[CAUT] becoming an all Steinway School

[Joel A. Jones]

Paul,
Good advice from Rick.   My own experience at UWisc was with a variety 
of pianos picked out
before I arrived.  A large endowment in 1969 let each faculty select 
their own pianos for their studios
  with M&H, Bechstein, Bosendorfer, Yamaha, Baldwin, German Steinway,  
NY Steinway,
  and Knight.

Talk about a good deal -  $600.00 for a U1.  Talk about recalls -  can 
you say felt knuckles,
teflon bushings...

These selections happened when the building was built in 1969.  Now the 
building is scheduled to be
demolished, but the pianos play on.  Tell that to your beam counters. 
Acknowledging the fact that maintenance is not as glamorous as buying a 
shiny new piano, we in CAUTland can make a big difference with  
inventory problemsby concentrating on our number one job of putting our 
best work before the piano public regardless of the name on the 
fallboard.

Addressing the All Steinway label specifically it must be acknowledge 
that a very, very small number of
graduating pianists will reach the stage where they will play only 
Steinway.  Granted, everyone knows
the name, but the performance venues most of our graduates will 
encounter will not be stocked with the
number one Steinway in town.

At the Annual Institute/convention we have a front row seat in hearing  
the best pianos in the world.
Not only that, the best factory service technicians can show us how to 
bring out the qualities built into each individual maker.

Another college I service the faculty and I asked dealers to bring 
their best piano to the
school for the final selection.   The dealers who brought pianos had a 
chance to promote the best
features of their piano.  The faculty chose the piano that played and 
sounded the best for them .
Do the research and Buy Wisely.

One last word - warranties.  When problems develop and brand X has 
loose tuning pins
why doesn't brand Y also have loose tuning pins?   Tell me now that 
humidity is the problem. Or that the pianists beat the life out of X, 
well, why does Y play on?

So, the moral to my story, like Rick's is to put the best available 
piano in front of your school, let them play it,
see inside it, and hear it.  And, with alittle luck your students and 
faculty will  discover that their University  graduates are prepared 
for the REAL WORLD.

Joel
Joel Jones, RPT
Madison, WI

On Dec 11, 2007, at 1:25 PM, Rick Florence wrote:

