The Graham brothers and their two pianos will be back in action for two concerts Friday, August 25th at 7:30 pm and Saturday, August 26th at 3:30 pm to raise awareness and funds for the Steamboat Era Museum’s Potomac pilothouse restoration project.
They will perform at Irvington Baptist Church. Tickets for the event are free, but required due to limited available seating. They are available by calling the Steamboat Era Museum at 438-6888 or emailing director@steamboateramuseum.org
The Steamboat Era Museum is proud to include among its collection the largest surviving artifact of the Chesapeake Bay steamboat era—the pilothouse from the steamboat Potomac. The restored pilothouse will be the only place in America where visitors and researchers can step aboard the last surviving wheelhouse, captain and crew quarters of a Chesapeake Bay steamboat. The museum recently announced a dollar-for-dollar $50,000 grant from the Mary Morton Parsons Foundation in Richmond.
David Graham graduated from Washington and Lee University in 2007 with a B.A. in Music and a B.S. in Business Administration. He studied under Dr. Shuko Watanabe and Dr. Timothy Gaylard while at W&L, and won the Piano Award as the most outstanding senior in piano performance. Additionally, he performed for the grand opening Elrod Commons building at W&L, and won second prize in an “Open Airwaves” competition on the radio station WLUR. He continued his studies at the Utah conservatory and the University of Virginia, where he received his Masters of Business Administration from the Darden School of Business in 2014. David has performed locally in many venues around the area, and regularly plays the piano at Irvington Baptist Church. He has worked professionally at the AAA Five Diamond Sanctuary Resort at Kiawah Island, and in 2012 he and his brother headlined the PBS television special “Studio Sessions with Rising Masters.” David currently works as a small business consultant and lives in Richmond.
Phillip Graham earned his Bachelor of Arts in Music, Piano Performance, along with his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Washington and Lee University in 2010. He began his piano studies at the age of 7 under Mrs. Bonnie Anderson and studied under Dr. Shuko Watanabe and Dr. Timothy Gaylard while earning his music degree. Phillip’s concert performance experience spans over a decade, including performances at W&L’s Science, Society, and the Arts conference, in various university recitals, and through a series of concerts performed with his brother David to raise money for non-profit organizations. Together, the Graham brothers have raised over $100,000 for Virginia-based non-profits, including the Northern Neck Free Health Clinic, the Steamboat Era Museum, and CARITAS, a Richmond-based organization devoted to fighting addiction and homelessness. Phillip currently resides in Durham, N.C. with his wife Monica, and is a 2nd-year MBA candidate at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
Tickets are free but space is limited. To reserve your tickets, please send an email to: director@steamboateramusem.org
Photo: The Graham Brothers, Phillip (l) and David (r) will be playing dueling pianos on August 25 and 26 at the Irvington Baptist Church in support of the Steamboat Era Museum.
Photo by Michael Geissingr
Built in 1894, the 176-foot-long steamboat Potomac moved between Baltimore and Norfolk, making stops in the Northern Neck. For over 40 years, the Potomac and steamboats like it carried food, people and raw materials out of the Northern Neck and returned with a vast array of manufactured goods. Listen to the story below:
