Dear Friends and Collegues,
As promised, I asked Randy Potter to write a small expose of his trip to Cuba.
Enjoy! If you have any comments, you may email to him or response to me and
I will forward to him for you.
Dave Peake, RPT
Portland, OR
18 Enero 1998
As Chairman of PTG's International Relations Committee, I am filing a
series of short reports via the PTG-L on a recent occurrance that involved 10
members of the Piano Technicians Guild. They were part of an international
group of piano technicians that included 16 piano technicians from at least
four countries. They traveled to Cuba to provide humanitarian aid within the
primary realm of providing piano service in institution and individual
settings and, perhaps more importantly, providing basic and upgrade training
to Cuban piano technicians, with a view to enabling them to service their own
pianos at a much higher level.
In the interest of your time and this space, I will keep these rather
brief, then answer specific questions in future posts. (Please direct your
questions directly to me at rpotter @bendnet.com. This posting in will give an
overview of the project.
I am also writing an article (which I expect to become three separate
articles, though such determinations will be made by PTG Journal Editor Steve
Brady, if and when he decides to publish it/them), which will be much more
detailed than the basic information I intend to post here.
However, since I feel this is something that is very deserving of your
interest and attention, I am making this information available as early as
possible. I suspect other members of our group will also make posts of their
own, and you will have a great deal of information about this project
available to you in the near future.
First, you may be interested in whom was involved in this project.
Though this was not an official PTG project, and (to the best of my
knowledge as I write this) not officially "sanctioned" by the PTG Board, the
core of this group was made up of PTG members, and included:
Ken Dalgleish - Gibsons, BC
John Foy - Greensboro, NC
Fred Hickman - Edgewater, MD
Newton Hunt - New Brunswick, NJ
Paul Larudee - Richmond, CA
Randy Potter - Bend, OR
Priscilla Rappaport - Round Rock, TX
Tom Solinger - Pacifica (SF), CA
David Stanwood - Martha's Vineyard, MA
Eleanor Stanwood - Martha's Vineyard, MA
Other Non-PTG technicians involved included:
Benjamin Treuhaft - San Francisco, CA
Jean-Claude Toumikian - Marseilles, France
Danielle Toumikian - Marseilles, France
Didier Klein - L'Etape, France
Bernard Balas - Wien, Austria
Spike Taylor - Toronto, Canada
Overview:
This project was started by Benjamin Treuhaft of San Francisco, who
visited Cuba about three years ago and was utterly appalled at the condition
of the practice and performance pianos used by students at these schools. He
set up a non-profit organization (from which he receives no salary for his
work) to send used pianos to Cuba. He called his project "Send a Piana to
Havana".
Two years ago he sent his first load of donated pianos, then traveled
over with a couple other technicians to work on them and place them in service
at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA, which we would call the Superior
Instute of Art in English), and Escuela Nacional de Arte (ENA, which we would
call the National School of Art) in Habana (which is pronounced and spelled
Havana by Americans). ISA, ENA, and a few concerts halls in Habana, is where
we worked during the week-and-a-half we were there this year.
ISA is a college level career school for the arts, and has art, dance and
music performance divisions.
ENA is a junior high and high school level career school for the arts,
like a prep-school, of sorts, for students ages 12-17, also in the same arts.
A small number of younger students are allowed into ENA each year, by
audition.
Last year Benjamin sent a second shipment of pianos, then returned to
Cuba with seven piano technicians in all, including Priscilla Rappaport, who
was the only other returning veteran this year.
Our project this year was called the "Tuner's Brigade to Cuba" by the
group filming the BBC special currently in production, and which expected to
hit American Public Broadcasting in the fall.
The project has now become known as "Pianos Para Cuba" by the Cubans, and
to us who went this year, which means Pianos for Cuba, and this is what we
call it when speaking with the Cubans, or each other.
Pianos Para Cuba:
In the first two years, Benjamin and the project sent 35 pianos to Cuba.
