Enchantments: A Concert Benefiting Folio

Folio: The Seattle Athenaeum is thrilled to welcome pianist Paul Finley and artist Patricia Smith for their first two performances at Folio. Their new duet, titled Enchantments, is a series of vignettes that include brief encounters with the natural world—butterflies, physics, fire—again told in a weave of words and music. 

Join us for an evening of a musical performance that echos and encapuslates the natural world, and enjoy a reception to conclude the evening. Thanks to their generiosity, proceeds from the concerts will benefit Folio: The Seattle Athenaeum. 

Patricia Smith began doing visual art in midlife as a way to carve out quiet space in a life of practicing psychotherapy, raising kids, and caring for goats. She’s carried on ever since, making paintings, sculptures, prints, and writing prose. She remains most happy when she’s working on something, and this latest project, duets with piano, has brought music into the mix, a joyous collaboration.

Paul Finley started composing and improvising three months after his first piano lesson at age ten. The piano was where he turned when he felt his strong childhood emotions. Jazz, salsa, and classical piano have been in the mix ever since.  He also loves to teach music, leading the secondary school band at Summit K-12 for three years in the ‘90s and teaching private piano lessons since 1985. This recent experience of weaving spoken prose and piano music has opened an exciting new dimension to his music making.