SAGU recently received a $50,000 grant from Hobby Lobby, Inc. The donation, made possible by the BG Fund, procured a grand piano for Dr. Amanda Lee’s office. The SAGU Steinway project is now only one concert grand piano away from completion. SAGU still needs to raise $95,440 for the concert piano in the chapel and thus become an All-Steinway School.

As SAGU continues to grow and expand curriculum, the Music Department’s goal is to provide students with the best musical instruments available. In becoming the first A/G institution to become an All Steinway School, SAGU will join an elite class of institutions exclusively using Steinway pianos. This class includes The Juilliard School in New York, Yale School of Music, and Carnegie-Mellon University School of Music.

Since April 2009, SAGU has been able to purchase eleven Boston pianos for faculty offices and practice rooms, two Steinway vertical grand pianos for faculty offices, one grand piano for Burke Hall and another for a faculty office, four Roland keyboards and three studio model Steinways for practice rooms.

“I’m just blown away that all these contributions have come in within a year and that we could easily be ‘All-Steinway’ within two years of beginning this project,” commented Linda Robins, Music Department Chair. “It’s nothing short of a miracle.”