Release date: October 6, 2007
Kennesaw State becomes an All-Steinway School
Contact: Cheryl Anderson Brown, Assistant Director of Public Relations
770-499-3417 or cbrown@kennesaw.edu
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(From left) Dean Joseph Meeks, Dr. Bobbie Bailey, President Daniel Papp and Steinway & Sons representative Byron Brown celebrate Bailey's announcement that KSU will be an All-Steinway School |
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KSU music alumnus and artist-in-residence Robert Henry performs on the new Steinway D pianothat Bailey dedicated to her mother, Mary Elizabeth Bailey. The piano has been nicknamed "Miss Mary." |
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KENNESAW, Ga.—Kennesaw State University officially has become an “All-Steinway School” after benefactor Dr. Bobbie Bailey announced her additional donation of 26 Steinway pianos to the KSU College of the Arts. The announcement was made during the grand opening concert for the Dr. Bobbie Bailey and Family Performance Center this evening on the KSU campus. Bailey recently made a $1.75 million gift to the college. With the additional Steinway pianos, her gift now exceeds $2 million.
The designation of “All-Steinway School” indicates that all of the pianos used by the school are designed by Steinway & Sons. Other All-Steinway Schools include The Juilliard School and Yale School of Music. Kennesaw State is the third one in Georgia; the others are the University of Georgia and Spelman College.
The announcement comes after a celebration earlier this week for the delivery of a single Steinway D concert grand piano, which Bailey also purchased for the school. That piano was dedicated in honor of Bailey’s mother, Mary Elizabeth Bailey, during the grand opening concert. Including the new Steinway D, Kennesaw State will now have a total inventory of 30 Steinway pianos, which will be used in the music rehearsal hall, student practice rooms, faculty studios and performance spaces. Currently, KSU has two International Steinway Artists on faculty, Professor of Piano David Watkins, and artist-in-residence Robert Henry.
The Steinway brand is internationally recognized as the epitome of quality in craftsmanship. Each piano is handcrafted and can take up to one year to complete, resulting in an instrument of exceptional quality. For a music program to have a few Steinway pianos is excellent, but to become an All-Steinway School is a unique honor, according to Joseph Meeks, dean of the KSU College of the Arts, “We are delighted to be an All-Steinway School,” he says. “This distinction is an immeasurable asset to our program and enables us to offer the best instruments available to our music students and faculty.”
To honor Bailey’s philanthropic support of the arts at Kennesaw State as well as in the surrounding community, the College of the Arts is endowing a scholarship in her name. Meeks announced the endowment of the Bailey scholarship during a dinner that took place on campus before the grand opening concert.
“We chose to establish this scholarship to recognize and honor Bobbie Bailey’s commitment to the arts and to ensure the success of future arts students at Kennesaw State,” We are deeply grateful for her ongoing support.”
The specifics of the Bailey scholarship are yet to be determined; however, endowed scholarships are long-term investments to help secure the future success and quality of students. To establish a new endowment at Kennesaw State, the minimum funding level is $20,000. Funds for the Bailey endowment were designated from proceeds of the college’s sixth annual benefit gala, which was held in April 2007.
More than 600 people attended the grand opening concert in Bailey’s honor this evening. Faculty and students of the KSU Department of Music performed a wide selection of works. Also during the event, the atrium of the Bailey Performance Center was dedicated to philanthropist Anna F. Henriquez.
The Dr. Bobbie Bailey and Family Performance Center houses a 630-seat concert hall, a 3,600-square-foot music rehearsal hall and the 1,800-square-foot D. Russell Clayton Art Gallery, which is sponsored by a $1 million gift from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation. The building was designed by the architectural firm of Stevens and Wilkinson Stang and Newdow and built by The Facility Group. Acoustics for the concert hall were designed by Acoustic Dimensions. Construction began on the $9 million performance center, which is funded through a combination of private and public money, in February 2006.
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A member of the 35-unit University System of Georgia, Kennesaw State University is a comprehensive‚ residential institution with a growing student population approaching 20‚000 from 132 countries. The third largest state university in Georgia‚ Kennesaw State offers more than 60 graduate and undergraduate degrees‚ including a new Doctorate of Education in Leadership.
The KSU College of the Arts is one of only four Georgia institutions to have achieved full national accreditation for all of its arts programs.