The Soundboard

[TheSoundboard]

Use this thread to post photos, videos or other references to Steinway pianos. For example, the front page of today's (5/16) NY Times Arts section included this wonderful photo of a Steinway D.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/arts/dance/16ball.html

Post other ones you find here!

[ddm]

Stereophile Magazine had a nice review of the new Lyngdorf Steinway system. It described the system as holographic. Very nice. See the attached link.

www.stereophile.com/news/052107steinway/

[ddm]

Saturday, May 19, 2007

GRAND STATEMENT
Get in tune
Nothing brings an elegant mood to a room like a grand piano
By Gina Mangan
The (Appleton, Wis.) Post-Crescent

Some additions to the home are subtle in their loveliness, quiet as the endnotes of a ballad. Others are bold, almost shrill in their brilliance. But nothing sets the mood more than the grand piano -- impossible to miss, yet impossibly elegant.

"You can put any grand in the home and it'll make a major statement," says Patrick Mineau, keyboard manager at Henri's Music in Appleton, Wis.

The grand speaks to the owner's seriousness about music, be it for training or for entertaining, Mineau says. It is sometimes the fulfillment of a dream to own these concert-style pianos, which range from $5,000 for an introductory model to more than $100,000 for select handcrafted Steinway pianos.

With connections to names like Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin, grand pianos have become symbols of culture and refinement, historically significant instruments first designed more than 300 years ago by Bartolomeo Cristofori, an Italian inventor employed by the ruling Medici family.

Although most people who purchase grands do so for an experienced pianist, knowing how to play is not a requirement, says Debbie Olson, piano consultant with Heid Music Co. in Appleton, a dealer of Steinway and Yamaha pianos. With digital piano player systems now on the market, owners can pop in a CD and the piano plays for them, allowing them freedom away from the keyboard.

About 40 percent of Steinways are purchased with disc player systems already installed, Olson says. The electronic systems range in price from $5,000 for a CD-only system to $15,000 for a system that allows you to record and download from the Internet, she says.

Consider it a sign of the times, a melding of technology with a return to upscale in-home entertaining.

"People are bringing entertaining back into their homes," Olson says. "Professionals and corporate people are networking via in-home parties, and they're often choosing pianos with that in mind."

'The ultimate challenge'
But it's not just social status that motivates a grand piano purchase. Because of its length, shape and gravity-driven internal key action, the grand is regarded as a superior instrument, says piano technician and designer Tom Goudy, owner of Appleton's Goudy Piano Co. The key action of a grand -- felt hammers hitting horizontal steel strings -- allows for faster repetition of notes and more subtle control of expression and tone than an upright piano, in which the hammers hit vertical strings.

What's in a name?
The market is flooded with pianos manufactured from throughout the world. But one brand name, the U.S.-manufactured Steinway & Sons, continues to stand out as the Cadillac version, Goudy says.

Steinway offers a very full, dynamic instrument, he says. But it is cost-prohibitive for many. Several other companies offer quality grands for less, including Kawai and Yamaha.

"I've been able to show many people that an instrument they buy from Japan or South Korea, for example, may not do exactly what the Steinway does, but it will get you along just as nicely," Goudy says.

A used grand piano can be an option for some homeowners. Assuming the condition is good, the market value of a pre-owned Steinway grand is 75 percent to 80 percent of the value of a new grand, says Leo Spellman, director of communications for Steinway.

Which piano is right for you?
Because so much is available to consumers, Goudy says it's important to learn as much as possible about companies and their instruments.

Size will be a major consideration. The larger the piano, the better the tone, Mineau says. But room ultimately dictates the size of the purchase. Concert grands are typically 7 feet long, but Mineau says the majority sold for in-home use are baby grands of just more than 6 feet.

Strike the keys of the piano to get a feel for touch and tone, Goudy says. And listen.

"Even if you're not a piano player, God gave you a set of ears to listen with," he says. "You may like some and not others."

