A different kind of piano concert happening Tuesday. (Think outdoors and with headphones)

Music. Nature. Together. That’s the motto of composer Murray Hidary’s MindTravel concerts, the latest of which is coming to L.A.’s Elysian Park Tuesday Nov. 18.

At the events, you’ll find Hidary on the piano, surrounded by an audience of people on folding chairs or blankets. The difference — apart from the open sky above — is that they’re wearing headphones.

Hidary, who has performed in indoor stages and concert halls, finds this setting taps into stronger emotions.

“The audience kind of enters this flow state of just being present, and to me that's the most powerful place you can take an audience,” Hidary said.

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Audience members can also lie down, close their eyes, stand up, walk around, not worrying about disturbing others — all while focussing on Hidary’s meditative music.

“It feels like I'm playing just for you,” he said.

Hidary’s performed MindTravel concerts around the United States for over a decade, including the beach in Santa Monica, but Tuesday’s concert is the first time he’ll play in Elysian Park, L.A.’s first official park.

State of contemplation

What does a MindTravel performance sound like? Don’t expect the structure of movements in classical compositions. Instead think of the long mesmerizing, meditative arcs of the music of Phillip Glass and Ravi Shankar, two of Hidary’s big inspirations.

Hidary hopes the music he chooses to play during MindTravel puts the audience in a state in which they contemplate the natural surroundings, the people around them, and their human emotions. Stage and theater concerts have their place, he said, but audiences in those settings expect entertainment. MindTravel is something else, he said.

MindTravel performances allow the audience to move around and interact with other people while listening to live piano.

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Courtesy Murray Hidary

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“Using music in that capacity, using music to open something up internally, to kind of expand our own state of consciousness and using music in that way” is his ultimate goal, he said. “[MindTravel] doesn't become an escape from your life, but it becomes a confrontation of your deepest self."

Hidary studied music and composition at NYU and had success in the tech boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s. But a traumatic event at the tail end of that success led him to see music in a different way and put him on the path to create MindTravel.

MindTravel has been performed at the beach in Santa Monica and other outdoor venues around the U.S.

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Courtesy Murray Hidary

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“I went through probably the most difficult, challenging time of my life, which was the sudden and tragic death of my little sister in an accident,” he said.

He played the piano to work through the emotional pain and took up vedic meditation to help settle his thoughts.

Improvisation leads to deep connections

No two MindTravel concerts are alike because Hidary often changes what he plays to react to what he sees and feels at the time of the concert.

“I can remember one time there was a train going by and I kind of figured out what pitch it was and started to play in that pitch in kind of sympathy with the train moving in its own rhythm and its own pitch,” Hidary said.

People who’ve attended MindTravel say the event helps them tap into emotions in ways that an indoor concert cannot.

“This experience is so magical and grounding,” one person said on MindTravel’s Instagram account.

“It reminded me how powerful it is to just be. To breathe. To listen. To feel. When we slow down enough to be fully present, the noise fades — and our truth gets louder," another said.