Ridgefield High benefit concert features trio of blind pianists

When Mac Potts joins one of those stupendous gatherings of great pianists on a single stage known as “10 Grands,” he said, all the other musicians are busy reading written scores.

Not Potts, who was born blind. He’s been working almost entirely by ear ever since he was a child and started studying the keyboard via the Suzuki method, which emphasizes ears over eyes. He’s learned to read Braille musical notation, he said, but it’s been years since he bothered using it.

“I can follow anything,” he said. “Music is never the hard part.”

What’s harder, he said, is extra-musical communication and coordination. That’s especially true when he’s working with the “3 Grands” group that he first convened for a 125th anniversary celebration at Vancouver’s historic Washington State School for the Blind in 2011. The other two pianists in the “3 Grands” trio, Nick Baker and Brent Gjerve, are both blind and living with autism.

Potts, 26, plays and sings several nights a week at WareHouse ’23 and Nom Nom Restaurant in downtown Vancouver, and he travels to other area gigs, too. His wife, classical pianist and fellow “10 Grands” star Hailey Potts, does the driving. (The couple just learned that they’re expecting a child in September.) He also tunes pianos and teaches others to play. Because of his and his piano partners’ busy schedules, he said, not a lot of rehearsal has gone into the upcoming “3 Grands” concert that’s set for 7 p.m. Sunday at Ridgefield High School. And, because of everybody’s blindness, nobody will be reading music or taking cues from one another’s nods or glances.

“I can’t cue anybody with my head,” he said. “We’re all blind people.”

Therefore, Potts said, the concert will be a spectacle of spontaneity, meticulous listening and sharp memory. The trio will pull up various crowd-pleasing medleys that it’s mastered in the past — maybe Elton John, maybe Simon and Garfunkel, maybe Carole King. Potts wasn’t exactly sure when interviewed last week. Not a problem, he said.

“We’ve played together about a dozen times, and I can still remember everything we’ve done,” he said.

Plus, of course, there will be many delightful musical surprises and exciting challenges in real time.

“We’ll each prepare a bunch of weird stuff, individually,” Potts said, and then sink or swim together. “I never know what they’re going to play.”

The concert, a benefit for music programs and scholarships in Ridgefield schools, will also feature local jazz singer and music educator Darcy Schmitt and the Ridgefield High School Choir. It’s hosted by the Ridgefield Lions Club.

Playing for people

Potts grew up in a musical family, he said, but believes that blindness contributed to his exceptional musicianship. “I went farther with it because I never knew anything else,” he said.

Lately, he has been spending concentrated time in the recording studio, working toward what will be his 11th CD — an album covering Ed Sheeran songs — but he said his real preference is playing for people.

He and his wife will appear in a new “10 Grands” production at 7 p.m. March 31 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland. After that, Potts is looking forward to a trip to New Orleans to play in restaurants and jam with some of the big names appearing at the annual Jazz and Heritage Festival there in late April and early May; in the past, he’s sat in with the likes of Dr. John and Charmaine Neville. In July comes Portland’s annual Waterfront Blues Festival, where Potts has appeared every year for the past dozen.

“What would I play if I was alone in the living room? That’s not when I play,” he said. “I don’t play for myself, I play for audiences.”

Dealing with people

Potts has also spoken to an audience — on the internet — on the subject of blindness. He agreed to appear in an insightful series of videos called “Blind People Describe,” in which a number discuss their private sensations and experiences — as well as their interactions with sighted people, for good and for ill.

Potts is one of several who say they don’t appreciate being shouted at, as if blindness is actually deafness; he appreciates offers of help but definitely doesn’t appreciate people seizing his arm (to cross a street, for example) without asking first, he said.

Can blind people be racist? Frankly and articulately, Potts explained that he is somewhat able to perceive ethnic and racial differences through speech patterns, and finds himself struggling against preconceptions and biases like anyone else. “I’m still human,” he said.

What does beauty mean to him? “The sound of rain when falling asleep,” Potts said. Or, the simple joy of “walking out into the sunshine.”

And what do you fear most?

“A world of silence,” Potts said.