The Kimmel Center and Jacobs Music Celebrate 150 Years of Steinway
Four-day weekend celebration kicks off with two solo piano concerts featuring acclaimed classical and jazz artists
October 4, 2002
Performances
The celebration, designed for the piano enthusiast, will be kicked off with two solo piano concerts featuring acclaimed classical and jazz artists at 7 p.m. and 9:30pm on Thursday, October 17. Headlining the classical concert, at the 7pm show in The Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater, will be Curtis Institute Director Gary Graffman, Van Cliburn Gold Medalist Olga Kern, and Principal Conductor of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia Ignat Solzhenitsyn.
The 9:30pm jazz concert in Perelman Theater will feature Peter Nero, Grammy Award winner and conductor of Peter Nero and the Philly POPS®, Fred Hersch, internationally acclaimed composer and pianist, and young lion Eric Reed, a Philadelphian and former Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and Wynton Marsalis Septet pianist. Tickets for each show are $40 or specially priced at $70 for both performances.
Tickets can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at www.kimmelcenter.org or at The Kimmel Center box office, open daily from 10am to 6pm and later on evenings with performances.
A limited number of $10 tickets will be available for every Kimmel Center Presents performance. These $10 tickets go on sale the day of the event and can be purchased at the box office beginning at 5:30 p.m. for evening performances. Limit one per person.
The weekend of piano performances continues with Spotlight Performances throughout the weekend featuring free performances by faculty and student pianists from area colleges of music in The Kimmel Center’s Commonwealth Plaza.
Friday, October 18
11am - Noon The Academy of Vocal Arts
Noon - 1pm The Curtis Institute of Music
5pm - 6pm Philadelphia High School for the Creative & Performing Arts (a special pre-college performance)
6pm - 7pm Temple University’s Esther Boyer College of Music
Saturday, October 19
Noon - 1pm West Chester University
1pm - 2pm The University of the Arts
5pm - 7pm Kutztown University, Lehigh University,
Moravian University, and Muhlenberg College
In addition, free performances by students of community music schools from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware will take place in The Kimmel Center’s Merck Arts Education Center on October 18 from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m., October 19 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and October 20 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Participating schools include: Community Conservatory of Doylestown, Community Music School of Allentown, Darlington Fine Arts Center, Grand Staff Piano Studio, Haddonfield School for the Performing Arts, Main Line Conservatory of Music, Nelly Berman School of Music, New School for Music Study, Settlement Music School, Wilmington Music School and Wyomissing Institute of Fine Arts, among others.
Steinway Pianos On Display
Piano aficionados can stop by The Kimmel Center throughout the weekend to view an amazing collection of unique Steinway pianos. Featured pianos include: the performance instruments of Vladimir Horowitz and Van Cliburn; the stunning blue Rhapsody, designed to honor George Gershwin; the distinctive 500,000th Steinway, bearing the signatures of more than 800 noted Steinway artists; and the very first Steinway, built in his kitchen by Henry Engelhard Steinway.
Lectures
The weekend of performances is rounded out with the Steinway-Smithsonian Piano 300 Lecture series, free to the public at The Kimmel Center. Dr. Edwin M. Good, a Smithsonian Piano 300 Curator, author and historian will speak on “A Noteworthy Past: The History of the First 150 Years of Piano” and “How a Legend Was Born: The Making of the First Steinway Through Today’s Steinway.” Lecture times are October 18 at 1 p.m., October 19 at 11 a.m. and October 20 at noon in The Kimmel Center’s Merck Arts Education Center. Good also will be on hand for informal lectures in Commonwealth Plaza throughout the weekend.
Miles Chapin, Steinway family member, actor and author of 88 Keys: The Making of a Steinway Piano, will take an inside look at the lives and history of the first family of pianos. Chapin will speak on October 18 and October 19 at 6 p.m. He will also provide free, informal lectures in Commonwealth Plaza throughout the weekend.
In addition, Frank Mohr, retired chief concert technician of Steinway & Sons and author of My Life with the Great Pianists, will recount his experiences with Horowitz, Rubenstein, Gould and other legendary artists. Mohr will be on hand for free, informal lectures in Commonwealth Plaza throughout the weekend.
Steinway Selection Event
A large assortment of new, pre-owned, authentically restored Steinways and Steinway-designed Boston pianos in every model, style and finish will be made available at The Kimmel Center for selection. Choose from ebony, mahogany and walnut in classic furniture styling or select a Chippendale, Louis XV, Tiffany, exotic Crown Jewel or Art Case Steinway.
All pianos selected at The Kimmel Center will include a special 150th Anniversary Commemorative Plaque. Select a Steinway piano and you are entered into a sweepstakes to win a trip to see a Steinway artist perform in Paris, Milan, London, Brussels, Montreal, Los Angeles or Chicago. All selections are made by appointment only. To make an appointment, call 1-800-88-PIANO.
Steinway 150th Anniversary Sweepstakes
For information on how you can win a Steinway piano, stop by the box office at The Kimmel Center or visit www.kimmelcenter.org.
The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts owns, manages, supports and maintains The Kimmel Center, manages The Academy of Music, and serves as home to nine Resident Companies. These companies include Kimmel Center Presents, a program that offers a rich diversity of choices to complement presentations by the other companies. Activities of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts also include arts-in-education programming provided by the Merck Arts Education Center and free entertainment throughout the year featuring a wide range of local and regional artists.
Founded in 1900, Jacobs Music Company is Steinway’s exclusive Dealer Representative in the region with locations in Philadelphia, Willow Grove, and Allentown, Pennsylvania; Cherry Hill and Lawrenceville, New Jersey; and Wilmington, Delaware. Jacobs provides instruments and technical services for the area's foremost artists and institutions while actively supporting arts and promoting music education, sponsoring young artist competitions, concerts, master classes and teacher seminars.
> index of news releases
> For more information, and to request high resolution images for press use, please
send us a message online.