Some pianos play extremely bright and crisp. At the other end of the spectrum are those that sound very deep and rich. It's a matter of personal preference.

"You'll find that each instrument has its own personality," Mineau says.

Contributing: Gannett News Service.

[ddm]

McCabe closes Steinway Series

By The Entertainer

CORVALLIS — Oregon State University’s Steinway Celebration Concert Series closes with a Sunday, May 6, performance by Corvallis concert pianist and OSU professor Rachelle McCabe. The concert begins at 4 p.m. at the LaSells Stewart Center on the OSU campus.

McCabe will open with Beethoven’s famous “Moonlight Sonata,” and continue with a program chosen to express the sound and spirit of the piano. McCabe will perform “Estampes” (Imprints) and “Feux d’artifice” (Fireworks) by Claude Debussy, and “Ballade No. 3 in A Flat Major,” “Mazurka in F Minor,” “Mazurka in A Minor,” “Waltz in F Major,” and “Scherzo No. 2 in B Flat Minor” by Frédéric Chopin.

A concert pianist, she is director of piano studies at OSU, where she teaches courses in music history. She is also a frequent soloist with the Corvallis-OSU Symphony Orchestra.

McCabe’s recital is the last of four Steinway Celebration Series concerts offered by OSU’s piano activities program to celebrate community support in raising money to purchase the new piano for Austin Auditorium at the LaSells Stewart Center. However, the celebration won’t end with this season. The OSU music department has announced it will present a 2007-2008 Steinway Piano Series, featuring renowned pianists Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Roberto Plano, John O’Conor and Janice Weber. Details on that series will be announced at Sunday’s concert.

Tickets to the Rachelle McCabe concert are $7 each, and can be purchased online at www.tixrus.us, and at Grass Roots Books & Music, Gracewinds Music, Beard’s Framing, and the box office prior to the concert.

For more information, call 737-4061, or go to http://oregonstate.edu/cla/music.

[ddm]

Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Provo High choirs sing to restore piano

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BROOKE BARKER - Daily Herald

For at least 10 years now Victoria has needed a makeover. At 51 years old and about 5 feet 7 inches, age is taking its toll on her skin, not to mention the range of internal work she needs. And if her complaining is a little hard on the ears, well, that's to be expected. Victoria is the vintage Steinway piano in Provo High School's choir room that needs $10,000 worth of work this summer to bring it back to its former glory.

Cory Mendenhall, the choir teacher at the school, said students love the piano and its warm sound. But he must limit student practice time on it because of how quickly it goes out of tune and the lack of funding to pay for tunings it needs about four times a year.

At about $110 per tuning, the school's piano budget of $500 for the eight pianos at the school is not enough to keep up with the daily use.

"Students love her, and when they ask if they can play her, I usually have to say no," said Mendenhall. "They know it needs loving care and respect."

They haven't always known that.

Students in the past have run their keys along the black finish of the piano, revealing the brown beneath it. Some even carved initials into the side. For the four years Mendenhall has been at the school, he said the students' respect for the piano has increased.

Sherryn Ray, the PHS choir booster president and a parent of choir students, said she believes students today are influenced by appearances, and if something gets old and looks it, it's OK to throw it out and get a new one.

"This could help the students learn the value of historical things and realize they are sometimes worth keeping," said Mendenhall.

Vince Mrykalo, a Provo piano technician who has been tuning the instrument since 1997, will restore it as soon as the money can be raised for the project.

"The Steinway holds its monetary value, unlike cars and lesser quality pianos," said Mrykalo. "I find that any Steinway that is in the public schools has been there for a while."

He guessed that higher-quality pianos were purchased during a time when there was more emphasis on music education and the arts, and in turn, more funding for instruments. He said it would cost around $50,000 to replace the piano.

The piano needs all new parts, except for the frame, he said.