>
> Paul,
>  
> Perhaps you need to rethink your strategy.  There are very few 
> administrators or faculty who are willing to jump ship on the concert 
> stage.  It’s too big of a risk, including for you as a technician.  No 
> matter what piano is on the stage, including Steinway, you will find 
> someone who is unhappy with it.  Push a brand many have not heard of 
> or played on before and you are setting yourself up for a lot of pain 
> and suffering, no matter how nice the piano is.  The key to opening 
> eyes and ears to other instruments is to introduce them in other 
> visible areas that allow students and faculty to experience them 
> without fear of loosing what’s known to them.  Fine pianos will do 
> their own advertising.  Over time they will accept “other” pianos, 
> then you can start a discussion of adding other brands along side of 
> Steinway on the stage – giving them a choice of instruments, not a 
> change.
>  
> A good place to start is a piano professor with two pianos, one being 
> a worn out Steinway.  Put together a proposal to purchase a new piano 
> to allow the professor the use of a better functioning piano while the 
> other is rebuilt.  The new piano can always go somewhere else after 
> the rebuilding, so there is no fear of permanent change for the 
> professor.  We did this with a Schimmel 213, along side a typical 1996 
> Steinway B, the older B was taken out for rebuilding.  The professor 
> now plays on the Schimmel almost exclusively and doesn’t care to have 
> the old B back, but she still has the newer B for those who must play 
> a Steinway.  The professor is happy, and the bean counters love the 
> fact that the Schimmel was half the cost of a Steinway.  We have since 
> added Schimmel pianos on a small recital stage (on loan), a Choral 
> room and a few uprights (model 120) in professor’s rooms.  I don’t 
> have to ask now about buying Schimmel, as the faculty is comfortable 
> with them and they know I won’t attempt to force a brand on them.  I 
> plan to do similar strategic planting with other brands as the 
> occasion arises.
>  
> We, in academia, are in an enviable position when it comes to 
> borrowing or purchasing fine pianos at a substantial discount.  
> Dealers of every brand desperately want the recognition of selling 
> their instruments to the local university.  We need to take advantage 
> of this and create a win-win situation.  Our budgets go further and 
> the dealer gets a lot of free advertising as faculty and students play 
> their pianos (For example, the local Schimmel dealer has sold to both 
> faculty and students over the last two years, because of  their 
> experience with Schimmel at ASU).  We have picked up great deals over 
> the years I have been here on Schimmel, Mason & Hamlin, Yamaha, and 
> Boesendorfer for this very reason.  Conversely, the worst deal in 
> recent history was 11 years ago when we bought 34 new Steinways (not 
> my decision!).  Because the University made it quite clear that they 
> intended on buying only Steinway the competition factor was eliminated 
> and both Steinway and ASU lost out - ASU because of the higher price, 
> a relatively large percentage of mediocre pianos (no selection) and 
> lack of musical diversity, and Steinway because of the large number of 
> very expensive, mediocre pianos (no selection) that has hurt their 
> reputation locally.
>  
> Competition always improves life, both for the buyer and the seller.
>  
> ____________________
> Rick Florence
> Senior Piano Technician
> Arizona State University
> School of Music
>
> From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of 
> Paul T Williams
> Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 7:16 AM
> To: College and University Technicians
> Subject: Re: [CAUT] becoming an all Steinway School
>  
>
>
> We here at UNL have lots of Steinways.  We also have many Mason and 
> Hamlins and Baldwins.  In the concert halls, we have 3 Steinway D's, 
> an old Baldwin D, and a Yamaha C-3.  All are fine in their 
> venues...Steinways for actual pianists and accompanyists, the Baldwin 
> for chiors, etc, and the Yamaha for Jazz or for space saving needs. 
>  We are not an all Steinway school and I'm not sure if in Richard 
> West's era we were approached.  I have recently spoken up to look into 
> Bluthner or Yamaha, Sauter, Shimmel, etc for a new concert grand the 
> Director is hoping to get, and I got (not so politely) shut down for 
> each suggestion.  I believe only one of the piano faculty is an actual 
> Steinway artist, but they all like the Steinways best. The Hamburg D 
> is the directors and piano faculty's choice for the new piano 
> (whenever that can be funded!)
>
> I am in agreement on diversity as well.  At least the students have 
> many brands to choose from in the practice rooms.  I purposely have 
> regulated some heavy in touch, some lighter, some right on specs and 
> the same with voicing (no specs for voicing  :>)  ).  I think if we 
> were approached by Steinway, my two cents would be to decline the 
> offer for the very reasons stated here and in previous observations...
>
> Best,
>
> Paul
>
>
>
> "Michael Wathen" <michael.wathen at wapin.com>
> Sent  by: caut-bounces at ptg.org
>
> 12/09/2007 10:33 PM
> Please  respond to
> College and University Technicians  <caut at ptg.org>
>
> To
> "College and University Technicians" <caut at ptg.org>
> cc
>  
> Subject
> Re: [CAUT] becoming an all Steinway School
>  
>  
>  
>
>
>
>
> Diversity is the message behind this all. Diversity helps the universe:
> wether it be populations within society, diversity of opinions, 
> diversity of
> organic life, diversity of ideas and creativity, or diversity of
> instruments. With diversity we are insuring the future success of the
> acoustic piano, without it we are relegating good musicianship and 
> enjoyment
> of acoustical piano music to a privleged (sp) few. Perhaps, this is 
> what
> Steinway would perfer. Kudos to the faculty of ASU.
>
> Sorry my spell check does not work.
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Rick Florence" <Rick.Florence at asu.edu>
