Thursday, February 15, 2024
6:00pm
Performance in Hosmer Auditorium–Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
About Allen Miller
Allen Miller is a graduate of the High School of Music and Art in New York City, now the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.
Allen grew up in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn in New York City, and started playing piano at the age of seven. He has played numerous concerts for residents of Central New York nursing homes and assisted-living facilities. In addition, he gave a concert at the Syracuse Hancock Airport on March 24, 2022, where he played on a $200,000 concert piano (one of the finest in the world) that had previously been used by many artists, including Alicia Keys, Nora Jones, Neil Sedaka, Jim Brickman, Paul Anka and Frank Sinatra, Jr.
He taught physics as a member of the Syracuse University faculty for 45 years and is now a Syracuse University Physics Faculty Emeritus. He resides in Central New York and is recording an album at SubCat Studios of some of his favorite classical music selections.
Allen Miller has performed several times at the Everson and will continue to do so.
About the Kawai Grand Piano
The beautiful Kawai grand piano was donated to the Everson Museum of Art by Bob Marino and Janet Gramza to continue its history as an ambassador instrument.
The 1984 Kawai grand piano was purchased from its original owner by members of the Pulaski Congregational Church in 2008 in memory of Rhea LaVeck, a music teacher and former music director for the church. The church “sold” each of the 88 keys on the piano to raise $8,800 to buy the piano and start the LaVeck Concert Series to bring Classical music to an underserved area of rural Northern New York.
The concert series ran from 2009 to 2019 and brought dozens of solo and chamber musicians to perform at the Pulaski church, including the Everson’s first Musician-in-Residence, violinist David Fulmer. Bob and Janet helped run the concert series and became friends with David, who Bob has worked with in his live recording business, Grindstone Music.
Leading into the pandemic, the Pulaski church suffered dwindling membership and never recovered. As a result, the concert series ended. When Bob and Janet learned the piano was being sold, they offered to purchase it from the church and donate it to the Everson so that it can continue its role in enhancing our community’s cultural experiences.
Pictured: LaVeck director and SUNY Oswego Professor Rob Auler performs a solo piano recital featuring works by Beethoven, Ravel, and others, Pulaski Congregational Church, November 2021
