Kendall Feeney Lets Her Music Do The Talking

You can learn more about Kendall Feeney by watching her fingers soar across the piano than listening to her talk about the passion she’s lived with nearly her entire life.

Feeney, 37, is the artistic director of Zephyr: Exploring 20th Century Sound, a concert series that has brought 20th century chamber music to Spokane since 1991.

Feeney began playing piano when she was 7 years old. Not a day has gone by since then that she hasn’t known what some part of the day would bring.

“When I get up in the morning I always know I have my music,” said Feeney, the morning light brightening her blue eyes.

Home for Feeney is an old house on the South Hill, large enough to accommodate her concert piano.

Tall evergreens that peek in the windows remind her of living in the mountains, a departure from where she was raised in Southern California.

“I bought (the house) because the piano fit and it was the first house I looked at that had a dog door,” she said, ruffling the muzzle of her dog, Pemba, a stray who followed her home.

“I would like to say she howls when I play Mozart, but she doesn’t,” she said.

However, her cat, Osbert, sometimes paws the light fantastic at night, stalking across the keyboard, making notes bubble haphazardly.

When Feeney sits down to play, she clips her dark, shoulder-length hair back, as if she is about to enter a sacred place.

She then describes to her listener the music she is about to play.

“This is a piece by an Argentinian musician. It’s supposed to sound like strumming,” she said.

Almost magically, Feeney’s fingers make her 7-feet-4-inch grand piano sing like a single, soft guitar.

She always tells the music’s story before playing it at Zephyr concerts.

“I talk to the audience about what’s going on in the music. People feel you have to know the secret handshake to enjoy classical music.”

Not so, she said.

Feeney wants to ensure that classical music isn’t relegated to a dust-ridden music room, a quaint memento from another age.

So she invites high school students, lovers of alternative music, pop and jazz to try on her musical wares.

In recent weeks she has played for students at Lewis and Clark, Gonzaga University and Eastern Washington University.

“What is important is pushing the envelope of classical music, ensuring that we have chamber music into the 21st century … making sure that it’s relevant for us now,” Feeney said. “I call it the demustification of classical music.”

Zephyr’s concerts feature local musicians and some from cities like Los Angeles and New York.

“They all say how warm the audiences in Spokane are,” she said.

With each concert, Feeney said she hopes to bring forth the childlike wonder sometimes hidden inside the listener.

“Pablo Casals, the cellist, said ‘the trueness of music is an ability to look into the movement of the tides or the stars.’

“I can’t say that I do it, but I reach for it.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Zephyr concert Zephyr’s next concert, “Danzas and Tangos: An Evening of Latin American Music,” will be held at 8 p.m., Friday at the Met. Tickets available at all G & B outlets. Cost is $8 for students; $12 and $14 for the general audience.