The Keene State Music Department came together for the “All-Steinway, All Together” celebration on Sunday, October 20.
The celebration, held at 3 p.m. in the Alumni Recital Hall at the Redfern Arts Center, celebrated the Music Department’s achievement of becoming an all-Steinway campus. Keene State is now the only all-Steinway campus in New Hampshire.
The event included performances from staff, students and alumni, a reveal of the donor plaque, and a demonstration of a Steinway Spirio-r.
“This is the culmination of a six-year capital campaign,” said KSC Music Professor Dr. Christina Wright-Ivanova. “It’s the largest capital campaign the Music Department and, frankly, Keene State College has actually seen.”
According to Wright-Ivanova, the Music Department’s campaign raised almost $850,000 for the necessary Steinway equipment. The total equipment included 24 new Steinway and Boston pianos, one of them being a new Steinway Spirio-r piano.
“This piano has world-class, brand-new technological capabilities where you can not just record, but practically capture in real-time exactly what the pianist just played and then play it back into the hall,” said Wright-Ivanova.
The piano also has broadcasting capabilities that would allow for masterclasses to be taught across the globe.
“They [students from across the globe] would be able to hear me over their stereo in real-time and vice versa,” said Wright-Ivanova. “They could broadcast their playing over to Keene State College.”
Keene State is the fourth institution (after Harvard, Brown and MIT) to receive this piano.
“We’re super excited at Keene State to have this world-class instrument and to become an all-Steinway school,” said Wright-Ivanova.
The event was free to all. There was an optional donation request, which went to the Keene Community Kitchen.
“We wanted this celebration of all these expensive pianos to be also deeply connected to the community and rooted in the beginning of a long relationship with the Music Department and the community,” said Wright-Ivanova.
Wright-Ivanova said that the new instruments are important not just for music majors, but also for non-music majors.
“There are about 500 students at Keene State who are not music students who participate in our larger ensembles,” said Wright-Ivanova. “And all of those ensembles use piano. So there’s really a big reach across campus.”
Wright-Ivanova invited all non-music majors who are interested to come and try out the new instruments.
“If there’s a student on campus who just wants to enjoy a soundproof room with a beautiful piano, they can come on over and use the space,” she said.
“We just have so many offerings and these world-class instruments,” she later said. “So come on over to the Redfern.”
In the future, Wright-Ivanova hopes to bring more guest performers to the Alumni Recital Hall, along with more faculty recitals.
Attendee Kristin Bell said that she was happy to see the campaign meet its goal.
“I’ve been to several of the fundraising events, I’ve participated and have heard about it over the last six years,” she said. “It was just so lovely to see it come to fruition.”
“I think it’s an amazing achievement,” she added. “I think it’s a tremendous resource for the students.”
“The dedication that the faculty has put into bringing this [to Keene] will only better the students and, hopefully, bring in more students in music to the college and to the community,” she added.
Emily Sloane can be contacted at
esloane@kscequinox.com
