There’s a new music venue in town. Wendi Kirby Music in Monterey has been giving occasional concerts since November 2023, but the official opening concert takes place Saturday, March 16. Its creator is Wendi Kirby, a California pianist and composer, but also a lifelong piano teacher. Kirby moved to Carmel after 30 years in the Central Valley, attracted by the artistic community.
“Indie classical, New Age or contemporary jazz,” Kirby says when asked how people describe her music. Her absolute favorite pianist was George Winston, who died last year after a long career.
But the venue is not a place for just Kirby to perform.
“I watched so many musicians playing background music at the weddings,” she says. “But we do have an audience here. We can honor musicians and help them to promote themselves. We are sharing profits.”
Proclaimed as “Monterey Peninsula’s Most Creative Space,” Wendi Kirby Music is hard to find on the first go, as it fits between many suites of the Paseo Zabala building in Monterey. It’s even harder to believe that a sizable music venue hides in one of the suites – a large performing space that fits a grand piano and audience; there’s also seating in the second floor balcony running around the performance hall. But that’s not all. The venue serves Kirby as a studio, a space where she (or others) can give music classes. It has recording booths, a new sound system and a multimedia projector.
A former architect’s office, the space was not conceived for music, but its quirks – such as a purely ornamental round window opening inside the building – somehow give it a fantastic acoustical quality. The space would look absolutely minimalistic if not for the warmth of the instruments and small work stations everywhere.
Kirby sits down to the grand piano and plays a few notes. The effect is mesmerizing, especially with the trees dancing to the music, looking in through cathedral-length windows.
Kirby played a concert here in January, following singer-songwriter Casey Frazier playing in November, as well as a couple of other fall concerts.
What kind of music to expect? Anything that’s good, from singer-songwriters to jazz.
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