Professor to play free show

Susanne Skyrm, professor of music at the University of South Dakota, will be performing a free 18th century Spanish keyboard concert at noon, Oct. 21 at the National Music Museum.

Skyrm, who has been at USD for about 23 years, teaches piano, studio piano, class piano and piano literature.

This is not Skyrm’s first performance at the National Music Museum.

“I don’t know how many Brown Bags I’ve done there, but it’s a lot,” Skyrm said.

Skyrm has performed with the Dakota Baroque and Classic Company as well as other faculty playing the early piano and the early violin.

Skyrm said she is interested in the early keyboards and her research specialty has been 18th century Spanish keyboard.

“I recently published an anthology of 18th century Spanish keyboards,” Skyrm said. “It will be a good chance to talk about the music and students.”

Deborah Reeves, curator of education at the National Music Museum, said this concert will be the seventh concert at the National Music Museum this year.

“I try to do a variety of programming, different styles of music, different vocalists and different time periods from really old to contemporary,” Reeves said.

Out of those seven concerts, three of the performers have been affiliated with USD.

“We try to present concerts in a more relaxed atmosphere that will draw in the general public,” Reeves said. “We’re really trying to diversify the type of music in an effort to try and get more USD students to come to the