Nebraska musician David Calkins began working on a project well over a year ago to record a CD of excerpts from operas. What was different about this project is that he used Yamaha Clavinova CVP96 digital pianos to completely record the orchestral score. He got the idea after he bought a Clavinova at Music & More in Scotts Bluff. “David was just enamored with the features of the Clavinova,” says Diana Shaddick of Music & More.

Calkins approached Shaddick to play piano on Opera on the Plains along with Becky Kugler and Cindy Tuzson, two local piano teachers. “One pianist played low strings, one high, and one played winds,” says Shaddick. “The orchestration was fabulous. David had one of us play one line, then had someone else come in at a different point with another instrument. When he put it together it just sounded amazing.”

Calkins sang on the CD as well as directed it. “We worked really hard, meeting on Sunday afternoons when the store was closed,” says Shaddick. “The whole project took about nine months to complete.” Finding a full orchestra was very difficult in the Scotts Bluff area — there are small chamber groups but no symphonies. The Clavinova digital pianos transformed the three pianists into a symphony orchestra.

Music from Opera on the Plains as well as Calkins’ other CDs are featured regularly on Wyoming Public Radio. Calkins is planning a future CD project using children’s voices.

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