The piano has been in the school since the current Provo High building opened 50 years ago. Mendenhall said it has been used to train thousands of choristers for hundreds of music festivals -- including the current women's chorus, and concert and chamber choirs, which won a superior rating at a recent state competition.

"It's the equivalent of winning state," said Ray.

The choir students hope to raise the money on Thursday during their annual Spring Sing concert.

"We've never had a fundraiser quite this lofty," said Ray, the PHS choir booster president.

The choir is also responsible for other fundraisers throughout the year, including a spaghetti dinner and concessions during the football games. The money raised from those is used to pay the choir accompanist, Ray said.

While students are performing Thursday in the school's auditorium, Victoria will be waiting in their classroom for her big makeover.

Brooke Barker is available at 344-2559 or bbarker@heraldextra.com.

When: Thursday at 7 p.m.

Where: Provo High School

Cost: The choir is asking for donations of $5 per person or $20 per family. They are also looking for corporate sponsors.

For more information: Call Cory Mendenhall at 373-6550.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.

[TheSoundboard]

[ddm]

Nagano and his MSO deliver on all counts
Pianist Lang Lang adds star power
ARTHUR KAPTAINIS, The Gazette
Published: Tuesday, May 22, 2007

A good first season for Kent Nagano? It will take some looking back to come up with a definitive answer, but the MSO program on Sunday in Place des Arts implied positive vibrations all around. Here was a sold-out concert with serious content, accomplished playing and irresistible star power.

The last was provided by Lang Lang, one of the best-known pianists in the world. Relentless promotion has created something of a critical backlash against this 24-year-old Chinese virtuoso, whose stage mannerisms range from equestrian bouncing during rhythmic passages to laid-back reveries when the music gets mellow.

But there could be no denying the languorous beauty he coaxed out of the MSO Steinway in Ravel's Concerto in G, or his ability to preserve a sense of momentum while stretching time signatures and breaking down bar lines. Many pianists interpret the long solo at the start of the Adagio assai as a cool, steady continuum. Lang Lang went the songful route and made this famous music newly interesting.

Virtuoso passages in the outer movements were prodigiously clear, but also fun. And the good spirits were shared, since this score is a concerto for orchestra. The harp solo was magical. Nagano encouraged a freeform dialogue, which is to say he was strongly in control.

After intermission, we heard Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, rendered with the high resolution Nagano prefers in this composer. Transparency did not mean flimsiness; the opening chords were robust and climaxes had fibre.

As usual, Nagano communicated vitality by observing hairpin dynamics and sudden stresses. Still, the effect was not fussy. Cellos were warm in the funeral march and tension grew steadily in the fugato section. The oboe seemed less a lonely soloist than one of many tragic commentators. The Scherzo, sometimes treated as a divertissement, was another exercise in heroism, with a remarkably free and melodic trio. Usually, horns here are asked only to get the notes.

The program began with Liszt's tone poem Les Preludes, a lush work that contrasts throbbing romantic lines - taken in this case a little too freely - with passages of military vigour.

Trumpets were restrained, presumably at Nagano's request, as were the cymbals at the end. A subdued cymbal crash strikes me as a contradiction in terms.

Anyway, this was a spirited afternoon of music. The conductor and his players are getting along famously.

akaptainis@sympatico.ca

[ddm]

Finding the keys to success
Tonya Zelinsky, For the Calgary Herald
Published: Sunday, April 01, 2007

What: Irene Besse open house

Tickling the ivories took on a whole new meaning when the kings of piano came to Calgary to celebrate a special anniversary with Irene Besse Keyboards.

Representatives of Steinway and Sons, a leader in the piano industry, made a special trip to the city recently to pay homage to its 20-year relationship with the music retailer, only one of 69 agents around the world.

Starting the day off with an open house, the evening turned into an invitation-only gala featuring a special performance by local prodigy, Jan Lisieki. The 11-year-old pianist dazzled guests by playing the keys of a 128-year-old vintage Steinway piano, currently on display in Besse's private collection. The piano was built in 1879 and was originally owned and played by Frank Steinway.

