Scott Kirby's Main Street Souvenirs
Red Cloud Opera House
413 N Webster St
Red Cloud, NE 68970
United States
Welcome to Scott Kirby's Main Street Souvenirs, a musical and cinematic celebration of Classic Americana. Explore 150 years of music through Kirby's live piano performances of some of America's greats - including Stephen Foster, John Philip Sousa, and the ragtime of Scott Joplin! The music and narratives are accompanied by a video featuring nostalgic archival images from America's past, as well as stunning photography and Kirby's own spectacular watercolor paintings of the Great Plains that "touch the soul of the heartland." Baseball games and barbershops, prairie churches, concerts in the park, and one-room schoolhouses - it's all here on Main Street.
Special chapters of Kirby’s program will feature Red Cloud and the National Willa Cather Center, photos and stories of the town, and the community ties that weave the region together. Kirby will also donate an original watercolor painting of the town and will have an exhibit already up of paintings in the Red Cloud Opera House Art Gallery at the time of the performance. Don’t miss this one-of-a-kind opportunity to celebrate American history on the occasion of our nation’s 250th birthday!
Programming at the National Willa Cather Center's Red Cloud Opera House is made possible with the support of the Baldwin Foundation, Nebraska Arts Council, and Nebraska Cultural Endowment.
The National Willa Cather Center is ADA accessible. We offer physical, visual, and audio accommodations for all attendees. If you require handicapped accessible seating, an ASL interpreter, or any other accommodations, please contact our Visitor Services Coordinator, Nick Powers, at npowers@willacather.org. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.
About the Performer
A native of Urbana, Ohio, Scott Kirby began his study of music at the age of six and continued formal piano instruction for seventeen years. He worked under Robert Howat of Wittenberg University of Ohio and Sylvia Zaremba at the Ohio State University. After obtaining an English degree from Ohio State University, Kirby moved to New Orleans and began his professional music career as a street performer. In the following four years, he recorded the complete rags of Scott Joplin. He made his debut at all of the major ragtime festivals in the United States, as well as festivals in Belgium, France, Norway, New Zealand, and Hungary.
Kirby has served as Musical Director of the “Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival” in Sedalia, MO, and of the “Rocky Mountain Ragtime and American Music Festival” in Boulder, CO, as well as director of the “San Juan Islands Ragtime Institute.” His appearances include a segment on CBS News Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. Kirby co-founded a record company (Viridiana Productions, L.L.C.), has made 25 recordings, and has composed over 150 original works for piano and other instruments. In 2004, Kirby’s artistic passion grew to include visual art, mostly focused on the American Great Plains and Prairies. These, together with new musical compositions, set the groundwork for his multi-media project “Main Street Souvenirs.” Kirby now lives in Boulder, Colorado, and divides his time between composing, painting, performing, and teaching.