MacPhail Austin welcomes Grammy Award winning pianist for second annual festival

Feb. 20—MacPhail Center for Music Austin has announced its second annual piano festival and as part of the MacPhail Presents Series, this year's festival will feature Grammy Award-winning pianist Geoffrey Keezer.

A native of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Keezer has performed with Sting, Wayne Shorter, Christian McBride, Barbara Hendricks, and more. Described by The New York Times as "...the kind of straight-ahead piano player you wish for: multifaceted, responsive, constantly sifting through colors and shapes, bursting with a personal and sincere enthusiasm," MacPhail is thrilled to welcome Keezer.

The piano festival is an opportunity to honor Austin's Fazioli 308 concert grand piano while celebrating the piano and the power of music.

"We have this beautiful piano here in Austin," said Austin site director Cheryl Berglund. "But more importantly, it will gather piano students in the community and larger — it's open to Minnesota — just to celebrate the piano. This is just a key learning experience."

The festival concert will take place at MacPhail Austin's state-of-the-art music education center at 7 p.m. on March 2

Tickets are available for purchase at www.macphail.org. New this year is a choose-what-you-pay model for ticketed events, to make the arts more accessible while centering equity and inclusion in all the center does.