Pianist to put on show Saturday at FMAAA

FORT MADISON - The FMAAA Art Center welcomes Dr. Abbie Brewer on Saturday, October 28, 2023 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. playing classical piano in the Main Gallery. Dr. Abbie Brewer is a pianist, teacher, and travel enthusiast based in Cedar Rapids, IA. She began studying the piano at the age of 8 in Nebraska. After moving to Iowa in junior high, she began exploring collaborative performance by accompanying her junior high choir.  Active involvement in music throughout high school led her to pursue a degree in music education. As a student at Wartburg College, Abbie continued to accompany and began teaching piano to elementary students in the Tower School of Music. Her first teaching position took her to southern California where she also earned her Masters degree from Azusa Pacific University. She returned to Iowa for her doctoral studies at the University of Iowa, and continued to teach piano and perform, taking advantage of chamber music opportunities in Bulgaria and Italy. Currently, Abbie teaches courses in piano, music theory, and music history at Coe College. She performs with Durward contemporary music ensemble, the Coe College Concert Choir, and is in demand as a pianist in the Cedar Rapids area. Abbie has been praised for her thoughtful playing as well as for her confident, direct approach to teaching. 
Her current project, Snapshots, is a series of house concerts: recital and conversation that takes place in small performance spaces. Living rooms, cafes, churches, or any place with a recently tuned piano make great spaces for house concerts. Audiences get up close to the piano and learn about the lives and works of composers. For this performance, listeners will get to hear works by 4 American composers of the 19th and 20th centuries: Louis Gottschalk, Edward MacDowell, Amy Beach, and Florence Price. This house concert series is supported by the Iowa Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. 
FINALE is a performance series conceived just as we were coming out of the covid years. It was designed to provide a venue for artists of all types to get back to performing in public at the FMAAA Art Center - trying out new sets or new material in front of a low-pressure audience. FINALE is for musicians, authors reading passages, poets, and more. It continues as a monthly event March through December opposite our Opening Reception, coming in as the final stroke of the exhibition month. This is a free to attend event with donations welcome. The FMAAA Art Center is located at 825 Ave G in Fort Madison, Iowa.