Monday, Mar 6, 2017
Rider University’s Westminster College of the Arts is delighted to announce a new partnership with Jacobs Music Company and Steinway & Sons, which will bring eight Steinway & Sons grand pianos to the Westminster campus, including a Steinway Model D, nine-foot concert grand.
Part of Steinway’s Festival Placement Program, in addition to bringing eight new Steinway & Sons pianos to Westminster, the partnership includes a master class for Westminster students with Steinway Artist Sandra Rivers, one of the world’s preeminent collaborative pianists. Professor of Collaborative Piano at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Ms. Rivers has performed with some of our era’s leading singers and instrumentalists, including Kathleen Battle, Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell and Sarah Chang.
Another partnership benefit will be a private guided tour of the Steinway Factory for students and friends of the College. To mark this new relationship, Jacobs Music Company is establishing the Jacobs Music Steinway Award, which will include an annual scholarship for a Westminster Choir College piano student.
“Jacobs Music Company is pleased to enter into this partnership with Rider University’s Westminster College of the Arts,” says Jacobs Music’s Senior Vice President Robert A. Rinaldi. “The selection and arrival of these Steinway & Sons pianos is a significant symbol of Westminster’s commitment to its present and future piano program.”
“On behalf of the entire Piano faculty and students, I would like to express our gratitude to Bob Rinaldi and Jacobs Music Co. for their amazing generosity and support for the piano program at Westminster Choir College,” says Professor Ingrid Clarfield, head of Westminster’s piano division. Our future now looks brighter than ever!”
Clarfield and other faculty members will visit the Steinway & Sons factory on March 30 to select the Steinway Model D, nine-foot grand for the Westminster campus.
Westminster Choir College offers a Bachelor of Music in Piano, a Master of Music in Piano Performance, in Piano Pedagogy and Performance and in Piano Accompanying and Coaching. Founded in 1900, Jacobs Music Company is the area’s exclusive representative for new and authentically restored Steinway & Sons, Steinway-designed Boston and Steinway-designed Essex pianos. Considered the world’s finest pianos, Steinways are played by more than 97 percent of all concert pianists performing with major symphony orchestras around the world.