Our talented children, Karson & Kylie Keys are amazing piano players for their ages and we appreciate their talent, hard work, and dedication to piano playing. They love what they do, and like us, they love when their audience enjoys the music, and that people of all ages feel good when listening to it. Karson and his sister Kylie came to us one day and asked how they share their music with other children and inspire them to want to have music in their lives and encourage them to learn to play piano.
Katie and I though it was a great idea so we were able to reach out to a few popular summer youth camps around the country to see if the leaders of those camps would be interested in having Karson & Kylie attend their camps and be their featured performers. Much to our surprise and in a way we did not expect, the newest and largest such youth camp in the country, called “Youth Camp of America,” agreed to let Karson & Kylie not only attend the camp for the week, but also be their featured young performers. We were so excited when we heard the news and so were Karson & Kylie! However, the camp did not have a piano so we asked the Kawai Piano Company to help us acquire a good piano for the camp.
Not only did Kawai agree to our request, they created a one-of-a-kind Duet Digital Mini Grand Piano for us to use at the camp. We have never seen anything like this unique instrument before and it allows for two people to play piano at the same time on one instrument while facing each other. It is definitely the coolest thing ever when it comes to pianos and it is perfect for Karson & Kyle who play duet performances like we do. Karson & Kylie played it at the camp and all the campers and staff loved their performances. The response to the music was great!
Since that youth camp only lasts one week and it took a while to prepare for it, we decided that it would be exciting for Karson & Kylie to continue to encourage other children to get into playing music on a piano, so we were able to set up some elementary and middle school piano concerts for them to play at using their special “Kawai Duet Mini Grand Piano.” A few of the schools that we reached out to were very receptive to our proposal for our children to play some special piano concerts for the school kids during school programs on weekdays. The school concerts went very well and Karson & Kylie worked hard to encourage the kids and their teachers to love and play good music.
We are so thankful and proud of our children and their love for music, piano playing, and for other children, some of which don’t have secure and loving families like we do. They see that, even at a young age, as their mission to help young people in various ways through the giving of their time and their music. As their parents, Katie and I try to show them new things so they can grow in wisdom & knowledge and also learn more about our country, it’s history, the music, and how it affects the world in so many positive ways. It seems like wherever we go, people recognize us and want our autographs, and that’s OK. It shows that we are touching the lives of many people in deep, musical ways. It is a big blessing to us to be able to do that.
To that end we recently brought them to the famous Musical Instrument Museum (aka: the MIM) in Phoenix, Arizona. This is a large museum dedicated to the many musical instruments of the world, whether they be old cultural instruments or newer instruments of all types, shapes, and sizes. It is an amazing place and whatever musical instrument you can think of, it is there. We saw lots of very old beautiful acoustic grand pianos from Europe as well as prominent and popular digital pianos. We have been there many times and it never gets old. If you ever get a chance to visit and you are in Phoenix, Arizona, it will be worth your while!
We thank our friends, our fans, our God, and our primary sponsors Tim & Erik Praskins from AZ Piano Reviews. We also thank the famous Kawai Piano Company US for the use of their amazing grand and digital pianos. We couldn’t do what we do without the help of all these people and places. We also receive some support from a couple of other music entities and places, but we could not bring our music to America without our primary supporters and sponsors. But most of all we are glad and thankful that our family cares about each other and for sharing our love of music and piano playing to everyone we meet.