February 15, 2024 – Students of Associate Professor of Music Mitch McKay will play the college’s full-size Steinway concert grand piano in a free recital beginning at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 13, 2024, in the Jackson N. Sasser Fine Arts Hall at the Northwest Campus of Santa Fe College (SF), 3000 NW 83 Street, Gainesville. Admission is free and tickets are not required.
“Six Santa Fe College students as well as two guests will perform in our recital,” McKay said. “We’ll include music by Chopin, Bach, H. Leslie Adams and more. I’m looking forward to this recital because I have some excellent new students this semester and three great returning students. I know there will be great music and great playing!”
“It’s important for the students to have the experience of playing the Steinway,” McKay explained, “because the tone quality is vastly different from that of a smaller piano. The Fine Arts Hall has excellent acoustics and playing in that space is very different from playing in a small practice room or in someone’s living room.”
The college’s Steinway Model D Concert Grand piano was acquired in 2011 from the University of Florida, where it was used in performance and signed by the renowned pianist André Watts. SF is the first member of the Florida College System to be named an All-Steinway School, a title reserved for colleges and universities with 90 percent or more Steinways and that meet the manufacturer’s standards for use, maintenance and security of the pianos.
McKay has a master’s degree in music from Arizona State University and a doctorate in piano performance from Michigan State University. He was hired to teach piano at SF after graduating from Michigan State in 2012. In addition to teaching piano, he has also taught music theory and music appreciation.
McKay has performed with the Brigham Young University-Idaho Symphony Orchestra and at Steinway Hall in New York City. He has adjudicated various piano competitions in the Southeast and his students have gained recognition in competitions that include the Florida Promotion of Music Club’s Sonata Festival, the Florida Federation of Music Clubs Festival and the Alcorn State University Piano Competition.
The student piano recital is organized and sponsored by the Santa Fe College Fine Arts and Entertainment Technology Department.
For more information about the recital and/or SF’s piano program, call Mitch McKay at 352-395-5144.