This year’s Princeton Festival Gala will go beyond its usual helping of fun, good food, dancing, and auctions to include a demonstration of the new Steinway Spirio piano, a breakthrough in technology that accurately recreates live performances in the listener’s own living room.

The gala will take place on Saturday, April 22 at 6 p.m. at Greenacres Country Club in Lawrenceville. Cocktails only and full-dinner reservations can be made at princetonfestival.org/event/2017-gala until April 20. 

Jacobs Music, the area’s exclusive Steinway dealer and a long-time supporter of the Festival and its piano competition will demonstrate the Steinway Spirio during the cocktail hour. This will be the first local public demonstration of the new instrument.

“Listening to the Spirio is an uncanny experience,” said Richard Tang Yuk, general and artistic director of The Princeton Festival. “There’s nothing mechanical about it – you could swear it was a live person playing the music.”

Spirio owners can access music from Bach to Billy Joel, currently totaling more than 1,700 selections, captured from the playing of Steinway artists. The instrument can also be played like a normal piano.

The Princeton Festival’s 13th season of performances across the genres of opera, Broadway musicals, jazz, dance, choral music, and more will run from June 3-25, 2017. For information, visit www.princetonfestival.org.

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