The event was attended by Steinway and Sons president Bruce Stevens, Steinway concert technician Michael Lipnicki, and Steinway artist Richard Glazier.

tonyzee@shaw.ca

[ddm]

Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler has blasted TV talent shows insisting he could never "endorse such methods" for discovering new talent. The rocker refuses to watch shows like American Idol, which featured his guitarist Joe Perry last night, because he feels stars should work hard to reach the top - not get lucky on a television show.

He says, "I'm not sure how I feel about those kinds of shows, to be honest. One of my personal biggest influences was my father, Victor Tallarico. He practiced every day on a Steinway grand (piano) in our small apartment, and I listened to him play the classics."

"I started singing when I was three, in front of family and friends (and) later from watching bands like the Kinks, the Beatles." But despite his disdain for manufactured stars, Tyler did begrudgingly allow British talent show-formed band Girls Aloud to cover a version of his hit Walk This Way.

He explains, "A band that came out of one of those reality shows in Britain recently covered Walk This Way. I'm not going to criticize it, because it was for charity."

[ddm]

From the Roanoke Times....

By Ralph Berrier Jr.
981-3338

You may say he's a dreamer, but John Litchfield is about to receive a special delivery -- John Lennon's piano.

The piano on which Lennon composed and recorded his 1971 masterpiece "Imagine" is coming to Blacksburg as part of a tour to highlight peace and nonviolence. The tour was rerouted to Blacksburg in the wake of the April 16 shootings.

The piano, which was purchased by singer George Michael and his partner, Kenny Goss, at an auction in 2000, will also be displayed publicly today at the Blacksburg Farmers Market at 8 a.m. and in the atrium of Squires Students Center from noon until 3 p.m.

The piano will be photographed Sunday in Litchfield's back yard on Jackson Street as part of a potential documentary, book and exhibit. During the tour, the piano is photographed on or near the site where infamous acts of violence occurred. The piano has been photographed in Dallas, where President Kennedy was assassinated, the Memphis hotel were Martin Luther King was killed, Oklahoma City and, now, Blacksburg.

"Kenny and George both believe by taking the piano to Blacksburg, they hope to honor those that lost their lives, those injured and those whose lives were impacted forever by this great tragedy," Caroline True, the tour's director and producer, said in a news release. "Their deepest wish is to imagine a world of peace, a world without violence."

Litchfield, a Tech librarian and associate professor, was contacted by a friend who works with the tour. The friend called to say they needed a garden atmosphere for a photograph.

"I have a back yard with a garden in it," Litchfield said. "I hope that will do it."

The upright Steinway Model Z piano is not the famous white piano shown in the "Imagine" video. Lennon bought the Model Z piano in December 1970, and wrote and recorded "Imagine" on it.

"They're hoping this tour will bring a message of peace," Litchfield said.

[ddm]

Just how did Visalia actually get this piano?
By Lewis Griswold / The Fresno Bee
05/27/07 06:04:22


A mystery involving a 124-year-old piano inhabiting the Visalia Convention Center has manager Wally Roeben playing Sherlock Holmes.

The Steinway grand has been in the city's possession since 1981, according to a paper trail found in a file, but no one seems to know how the city got it in the first place.

"Did we buy it?" Roeben asked. "Was it donated? I'm trying to find out. I know there's a story there somewhere."

The Steinway was built in 1883. It has 85 keys instead of 88. It is 7 feet long.

"Unfortunately, it's in need of major repairs," Roeben said. The soundboard is cracked.

Another oddity is that the legs are not original, according to an out-of-town Steinway aficionado who stopped by a few months ago.

The center has two other pianos and probably doesn't need a Steinway grand, but "it's a great piano," Roeben said.