> To: "College and University Technicians" <caut at ptg.org>
> Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2007 8:53 PM
> Subject: Re: [CAUT] becoming an all Steinway School
>
>
> A few thoughts on becoming an All Steinway School.
>
> ASU has been approached a number of times with the "offer" of becoming 
> an
> All Steinway School.  We have rejected the idea each time.  I hope 
> future
> administrators will do the same.   It was quite apparent from the most
> recent proposal, last Fall, that the only advantage is to Steinway. 
>  The
> School does not receive a better price on the products. There is little
> chance to select pianos, as most schools convert over in a short 
> period of
> time and there is not enough inventory from which to choose.  The 
> Schools
> are expected to keep their inventory at 90% Steinway products, with all
> performance areas being exclusively Steinway, eliminating some 
> incredible
> performance instruments.
>
> We were told that Steinway works with schools to ensure proper 
> maintenance
> schedules are followed.  I found this to be an absolute falsehood.  I
> contacted many of the All Steinway schools to get an idea of budgets 
> and
> personnel.  I could find no appreciable difference between the All 
> Steinway
> schools and other schools.  In fact I found many of the All-Steinway 
> schools
> to be worse off in terms of a maintenance budget and staffing.  They 
> all had
> their new pianos, yet few had a strategic repair or maintenance plan.
>
> At the Steinway proposal evening Bruce Stevens asked me if ASU was
> interested in the prestige of being an All Steinway school.  I told him
> ASU's prestige comes from its program, faculty, and students, which 
> includes
> our administration's support of piano upkeep.  In short, we have built 
> our
> own reputation.  The only one to gain prestige from our becoming an All
> Steinway school is Steinway.
>
> This does not mean that ASU does not appreciate Steinway pianos.  We 
> have a
> large number of Steinway grands (45) and always will.  We also have 
> three
> Steinway artists on our faculty.   We simply reject the idea that 
> omitting
> other fine pianos from our inventory would make us a better school. 
>  We feel
> it would do the opposite.  The following is an excerpt from my latest
> proposal to create an endowment fund for a perpetual purchase and
> maintenance program.   This proposal has been accepted by the faculty, 
> the
> Dean and our Foundation.  We hope to begin raising funds this year.  I
> suppose I should thank Steinway for their part in this, as it was their
> latest visit that prompted the faculty and administration to accept my
> counter proposal of assembling/keeping an inventory of the finest 
> pianos
> from around the world.
>
>
> ____
> Exclusive Piano Brands
>
>
> There seems to be a growing push in Academia for Schools of Music to 
> become
> exclusive to a particular piano manufacturer.  Although this practice 
> is a
> marketing coup for the particular manufacturer, we believe it is a
> disservice to both faculty and students.  We would not ask an artist to
> limit his or her works to only one medium.  Neither would we instruct 
> our
> music students to perform the works of only one composer.  Why then 
> would we
> limit our musical inquiry and performance to one brand of piano?
>
> We appreciate and celebrate the diversity of musical artistry 
> attainable
> when given the opportunity to select from a number of finely built 
> pianos.
> We also better prepare our students to adapt to and create music with 
> the
> wide variety of instruments they will encounter throughout their 
> career.
>
> In terms of quality control and product design, a close look at the
> different models available from all major manufacturers invariably 
> shows a
> weakness at some point in each of their product lines.  If we limit
> ourselves to one brand, we commit ourselves to their weaknesses as 
> well.  It
> is a valuable tool to be able to combine the strengths of several
> distinguished manufacturers to best utilize our resources, and afford 
> our
> students the best education possible.
> ____
>
>
> BTW, I understand there ARE All Steinway schools in Europe.  They, of
> course, use the Hamburg Steinway - an apparent advantage of geography.
> According to the Steinway website they are:
>
> City of Edinburgh School of Music, Edinburgh, Scotland
>
> Hamburger Konservatorium, Hamburg, Germany
>
> Vestjysk Musikkonservatoriums, Esbjerg, Denmark
>
> Too bad. There are a lot of great pianos being built in very close 
> proximity
> to these schools.
>
> Rick
>
>
> ________________________
> Rick Florence
> Senior Piano Technician
> Arizona State University
> School of Music
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: caut-bounces at ptg.org on behalf of Richard Brekne
> Sent: Sun 12/9/2007 9:01 AM
> To: caut at ptg.org
> Subject: [CAUT]  becoming an all Steinway School
>
>
> We have talked about becomming an all Steinway school... and brought it
> up at a recent visit by the regional sales rep from Hamburg.  It is our
> understanding that no such school exists in Europe... that this is an
> American thing.  We are looking into the possibilities of establishing
> the first such school here.  If we manage it.... all our non-Steinway
> inventory will have to leave our ownership... including a rather ok CF
> III that is 4 years old now.
>
> All in all... for better and for worse... I'd have to say that the All
> Steinway School stamp is one that is very very much worth the dark 
> sides
> of any such marriage  is bound to have.
>
> Cheers
> RicB
>
>
>    hi folks
>    I'd be interested to hear experiences from those
>    techs. working at schools  that have become ''All
>    Steinway''. Is it very restrictive on the purchase
>    choice of instruments. What happened to existing
>    inventory. Was administration and faculty  won over by
>    becoming ''All Steinway''. How are the Boston pianos
>    holding up etc etc..........
>
>
>
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