This year 25 more pianos were sent, bringing the total number of pianos
sent to 60.
Also, 30 boxes of piano supplies were also sent. Plus 20 boxes of other
stuff, including 7 bicycles (for use by piano technicians when they come to
work) and medical supplies (which were given to the Cubans).
Also, this year a new Jahn string spinning machine, from Germany, costing
about $10,000, was shipped to Cuba. Priscilla Rappaport spent the first four
or five days in Cuba teaching three technicians theory and practice of string
scaling and related arts, including calculations using slide rules (they do
not have access to computers and calculators, so she taught they how to do it
themselves), and when the machine was finally delivered to the shop at ENA she
spent the last four days teaching them to spin strings. In the end, they
calculated and spun a complete set of bass strings for a Yamaha G3, which were
then installed on the piano. It was a glorious achievement for the Cuban
technicians to be able to do such a thing. (In fact, the whole piano was
restrung, but that is a story for another post.)
Most of the pianos which have been sent thus far are are ISA and ENA for
student use, and a few have (by Ben's design) have been given to individual
outstanding students for use elsewhere.
Most of the tuning, repairing and regulating tools, parts and supplies
are also kept at ISA and ENA, though this year many individual technicians
gave tools they brought to individual afinadores (tuners) or mechanics (piano
repair people who do not tune). (And for those of you reading this who are not
used to this, in Europe there is often a separation of tuners and mechanics,
and while tuners are often capable of performing repairs and regulating, in
some areas they do not perform these services for the most part. But that is
another monologue, and is off the subject of this first post.)
Benjamin said:
In a post Benjamin sent to me several months ago, Ben said -
"From the beginning of the project, tuners from the PTG have
spontaneously donated parts and supplies to Send a Piana to Havana. Two have
been coming Cuba to help out. I think the PTG is perfect for Cuba, and vice
versa.
"Now that I know the PTG has a foreign minister (referring to the fact
that I am Chair of the International Relations Committee) I want to work with
you on this.
"This week I am completing a mailing to 1,100 customers and contacts,
soliciting donations to help fund future brigades. If this drive is successful
I may organize a trip for the summer to coincide with an angle of the project:
Rosa Lowinger, L.A. museum conservation expert, is researching safe, cheap
methods of exterminating the piano-eating comegen Caribbean termite. We will
send her and a colleague to Cuba in the next few months to work on this with
the Cuban Institute of Music."
There were others who traveled on this trip with us. Flo Hodes, a friend
of Ben's, worked with a travel company to plan our transportation and other
activities while in Cuba, and came along on the trip with us.
Rosa Lowinger, who is mentioned in the post, above, is a professional
expert in art conservation, and spent her time traveling to numberous places
on the island assisting and advising in art preservation, as well as working
with Cubans on the problem of the comegen in pianos.
Benjamin's well-know father, Robert Treuhaft (now 85), and sister
Constance, also showed up the last few days we were there, for a visit and to
be part of the decumentary being shot for the BBC production.
We did not all fly in together, as those coming from Canada, France and
Austria were able to take direct flights to Habana.
In another post to me Ben said:
"There is an island off our Southern shore with hot breezes, cities full
of Spanish colonial architectural gems, the world's best rum and cigars, an
almost crazily independent (and famously handsome) population, and oh yeah,
thousands of horrible pianos. Which is a pity, because Cuban music and
musicians are amazing.
"This winter, piano tuners from North American and beyond will take a
10-day trip to Cuba to work on some of the 35 pianos that the project Send A
Piana To Havana has brought over. (As noted above, there were 60 pianos by the
time we arrived.) We'll be getting the instruments ready to give to kids and
schools. We'll work alongside
Cuban tuners and students of the Instituto Superior de Arte on the grounds of
the former Golf Club of Havana - Nixon and Batista played a round there before
the revolution - a conservatory for the best young dancers, sculptors, and
musicians in Cuba. We'll pass on some tricks of the trade to the Cubans and
some of us will return later for longer stays to develop a piano technical
workshop/school."
