Bundle up, Penn State, and get ready for a night of jazz after hours.

This Saturday, the Palmer Museum of Art is hosting "Baby, It's Cold Outside!," an after-hours event featuring the duo of accordionist Alex Meixner and saxophonist Rick Hirsch.

Robin Seymour, the museum's coordinator of membership and public relations, said they held the first after-hours event last year.

"This is the second event of this kind," Seymour said. "Last year, we did a spring event, and it was a huge hit. So many people told us how much they enjoyed themselves. It was just perfect."

This year, the theme is European jazz. Seymour said she is very excited to hear the duo perform.

"We've been given rave reviews on their performances," Seymour said. "I'm really excited to see these two perform. It seems so funky. I can't wait."

Hirsch, a resident of State College and former Penn State professor in the School of Music, has been playing saxophone for 25 years.

He is a composer and a member of the Valley Jazz Orchestra. He said he is excited to play with Meixner and to bring the duo back to State College.

"We haven't performed as a duo in State College since spring 2004," Hirsch said. "Alex and I have a really special rapport. We have an uncanny knack for playing together."

Hirsch and Meixner have been playing together since 2000 and are excited to lend their musical talents to this event.

"All the music we're playing is a variety of different types of jazz music as well as Eastern European," Hirsch said. "Alex knows a lot of traditional folk music from Eastern Europe. We put that music in a jazz context."

Meixner received a master's degree in trumpet from Penn State in 2001. He lives in Allentown but travels all over as a part of his father's trio.

"I have been playing the accordion since I was 4 years old," Meixner said. "My father is also a professional accordionist, and I still perform with my father all over the country. We do full-time traveling. Grand Rapids, Mich., Texas, New York City and Vegas."

Hirsch and Meixner also have a history beyond their duo.

"Rick was actually one of my professors in arranging," Meixner said. "We've played in combos and also a quartet that we're working on now."

Meixner plays multiple instruments, including the trumpet, keyboard, bass, drums, as well as the piano accordion and the button-box accordion.

"The button-box accordion has four rows of buttons, and each button has two notes," Meixner said. "It's like having four rows of harmonics."

Meixner said his ethnicity -- Austrian and Italian -- has definitely played a role in his desire to learn traditional folk music.

"My family is from the section of Austria called Burgenland," Meixner said. "There are three ethnicities: the Croatians, the Hungarians and the ethnic Austrians. The music sort of melds those things together."

Hirsch said his and Meixner's music will follow a theme of a recent exhibit at the museum featuring "outsiders."

"The focus is on artists who were outsiders," Hirsch said. "So we're featuring music for those cultural outsiders."

Besides the live music on Saturday, all of the Palmer galleries will be open for viewing.

"It's just really a neat nighttime atmosphere," Seymour said. "Just enjoy the atmosphere. We'll also have some refreshments."

The event is being sponsored by the Shaner Energy Co., a local family-owned heating and air conditioning company, Seymour said. The show is titled "Baby, It's Cold Outside!" because Shaner Energy works with heating and air conditioning, Seymour said.

Hirsch said he hopes many students will take advantage of the event.

"Support the Palmer Museum," he said. "The music we will perform will be like nothing you've ever heard."