From a distance the piano keys appeared untouched, but the shiny, black grand piano resonated suspenseful jewelry box tunes as guest pianist Thomas Schultz's swift fingers slid smoothly across the 88 ivory keys.

"It was like the matrix," an audience member said upon exiting Knuth Hall. "That was unbelievable."

Schultz played seven pieces in the 60-minute segment, including a piece written by Hyo-shin Na, who has written music for western instruments as well as traditional Korean instruments and has written music that combines western and Asian instruments.

"It's one of my older pieces and he's played the piece many times before, but he plays beautifully and each time is like the first," said Na, who attended the event.

Schultz, a staff member of the piano faculty at Stanford University since 1994, has played the piano since what he calls the "ice ages." After so many decades of playing, it's almost like second nature, he said.

Schultz has played in New York, San Francisco, Berlin, Ghent, Seoul, Taipei and Kyoto, and at the Schoenberg Festival in Vienna, the Piano Spheres series in Los Angeles, Korea's Tongyoung Festival, the Festival of New American Music in Sacramento and the Santa Cruz Festival.

He has also appeared as a soloist at the Other Minds Festival in San Francisco, and in chamber music performances with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Da Camera Society of Houston, Robert Craft's 20th Century Classics Ensemble and the St. Lawrence String Quartet, according to Schultz's personal Web site.

"I travel a lot and all the time," Schultz said. "I've been as far as Europe and Asia, but I have also performed at many local venues."

This was Schultz's third appearance at SF State and has an upcoming performance on Sunday, Feb. 24 at 2 p.m. at the Old First Concerts in San Francisco where he will perform Ballade in F minor, Op.52 by the talented pianist Frederic Chopin.