Licensed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury:
You may be interested to know that this project was legal, and in fact
was/is licensed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. While the U.S.
government still maintains a strict embargo against Cuba and everything Cuban
(except that wealthy companies are allowed to import cigars, which you can buy
at most smoke shops in most cities, and certain other products), and thousands
of U.S. unlicensed tourists travel to Cuba each year for vacations, our
project is licensed by the U.S. government.
When I returned home, one of the first things I said to my wife was "The
U.S. is going to lift the trade embargo soon." To which she replied "Oh, did
you hear Clinton's speech?" (Apparently, in a speech she heard about a week
after we had left, he said he thought it was time we lifted the trade
embargo.) I said that, no, I did not hear his speech, but the first day we
were there we were shown the new U.S. Embassy building. Its renovation is
sceduled to be completed in two to three months, and it (supposedly) being
called the U.S. Information Bureau. Yeah, right. It is right down on Embassy
Row, in the middle of the other embassies, and that is all I have to say about
that, except that they have been working on it for months already.
In closing, for now:
There is much more to this story, but these things will have to wait
until further posts.
One is the story of the Havana Golf and Country Club, which now houses
the ISA, and the grounds, where the ENA building has been built. The HGC was
founded by a Scottish gentleman names Frederick Snares, who was president for
its first 25 years of existence, and is David Stanwood's grandfather. David
used to vacation there with his family as a boy, and has photos of himself in
the buildings. A fascinating story, but later.
All of us could tell stories, and many will, of working one-on-one with
the Cuban technicians. You will find it fascinating how many of them were
"trained", one mechanic who learned from his father, who learned from his
father, and others who learned from Soviet technicians. But later.
One technician, Ken Dalgleish, arrived nearly a week earlier, and had
been working on pianos at ENA for several days before we even arrived.
Another, Bernard Balas, arrived several days later, but also stayed
several days later finishing up the stringing on the Yamaha G3.
Priscilla was our technical director this year, but because she planned
to work primarily in training Cubans to scale pianos and make bass strings I
was asked to sort of be her assistant, coordinating the repairs and regulating
of the pianos at ISA and ENA, to help get things started and keep things
moving. There was so much to do that it seemed overwelming, at the start, but
it was amazing how different technicians began to see projects that needed to
be done, that they were capable of doing, and got right to work. In fact, I
was trying to keep of record of what was happening with the various pianos,
plus the work being done by several technicians (including Ken Dalgleish, Paul
Larudee, David & Eleanor Stanwood, Newton Hunt) who went out to concert and
recital halls for regulating and tuning work during the second week - and
there was so much going on, and it was changing so fast, that I think I may
have a record of only about 1/3-1/2 of it so far.
Or of how two technician's wives, Eleanor Stanwood and Danielle
Toumikian, pitched right in to help, and found themselves doing much needed
technical work all week, just like the rest of us. Boy were they jazzed. But,
later.
And finally, kudos and thanks go to the 16 technicians, mentioned
earlier, who not only gave up two weeks of their time, and earnings, plus
something in the neighborhood of $1,200-$1,500 of their own money for airfare
and on-site expenses in Cuba. But that, too, is for another post.
Before I close, let me say that if you are interested in participating in
one of these trips planned for later this year, or early 1999, you can contact
Ben Treuhaft directly, at (510) 843-3823. His company, located in San
Francisco, is called Underwater Piano Shop, and he is currently in the process
of moving to New York, so look for a phone number change in some later post.
Until the next post, adiós.
Randy Potter, R.P.T.
Randy Potter School of Piano Technology
"Training Competent Piano Technicians Into the 21st Century"
Celebrating 11 Years, with students & graduates in over 70 countries!
See our NEW web page at www.pianotuning.com, and also www.tuningschool.com
We are accepting registrations for our 1998 Hands-on Training Seminar
June 28-July 5, 1998 @ Northwestern College in St. Paul, MN.
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Subject: Pianos Para Cuba: Part I
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