“A Grand Night”

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Piano pizzazz. A small town music club puts on a big-time piano event each year. Four pianos on a single stage. Multiple players of all ages performing at the same time.

WORLD Senior Writer Kim Henderson was there for the 2025 performance.

KIM HENDERSON: It’s Wednesday. Two days before the town of Crystal Springs hosts one of its biggest annual events: a piano showdown they call “A Grand Night.” A group has gathered in the sanctuary of First Baptist Church.

SOUND: [WHIRRING]

They’ve been waiting for Josh Landrum to arrive: a guy who will move four baby grands pretty much by himself, with the help of an electric piano lift, straight from Italy.

JOSH LANDRUM:. We're one of the only companies in the US that has one. It's much safer for the mover and the piano.

Landrum has removed the legs of a Baldwin 151, and he’s strapped the body onto what looks like a souped-up dolly.

LANDRUM: I’m about to tilt it over, so I’m going to ask that we clear the stage.

The lift was a significant investment for his piano business, but Landrum says it was worth every penny.

LANDRUM: It's a lot cheaper than having a spinal surgery.

Landrum is delivering the rented pianos at the request of Inza Calloway.

SOUND: [DISCUSSION]

Calloway is a serious, slight-smiling church organist. She’s in charge of the musical extravaganza.

INZA CALLOWAY: We started it in 2012. It was going to be just a one time event, just to raise some money. And the community loved it.

But her group’s history goes back much farther than 2012. Crystal Springs has a MacDowell Club. MacDowell Clubs were established across the U.S. at the turn of the twentieth century. Members wanted to further the development of community music.

CALLOWAY: It's named after the composer MacDowell.

At their height, some 400 MacDowell Music Clubs met. These days, it’s about 15. In Crystal Springs, the group stays busy pretty much all year planning the Grand Night, which happens each March.

CALLOWAY: We'll meet in June and select the music and then pass it out to the players in September.

Just how many players are we talking about?

CALLOWAY: It's about 30.

Which explains their biggest challenge.

CALLOWAY: Getting everybody . . . to come to rehearsals.

The rehearsals start in January. They practice at two different churches.

CALLOWAY: The eight-people pieces really have to have a director, because it's hard to keep eight people together.

Eight players. Two to a piano bench. At four pianos, all at once. It’s quite a sight.

SOUND: [PIANO]

Quite a sound.

SOUND: [CROWD BEFORE SHOW]

When the Grand Night finally arrives, a crowd of about 400 lines up for tickets. They’re $10 dollars each.

Then, at exactly 7 p.m., a club member takes the mic and introduces the program against a backdrop of four gleaming baby grands. He proclaims the piano as the most versatile of instruments.

MEMBER: It doesn't have to be plugged in, turned on, cranked, primed or programmed.

Performers at A Grand Night in Crystal Springs, Mississippi Photo by Kim Henderson

SOUND: [APPLAUSE]

Groups of four players for one song, eight for another. They’re dressed in black, some in black sequins and sparkles. Calloway says the pianists represent quite an age span.

CALLOWAY: We've got from 13 to 80 something.

The music is wide-ranging, too. From a rollicking “Power in the Blood” . . .

SOUND: [HYMN]

. . . to a jazzy “Closer Walk with Thee.”

SOUND: [HYMN]

Inza Calloway joins a group playing a John Philip Sousa march.

SOUND: [A LIVELY MARCH]

Even Patsy Cline makes the cut.

SOUND: [CLINE’S “I’M CRAZY”]

Here’s a more recent song you might recognize.

SOUND: [GREATEST SHOWMAN]

It was the favorite of one teenage patron.

GIRL: The Greatest Showman . . . I love that show. And the songs are like, really, really . . .

Dwight Kemp Photo by Kim Henderson

The combined talent on stage was impressive.

SOUND: [GLISSANDO]

That’s Dwight Kemp’s nimble fingers. He started taking piano lessons when he was five. He went on to teach music in public schools in the state capital.

DWIGHT KEMP: Hinds County and in Jackson, but a total of 40 years.

And that’s really what a Grand Night is all about. Passing on a love of music. The money raised through ticket sales goes to fund music lessons for area students.

MEMBER: If I call your name as the recipient of one of these scholarships, please stand and remain standing.

Charity Berry’s son and daughter are both 2025 scholarship recipients.

BERRY: She plays piano, she plays clarinet in the band, and he plays the trumpet and the piano.

Berry wants them to get the best music instruction they can. She says the scholarship money will make a difference, because the cost of lessons really adds up. But what a payoff.

But what a payoff. As the satisfied concert-goers leave, you can see it in their eyes…the countdown has begun for next year’s piano showdown.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson in Crystal Springs, Mississippi.

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