It’s almost like it was meant to be.
The Lipinsky Auditorium stage is now the home to brand new Steinway concert grand piano, a gift from an anonymous donor that was hand-chosen by music faculty members Brian Felix and Bill Bares at the Steinway factory in New York City. Or perhaps the piano chose them.
“It was a once in a lifetime experience to go up there, and we had seven different pianos to choose from,” said Felix, chair and associate professor of music. “They were all beautiful. We went around and played them all extensively and narrowed them down. But after a couple hours, there was one that we really both settled in on. And we just knew that was it. That was the one.”
“The parameters that we were using fell in two categories,” said Bill Bares, associate professor of music. “One is, how does it feel? When you're playing it, how do the keys feel? And then the other parameter was, how does it sound?”
In the end though, it was something else that was the deciding factor in Bares and Felix’s choice. It happened when Felix decided to try playing a different tune—one of his favorites, the Beatles’ “Blackbird.”
“It actually wasn't feel and it actually wasn't sound,” Bares said. “I was like, ‘Brian. You play better on that one… You had like a deeper connection to what you were playing. There were no bad notes. There was more expressivity.’”
Felix noticed the same thing when Bares sat down to play. There was no question. This was the piano.
“Steinway is really the gold standard of pianos,” Felix said. “It’s made in the U.S., they're all hand assembled. Every single piano is completely different. They’re all unique and they're beautiful instruments.”
This will be the first Steinway grand piano on campus. The opportunity to travel to New York City and to the Steinway factory makes the gift even more special, especially since Bares and Felix were able to tour the shop floor and see pianos being built.
“It was a once in a lifetime experience to go up there,” Felix said.
“Being able to see how that's made from the ground floor was just incredibly eye-opening, and made me appreciate the sounds that we were getting from the pianos that we tried even more,” said Bares.
The piano was delivered to UNC Asheville’s campus in early September, and Bares and Felix are excited about the opportunities to use the instrument now that it’s home.
“It'll be for faculty and for students to play, and it'll be for performances on campus,” Felix said. “We are going to have it be accessible, because what's the point of having it if people don't get to play it?”
“Students at our school will benefit from understanding the complexity of a really good instrument,” Bares said. “When you play a five-foot grand in one of the practice rooms, there's a limited range. Then when you go to a nine foot grand, you understand there's this whole other set of possibilities that you've never explored, and it reveals to you quite a bit about your own musicality once you get into a new situation like that.”
© 2026 UNC Asheville
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