Clues can be called in to the Convention Center at (559) 713-4000.

[ddm]

By Sarah Bryan Miller
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH CLASSICAL MUSIC CRITIC
05/27/2007

Dr. Richard Katz is among 75 pianists from around the world competing in the Cliburn International.

Dr. Richard T. Katz doesn't regret his decision to pursue medicine instead of music as a career. That does not mean, however, that music isn't still a major part of his life.

This week, Katz, 51, of Clayton, will be among 75 competitors from around the world who take part in the fifth Cliburn International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs in Fort Worth, Texas.

The Cliburn amateur was launched in 1999 to take up some of the slack in the professional competition's off years. To make sure that participants are real amateurs, they must be at least age 35 at the start of the contest, and they must make their livings at something other than playing or teaching piano.

"It's hard to be a (professional) musician," says Katz, a specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation. "You always have to be the cream of the crop. I'm a solid pianist, but — wow! — that guy who played Prokofiev at Powell Hall a few weeks ago was just incredible. I think I made the right choice."

He has had, arguably, the best of both worlds for most of his life. Katz has been playing for 45 years. He even studied piano at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., while he pursued premedical studies at the University of Rochester. And he studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music while enrolled at Case Western Reserve University's School of Medicine.

Katz has performed with the likes of St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concertmaster David Halen and violinist Haruka Watanabe. He gave a lecture-concert in 1999 at the Sheldon on Beethoven's deafness, along with members of the orchestra.

"What's probably the most interesting thing about (the deafness) was the psychological effect" on Beethoven, he says. "That was an interesting juxtaposition of medicine and music."

Halen says he finds it refreshing that Katz plays piano "for the pure joy of it, and his joy rubs off on other people. He's unusually gifted, he's very unassuming and he has a lovely nine-foot Steinway in his living room. How many people, even professional musicians, have a nine-foot Steinway in their living room?"

The Steinway is well-used. Katz says his wife, psychiatrist Stacey Smith, is also an "avid" amateur pianist. "The only question is, who's practicing when?"

Smith was a U.S. figure-skating champion from 1978 through 1980. Their daughter, Rachel, 20, is a student at Northwestern University; their son, Julian, 15, is a student at Clayton High School. Rachel sings and dances; Julian is a drummer. Their father says firmly that neither plays the piano.

Right now, Katz gets first dibs on the Steinway, but he's always made good use of it. For the past 10 years he's worked on a series of "rock etudes" with local musicians, from members of the orchestra to rockers. He takes themes from, say, Beethoven and Stevie Wonder, and mixes them up.

"They blend classical with jazz," he says. "They're meant to be virtuosic in a pianistic way."

His other major project is transcribing chamber music for piano, including J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 ("You miss the flute filigree on top, but otherwise it works very well") and Maurice Ravel's String Quartet.

Since the Cliburn amateur allows competitors to choose their own music, Katz will perform his transcriptions.

"One of the delightful aspects of this contest is that you can play anything you want — and I mean anything," he says. "You can stay away from war horses. Are you going to play Chopin? What are you going to say that Ashkenazy didn't say 10 times better?

"I think my transcriptions are a nice contribution to the piano literature. I'm hoping those, along with good playing, will put me in good stead" at the competition.

It's the second time Katz has made the Cliburn amateur; he also was there for the third competition in 2002.

"Last time, I was just amazed at how good people were," he says. "Let's be frank: They're not of the quality of the final round of the (Cliburn young artists' competition), but are they good enough for a semifinal round? Yes, they are."

Katz and the others already have cleared a major hurdle just by getting into the first round; they were culled from hundreds of contestants. Each submitted a performance CD and was chosen to play in person.

The first round, Monday through Wednesday, will trim their numbers to 25 from 75. The second round, Friday and Saturday, will whittle that number down to six finalists.

