Pianist Susan Zhang, Peab '18 (GPD), describes music as a gathering place. But traditional concert halls can sometimes feel exclusive, she says, owing to pricey tickets and complicated rules of etiquette, such as how to dress or when to clap. "Sometimes, people don't feel comfortable," she says. "They don't know the norms or the traditions, so they don't feel comfortable in their own skins."
In 2016, Zhang and fellow pianist Nick Luby teamed up to launch the Concert Truck, a DIY transformation of a box truck into a mobile concert venue, complete with lights, sound equipment, a digital piano, and an extendable stage. Together, the duo travels to festivals, schools, hospitals, parks, and even street corners to put on free concerts, often inviting local musicians to join. No fancy curtain to draw; just open up the truck's side and start playing.
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"It's different from a concert hall, where people come into your space," she says. "What we're doing is being guests in other people's space. It's important to us to be respectful, and that's why we want to have local musicians come and play with us whenever we can, so it feels more like a collaborative effort."
The idea for the truck came to Luby in 2015, when he was traveling and would stop at churches to practice piano. People would wander in to listen, expressing their appreciation for his music. But it wasn't until the pandemic, when music venues across the country were forced to close their doors, that the truck really took off. A rep from the Washington National Opera reached out about collaborating on a series of performances, including a children's opera. "We just started cold-calling the heads of major organizations across the country, and I had some friends who also made some introductions," Zhang says. "It sort of took off from there."
Since then, Zhang and Luby have temporarily said goodbye to their home base of Baltimore City to live on the road, making hundreds of stops along the way in Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, Texas, Colorado, Massachusetts, and beyond.
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At one recent performance, the pair rolled up to an elementary school in Raleigh, North Carolina, accompanied by the North Carolina Symphony. As teachers danced in the background and students clapped to the beat, Luby and Zhang executed detailed choreography as they played an arrangement of Libertango by Astor Piazzolla.
"It felt like a very interactive performance," she says. "When we're talking about breaking barriers, that's what we want to encourage—for people to feel free to respond to it however they want. And at the end of the concert, the kids were swarming us and asking for autographs, which is kind of wild. The school performances are particularly rewarding because the kids are really free. They don't have preconceived ideas of what to expect. It's just a fun experience for everybody."
On the Road Again Track the Concert Truck's whereabouts
Performance blooper reel: "We had many public failures—from stumbling through words, to banging my head on the cab door, to equipment malfunctions—before we figured out how to do things reliably and consistently."
Pit stop purchases: Dark chocolate and sour cream and onion Pringles.
What she's watching: The Great British Baking Show and You.
Road trip soundtrack: "Depends on the mood. Sometimes hip-hop, sometimes indie music from the early and mid-aughts, sometimes Rachmaninoff."
