Snyder to open Valley Roots Concert Series at Empire Arts Center
Aug. 31—GRAND FORKS — In his one-man piano show, David Snyder plans to delight the audience with an unexpected concert experience in his show, "The Piano Says It Better," set for 7:30 p.m., Friday, Sept. 1, at the Empire Arts Center.
Snyder, who grew up in rural Grand Forks and is pursuing a music career in Los Angeles, said his approach to the piano is unusual, and probably unique.
"I think people tend to think of a piano concert as a very serious, classical approach. But my approach to the piano is: This is so much fun. And I just get to do what I love and have fun doing it.
"And so, my videos on TikTok and Instagram are filled with me laughing, and jamming out, and playing fun jazzy funky licks to the most defining pop songs. I've had some success with a video that has gone viral of me playing piano to Taylor Swift songs."
His accessible style has attracted nearly five million views altogether on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and other streaming platforms, he said.
Snyder, 25, shatters the stuffy stereotypes with an array of original compositions and arrangements of familiar music — from classical to contemporary — that exhibit his own personal style.
Snyder's concert will be the first of three performances in the Empire Arts Center's "Valley Roots Concerts Series." The series, sponsored by Rydell Buick GMC, will feature successful professional musicians with ties to the Red River Valley region who have achieved widespread notoriety.
Other scheduled performances are: The Waddington Brothers with Seth Mulder and Midnight Run on Oct. 26, and The Concerto Project, featuring Matthew Lorenz, on Nov. 17 and 18, according to an Empire Arts Center announcement. Mulder is originally from Hillsboro, North Dakota; Lorenz is from Grand Forks.
Snyder's career got a boost from his appearances as a contestant on NBC-TV's "America's Got Talent" in August 2022 and by opening for Snoop Dogg last fall in San Diego. Exposure at those and other events led to invitations from other venues.
He developed "The Piano Says It Better" tour as "an ode to the beauty and the diversity of the piano, and how it could speak so much better than my words ever could," he said.
His show "is filled with so many songs from different genres that I either arranged or composed himself," said Snyder, who will have multiple pianos on stage Friday. "It's very enthusiastic, exciting and full of energy — and that's what I want people to experience in the show.
"It's a story-telling piece of how I fell in love with the piano," he said.
But the show "is so much more than me playing the piano," Snyder said. He'll infuse the performance with humor and personal insights.
"It's full of comedy; it's also heart-warming," he said. "It's an ode to my roots in North Dakota and I talk about my piano teacher and how I grew up here and how that impacted me when I moved to Los Angeles."
On Saturday, Snyder will head to Stanley, North Dakota, for a performance at the Sibyl Center.
"Stanley kind of started the whole tour, in a way," he said. After his appearance on "America's Got Talent," music-lovers in Stanley reached out and invited him to perform there.
"Traction had started building for my music," he said, and with that invitation, along with interest from other venues, he decided to put together a tour.
"It's my first tour, and we're giving it a go," he said. The first performance was staged Saturday, Aug. 26, at the Jaxx Theatre in Hollywood, California, he said. He may add more tour dates later.
Snyder credits his piano teacher, Mary Jane Halverson of Grand Forks, for "empowering me and motivating me," he said, and "for showing me how to technically play the piano ... and understand classical literature."
His experiences with piano competitions was "a huge instrument in developing my voice as an artist," he said. The competitions were important in developing discipline and technique, but "there were also things that felt difficult for me, because I didn't feel like it was my voice. ... There was definitely a reckoning in my mind of, what is me at the piano? And what's expected of me at the piano.
"I really go into depth in the show of how I unraveled who I am now and began to uncover the way I compose music and approach music."
Snyder said he's also appreciative of the "huge support" he received from his parents, Paul and Shawn Snyder, and nine siblings — all of whom are planning to attend his performance at the Empire Arts Center.
Tickets for Friday's show at the Empire Arts Center are $25 per person, and may be purchased online at
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