To prepare, "I think the main thing to do in the last month is to do many run-throughs, to give frequent performances for friends," Katz says. "That's the biggest disadvantage that the amateur musician has: You don't get to perform in public enough. That's an art in itself, the art of doing well under pressure."

sbmiller@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8249

[ddm]

The late Beatle's piano made a tour stop at Virginia Tech.

Ralph Berrier Jr.

BLACKSBURG -- Jennifer Cable hid her nervousness well. Her fingers easily caressed the familiar chords of "Let It Be" from the nondescript brown piano stationed in the Squires Student Center atrium.

Suddenly, she stopped and left the stool. A young child took her place at the keys.

"I was nervous," said Cable, a Virginia Tech alumna from Christiansburg. "My hands were shaking."

Her anxiety was understandable. It's not every day you get to play John Lennon's piano.

Well, technically, it's George Michael's piano.

"That's OK," Cable said. "Technically, that was a Paul McCartney song."

Cable was one of scores of people who stopped by Saturday to see and play the Steinway upright piano once owned by Lennon. The late Beatle composed and recorded his signature solo smash "Imagine" on the piano shortly after buying it in December 1970. Michael, the British pop singer and former member of the 1980s pop duo Wham!, bought the piano at auction in 2000.

The piano was brought to the Virginia Tech campus as part of a tour to "promote peace in an increasingly violent world," according to Caroline True, the tour's director. Blacksburg came to know that violence during the April 16 shootings.

On Saturday, more than 200 people saw the piano, and about 60 people sat and played the same keys Lennon touched.

"I'm doing a recording session later and wanted to channel John Lennon's piano," said Andrew Key, a Blacksburg musician who improvised a piece.

The selections varied with the skill level of the players. Seasoned pianists played classical and jazzy pieces, rank beginners plinked simple melodies and small children banged out random staccato notes. People had themselves photographed at the keyboard.

"I touched every key," said Robin Lafon, a 30-year employee of Tech. "I'm glad they brought it here. Today is an emotional day."

The Beach family from Radford -- husband and wife Steve and Rachael, son Zak, 15, and daughter Cypress, 12 -- all took turns at the ivories.

"It felt special sitting there," said Rachael. "We're all Lennon fans. We're going to England this summer, and one of the stops will be Liverpool."

A few people played songs recorded by Lennon and the Beatles. Sam James, 10, played "Octopus's Garden" from a songbook and took a stab at "Birthday." His sister, Rachel, 12, played "A Taste of Honey."

Wendy Godley, who usually plays guitar and sings for the Blacksburg classic rock band the Kind, played "Imagine." Minutes later, someone played Journey's "Open Arms," a song that John Lennon definitely did not compose.

The piano arrived in Blacksburg on Friday in a Penske moving truck. The piano is being photographed on locations where notorious violent acts and human tragedy occurred as part of a book and film documentary project.

This tragic history tour has included stops at Dealey Plaza in Dallas -- the location of President John Kennedy's assassination -- the Memphis hotel where Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, the site of the Oklahoma City bombing and the former Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.

That Blacksburg is now included on such a sad list following the April 16 shootings is a fact that many people find unfathomable.

"It's going to take a long time for this to sink in," said Michelle McLeese, a Tech graduate student. A quilt bearing the faces of the 32 victims hung just behind her.

"More than a month later, it still doesn't seem real. Watching the community come out like this and play music is therapeutic."

The piano will be photographed today in the private garden of Charles Litchfield, a Tech librarian and associate professor. Litchfield has a friend who is one of the four people traveling with the piano.

Coincidentally, the piano was being photographed outside Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., on April 16.

"I was at the airport finishing an interview when I looked at the television and saw the breaking news," said True, a creative director from England who has worked with Michael for 15 years. "I was in New York on 9/11 and I know how people feel here. I've cried more here the past two days than I have on this entire trip."

A sign inside Squires stated that the tour's goal is to "honor those that lost their lives, those injured and those whose lives are impacted forever by this great tragedy."

