At a recent gathering on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a small crowd filled the salon of pianist and educator Paul Sheftel. This was the last of several such events, all held in private spaces around the city during 2013 and 2014, all organized to raise funds for the Mali Nyeta organization, a foundation oversees education and public health projects in Mali and the surrounding areas. One of the projects, an elementary school, even bears the name “l’Ecole Paul Sheftel.” 

When Wayne State’s Music Department Chair, Dr. Linda Christensen isn’t coming up with new ways to use their school’s Disklavier pianos, she can be found teaching one of the most innovative class piano programs in the country in a state-of-the-art Yamaha Clavinova lab with computers and network connectivity at each station. In the 2013-14 school year, Christensen added a new twist to the class, inviting collaboration with counterparts at the University of Sao Paolo, Brazil.

This article originally appeared in The Wayne Stater. Reprinted by permission.