowd noise. Thompson joked that the musician, folk singer Laura Gibson, should just perform at Boilen's desk. A month later Boilen arranged for her to do just that, making an impromptu recording and posting it online. The series is enormously popular with about 1000 concerts and 2 billion YouTube views.

This is not a live concert, and people are not invited to attend in person, since the house is very small and therefore not COVID-19 safe. The concert was recorded Aug. 20, 2020, without any breaks or edits, as if it was a live-streamed event. It is premiered as a high quality YouTube video, that will be accessible at 8 p.m. on the premiere night. During the premiere, you cannot fast-forward or rewind, but you can comment freely. After the premiere showing, the concert video will have the same features as a normal YouTube video.