VERO BEACH — The Laura Riding Jackson Foundation is proud to present the acclaimed pianist Dr. Jeffrey Hollander in an afternoon salon performance of piano selections, followed by light refreshments. The program will be presented at 4 p.m. Sunday, March 13 in the intimate setting of a private Vero Beach home, on a beautiful Steinway grand with a fascinating history of its own. Hollander is internationally acclaimed and in frequent demand for solo concerts, concerti with major orchestras, and as a jazz pianist and raconteur. He received a doctorate in piano performance with the eminent Hungarian concert pianist Gyorgy Sandor, who studied with Bela Bartok in the tradition of Franz Liszt.
Retired as a fulltime professor of music at the University of Wisconsin, Hollander has performed throughout the United States, as a soloist with Doc Severinsen and the Milwaukee Symphony, and in concerts in France, Hungary and Santo Domingo and at the Franz Liszt Museum in Budapest. He regularly performs at Milwaukee’s historic Pfister Hotel, recently gave a concert on Gyorgy Sandor’s historic concert grand, and he continues to do select benefit concerts throughout the United States.
Hollander will perform at a local private home, showcasing a turn-of-the-century family heirloom Steinway. This ornately carved, Brazilian rosewood instrument was custom made for Marie Grice Young, a relative of the family. Young was an accomplished pianist and White House music teacher, and taught the children of Theodore Roosevelt and other notable families in the early 1900’s.
In April, 1912 she boarded as a first-class passenger from Cherbourg on the Titanic, but finished her travels in Rescue boat #8 in New York City. Following her Titanic adventure, Young wrote a detailed account of her experience and later established a piano studio at the Waldorff Astoria hotel in New York, with the rosewood Steinway as centerpiece. Hollander has a passion for historic pianos and their stories, and piano aficionados and music lovers of all types are sure to be delighted by this afternoon of period and Titanic-themed music.
Proceeds will benefit programs sponsored by the Laura (Riding) Jackson Foundation, including popular, free Teen Writer Workshops and the restoration of the historical Laura (Riding) Jackson home. The mission of the Laura (Riding) Jackson Foundation is to preserve the home of the late poet and to promote literary programs that nurture a passion for creativity and the written word.
In addition to the Teen Writer workshops the foundation has sponsored various adult workshops and classes, the former Vero Beach Book Festival, and in collaboration with The Emerson Center’s “Special Engagement Series,” nationally renowned authors such as Greg Mortenson (“Three Cups of Tea”) and Rory Stewart (“The Places in Between” and “The Prince of the Marshes”) at the Emerson Center.
Admission is a $75 minimum donation per person and is limited to 50 guests.
To reserve your seat, call 772-569-6718 or visit www.lauraridingjackson.com. Tickets and directions to the concert location will be mailed to the address you provide.