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The first concert of the Boone Company under Lange's auspices was held on January 18th, 1880 at St. Paul's Methodist Church in Jefferson City, Missouri, and was a great artistic success. Boone played a Hungarian Rhapsody by Liszt and some Beethoven Sonatas, as well as selections from operas. The program also included a number of his own compositions including "Marshfield Tornado", a piece for which he was to become famous. This piece was a musical representation of an actual tornado which had occurred in Marshfield, Missouri. According to his biographer, Boone refused to reproduce the piece, either by publication or piano roll, claiming that he wanted to reserve it for his own use. During this period Boone married Eugenia, Lange's sister, who frequently traveled with him on his tours.

Boone plays over 26,000 concerts. Boone became a highly successful concert artist, playing in thousands of concert halls and churches and earning an enormous income. By 1916 his company had played over 26,000 concerts throughout the world and Boone was described by his contemporaries and critics as a musical genius with a both a phenomenal musical ear and musical memory. One of his most remarkable feats was to ask a performer to come from the audience and play a piece which was unknown to him, after which he would repeat it exactly as performed. His reputation was so great that the Chickering Piano Company made a nine foot concert grand for his use exclusively. This impressive instrument was made entirely of oak and is now kept in the Boone County Historical Society at Columbia, Missouri where it is made available to visiting pianists.

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