Gina/Tom, I agree with Gina. About all you can do is try to have the piano as well acclimated to the concert conditions as possible. Make friends with the hall manager. Sometimes they will at least get the piano into the room in plenty of time for it to acclimate some before you tune for the rehearsal. If you are able to do that. I too, now, have an almost ideal situation in our new hall/building. The storage room is controlled and the stage lights are high intensity/low heat type lamps. When I'm tuning on stage, I'm not even aware of any heat from the lighting. I would even feel comfortable tuning a harpsichord for a concert without the lights being on, as long as it had had a chance to thoroughly acclimate to the hall. I love it! When I was doing the concert work in San Angelo, TX before I moved to Houston, I guess I was also kind of lucky. The orchestra usually had an afternoon rehearsal before the concert, so I would always tune right after the rehearsal while the room, piano, etc. were already at concert conditions. I would also have the stage lights left on while I tuned so there would be no noticeable change in temperature. Then even if the lights were subsequently turned off for a while, the piano would tend to come back to the tuning done previously. Probably not much help, but in some concert conditions, one just has to "fly by the seat of their pants", so to speak. Do the best you can under the conditions you've been given and as Gina so elequontly said..... >Pray???? Avery >Seriously, I realize that I may have an almost ideal situation, but what >works best for me is to have the piano on stage at least one day prior to >the first rehearsal. My objective is to allow as much time as possible for >the piano to acclimate to the change in environment from its storage room >which is controlled to 70 degrees/ 45% RH to the onstage conditions which >vary according to the outside/inside temperature and RH. I tune before each >rehearsal and performance so that by performance time the piano hopefully >will have adjusted. (Time frame is minimally two days but usually three.) >Also I turn the stage lights on as soon as I arrive, if they are not already >on. After all is done, then I pray. :-) > >Best, > >Gina ___________________________ Avery Todd, RPT Moores School of Music University of Houston Houston, TX 77204-4893 713-743-3226 atodd@uh.edu http://www.music.uh.edu/ o Offer expires December 31 or while supplies last. (Classified Ad)
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