Mimi Blais

The Winona State University Department of Music and the WSU Foundation will present Ragtime Concert with Mimi Blais at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 24, on the Performing Arts Center Main Stage.

Blais, a pianist from Montreal, Québec, Canada, has received several nicknames during her career—the female Victor Borge, the Céline Dion of the keyboard, the French Canadian Liberacette—but the one she’s been proud to wear since 1990 is: The New Queen Of Ragtime.

Blais’s passion for ragtime music has taken her across the United States and Canada, and even to Belgium and Hungary.

Blais wrote two one-woman shows in which she demonstrates her many-faceted talents: “Once upon a time, ragtime,” which shows the importance of ragtime music in the evolution of the American culture, and “An afternoon with Jean-Baptiste Lafrenière.”

A reception will follow in the PAC Lobby.

Admission is free and open to the public. Donations will be accepted to benefit the “Save Our Steinways Fund.”

For more information or to reserve tickets, contact Kathy Peterson at 507-457-2913, email: KPeterson@winona.edu.