Heaven Gallery

Chicago (Monday March 1st, 2010) Through their Gift of Pianos Program: the PianoForte Foundation and the Piano Technicians Guild have donated a Knabe Grand Piano to Heaven Gallery. Also thanks to a generous contribution from Mark and Angie Evans.

Sunday March 21st, 2010 3pm. Come see the inaugural concert featuring identical twin brothers Stephen and Michael Hill on Piano and Viola performing works by Debussy, Hindemith, Britten, and Bliss. (See complete list below.)

Heaven Gallery has been hosting classical and Jazz concerts for the past 5 years with it’s “Protest” improvised jazz series every Saturday and it’s Sunday Brunch classical series once a month. These have featured such groups and soloists like Anaphora, Jim Baker, Fifth House Ensemble, Tiny Mahler Orchestra and The Jennifer Maxwell and Svetlana Belsky Duo. Also, Heaven recently ran a pilot program for one year that gave piano lessons to deserving children. Unfortunately, both the pianos at Heaven are in unstable conditions and not worth fixing. Now, with the donation from PianoForte and PTG, Heaven can continue to promote quality musical performances. This donation will surely transform the gallery’s musical programs in it tenth year of operation.

The Gift of Pianos program is a joint effort of the Chicago chapter of the Piano Technicians Guild and PianoForte Foundation to refurbish donated pianos and place them in schools, churches, and community institutions that are in need of a good instrument. Hundreds of people per year contact the PTG seeking donations, while registered piano technicians review their requests and identify pianos with enough potential to be reconditioned into well-playing instruments. Once pianos are located, they are placed in suitable reconditioning venues where chapter personnel volunteer their work for the purpose of training, camaraderie, and fulfillment of the charitable cause. A Donation Committee, made up of music school administrators or teachers as well as other Chicago-area music aficionados, and the Piano Donation Program Director, seek out worthwhile individuals or organizations to receive the pianos. Special care is given to the selection process to ensure neutrality and worthiness of each and every recipient. Technicians from across the areas where pianos have found their eventual homes will be solicited for upkeep and recognition of their efforts will be promoted.

Heaven Gallery is a non-profit gallery and multi-disciplinary arts space in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood that encourages, mentors, and presents new and emerging artists, musicians, and filmmakers to audiences throughout Chicago land and beyond. In order to encourage submissions from the widest diversity of artists, regardless of their financial situation, Heaven Gallery widely promotes our open proposal process, and does not charge submission or exhibition fees. All of our programs are open to the public. Heaven strives to make artwork
accessible to all community members: our visual art exhibitions are free of charge, and all events are open to audiences on a pay-what-you-can basis. Heaven celebrates it’s 10 year anniversary in July 2010. Heaven Gallery is partially supported by a Grant From the Illinois Arts Council and a Community Arts Assistance Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

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