On Sunday afternoon, September 20, the quiet town of Hillsboro, Missouri, will fill with something it hasn't heard in quite the same way before: the combined force of fourteen pianists, one ambitious fundraising goal, and a community determined to bring a world-class instrument to its newest cultural home.
The occasion is Pianomania, a benefit concert taking place at 4 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center on Jefferson College's Hillsboro campus at 1000 Viking Drive. The event's mission is as clear as it is ambitious: raise $100,000 to purchase a full-size Steinway grand piano for the college's newly renovated and expanded Fine Arts Center, which was unveiled earlier this year following a $6.5 million transformation. All proceeds from the concert will go directly toward that instrument, which will become the centerpiece of the building's performance and instructional spaces.
But Pianomania is not merely a fundraiser. It is the latest iteration of a tradition that stretches back nearly three decades, one that has quietly raised money for charitable causes across the St. Louis region while bringing together a remarkable cross-section of the area's musical community: physicians, professors, retired professionals, and working musicians who share one common devotion to the piano.
The driving force behind that tradition is Mark Spurrier, a retired ophthalmologist and amateur pianist who organized the very first Pianomania concert back in 1997. Since then, he has mounted seven such benefit concerts for various charities, each one gathering a roster of pianists who volunteer their time and talent. Spurrier, a charter member and advisory board member of the Piano Society of St. Louis, studied piano privately with Daniel Schene in the late 1990s and is most at home as an accompanist and ensemble player. This year's Pianomania marks his eighth, and its cause is closer to home than any of the previous seven: the college's effort to secure a Steinway of its own.
The roster of "Pianomanians" reads like a who's who of St. Louis piano culture, and their stories reveal just how deeply the instrument has shaped lives across the region. Jeong Nam Kim, a pediatrician at Esse Health, returned to the piano after a 35-year hiatus and won an award at the May 2026 Gateway Piano Festival; she hopes to share the beauty and healing power of music with her young patients. Charl de Wet, an anesthesiologist on the full-time faculty of Washington University School of Medicine who works in the cardio-thoracic ICU of Barnes-Jewish Hospital, studied with the legendary Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory before switching to medicine, and he still finds time to be a frequent finalist and winner of piano competitions around the world.
Pat Cho Comens' journey took her from South Korea to the United States at age 13, where she began piano studies with Ruth Slenczynska and Gail Delente before earning both bachelor's and master's degrees in piano performance from The Juilliard School in New York City, studying under Ania Dorfmann and Jacob Lateiner. After a rewarding career as a piano teacher in St. Louis, she now indulges her three passions: married life, pursuing piano, and pickleball.
The concert roster also includes Karl Koesterer, who retired from Webster University after a 40-year career teaching piano and previously served as organist and choir director of Lafayette Park United Methodist Church; Nathan Coleman, a Webster University graduate recognized for his performances of the works of American composer Florence Price who has accompanied the Sheldon All-Star Chorus for the past decade; Donna Bowen Vince, who joined the piano faculty at Webster University in 1981 after a year of study at L'École Normale de Musique in Paris and whose students include the acclaimed local pianist Brian Woods; and Dr. Ruth Price, a writer, lecturer, and performer who specializes in teaching adult piano students and authored the book Right Before Your Eyes: A Fresh Approach to Interpreting a Piano Score.
Sue Martin, who joined the piano faculty of Webster University in 1990 and Saint Louis University in 1994, serves as Director of Music at Saint Francis Xavier College Church. Her husband, Jim Martin, makes his Pianomania appearance as a magician, though by day he is a well-known trombonist who directs the St. Charles Community College Bands. Dr. Jorge Luis Modolell, who holds a PhD in Musicology from Washington University, teaches at Webster University's Community Music School and specializes in the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt. Debbie Schwartz, a master's graduate in piano performance pedagogy from Webster University, is a local expert in piano ensemble repertoire who regularly performs at the Chaminade Club and Piano Society of St. Louis recitals. Gill Cerbin, who began piano studies at age six with Ella Pounder, OBE, a student of British piano icon Solomon, brings her collaborative piano expertise honed through active membership in multiple regional and national piano teachers' organizations. Lisa Van Dusen, a Piano and Spiro Specialist at Steinway Piano Gallery and curator of the monthly Piano Society of St. Louis recitals, is also principal flute of the University City Symphony Orchestra. Pat Eastman, co-founder and co-director of the Webster University Piano Ensemble Festival and Classical Piano Camps, helped Pianos for People flourish as a board member. And Cathy Benton, an inductee into the National Guild of Piano Teachers Hall of Fame who won the Emerson Excellence in Teaching Award, serves as adjunct piano instructor and collaborator at Jefferson College itself and music director of the Gateway Ringers.
The breadth of that roster is itself a testament to the piano's reach in the St. Louis region, and to the particular place Steinway occupies in the musical world. A Steinway grand is more than an instrument; it is a standard. For serious musical training and performance, it is, in the words of Elke Overton, Professor of Music at Jefferson College, "the gold standard." Overton, who will see her students benefit directly from the instrument, framed the concert in terms of legacy: "This instrument will inspire our students for generations and enrich the cultural life of our region."
The Fine Arts Center's $6.5 million renovation and expansion, unveiled earlier this year, represents a major investment in Jefferson County's cultural infrastructure. The addition of a full-size Steinway grand piano will complete the vision, elevating student recitals, guest artist performances, and community concerts held in the facility. For a community college in the hills of eastern Missouri, it is a statement of intent about the value of arts education.
Tickets for Pianomania can be purchased at jeffco.edu/foundation/events, with sponsorships also available, and more information is available at jeffco.edu/music-events. The public is encouraged to attend and support the arts at Jefferson College.
For the pianists themselves, many of whom are donating not just their performances but the very story of their lives at the keyboard, the concert is a chance to give back to a tradition that has given them so much. For Spurrier, it extends a legacy of charity that began in 1997 and has now found a new home. And for the community of Hillsboro and beyond, it is an afternoon of music that will, if all goes as planned, echo through the halls of the Fine Arts Center for decades to come.
When the final note fades on September 20 and the Steinway eventually takes its place at the heart of the newly renovated center, the fourteen pianists who gathered that afternoon will have done more than entertain. They will have helped plant a cultural seed in Jefferson County, one that promises to grow for generations.