For Cable, who will forevermore be able to say that she played a snatch of a Beatles song on a piano owned by John Lennon, Saturday was a step forward in the community's healing process.

"It was unbelievable, that's all I can say," she said. "You could feel the energy flowing through that instrument."

[ddm]

A 2005 Cowichan Music Festival participant tinkles the ivories on the Cowichan Theatre’s classic Steinway piano.

By Peter Rusland
News Leader Pictorial

Jun 02 2007

Cowichan Theatre’s prized 1922 Steinway piano is safely back home from a restoration adventure stateside.

It’s now being prepared for a grand fundraising concert this fall featuring special musical guests.

“We hope to reintroduce the piano to the community with a big gala concert in the fall. But the contingency is when we can get an artist,” says Leslie Sjoberg of the Friends of the Cowichan Theatre.

“We have several (noted pianists) in mind but it has to work into their schedules.”

The Friends have raised about $9,000 toward some $28,000 in restoration costs.

Sjoberg applauds Victoria piano technician Jim Armstrong for getting the nine-foot grand to and from Steinway’s global restoration facility in Long Island City, New York.

It arrived back in Cowichan early this month.

“The work Jim’s done up to now has mostly been a donation,” she says. “He’s so generous with his time, it worries me.”

Anderson is replacing the vintage piano’s legs and ivories that weren’t shipped to the U.S. in October.

The Friends were shocked at border restrictions that sent the Steinway on an expensive three-month odyssey to New York, she says.

“The cost of shipping is horrendous. The ivory keys had to be taken off because no ivory is allowed to cross the border.”

Once in Long Island City, the piano received a new soundboard to replace an incorrect one installed during the Steinway’s 1987 restoration.

The piano’s cracked harp was also sent by Steinway to Portland, Maine for repairs.

The Cowichan Music Festival bought the Steinway in the 1960s.

It was kept under climate-controlled conditions at Cowichan secondary school until being moved to the theatre in 1978 for community use and safekeeping.

While the Friends chart fundraising plans, Sjoberg advises it’ll take time for the Steinway’s aural majesty to emerge.

“It will take two more years for the piano to season and be broken in with the new soundboard.”

Donations are tax deductible. Call 748-8833.

[ddm]

Case of Steinway lineage cracked
By Lewis Griswold / The Fresno Bee
06/01/07 04:59:25


The mystery of the Steinway grand piano at the Visalia Convention Center has been solved, thanks to a newspaper reader.

Convention Center manager Wally Roeben has been trying to find out where the piano came from.

Along comes Marla Humphrey of Visalia with the answer.

"That piano belonged to my father, George Mason," Humphrey said. "He inherited it from his brother Cliff Moran, who lived in Alhambra. Cliff loved music, he just loved to play piano. He had five pianos."

When her Uncle Cliff died in the late 1960s, the Steinway was moved to Tulare and into Humphrey's home.

There it sat, unplayed mostly, for 10 years. And taking up the dining area.

"It served as a Christmas tree stand," Humphrey said.

"It was an unusual piano," she added. "It was short a few keys."

The piano has 85 keys instead of the usual 88. It was built in 1883.

The 7-foot piano needed repair, so Humphrey called a piano technician, who informed her that the Visalia Convention Center wanted to buy a grand piano.

With her father's permission, she sold it to the convention center for $1,300.

That was in 1978, maybe 1979.

Not long after that, Humphrey and Ken Schelling of Visalia went to see Bob Hope perform at the Convention Center with Les Brown and His Band of Renown.

"Les Brown used that piano at the Convention Center," Humphrey said proudly.

The mystery was solved only because Schelling and Humphrey happened to read about it in this column while perusing the newspaper over breakfast at a downtown Visalia restaurant.

"Marla!" Schelling exclaimed. "They're writing about your old piano!"

"The power of the pen!" said Roeben, the convention center manager.