The $50,000 question

[David M. Porritt]

Mark:

For $50K you could rebuild (or send out to be rebuilt) both of your current Ds and have 2 wonderful pianos.  That's certainly the route I'd recommend, or is it that you need a third instrument.  Here in Dallas the Meyerson Symphony Center has a new (new when the building was built about 12 years ago) Hamburg D, and one rebuilt NY D from 1911.  The rebuilt NY seems the be the favorite of most artists.

dave

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On 3/8/00 at 7:22 AM Mark Graham wrote:

>I'm back on the forums after a year's absence. I have an odd situation at
>our college and I'd be interested in suggestions or information about
>available pianos.
>
>Baldwin-Wallace College near Cleveland, Ohio is looking for a Steinway D.
>We have 2 on stage now, one from 1926 and one from about 1980. Both are
>heavily used and are showing their age. Both need hammers and restringing,
>which I'm pushing for, but I'm contracted for 20 hrs/wk, they have 90
>pianos plus others on campus, and there is no shop. I'm stretched pretty
>thin as you can tell, but that's another story.
>
>Two new piano faculty members, both excellent musicians, are pushing for a
>new D. One of them found a used Hamburg D. I went with them to see it, and
>it sounded great but was the age of our better one and showed much wear.
>In addition, the soundboard and ivories are cracked from low humidity. It
>needed a great deal of work, but the one faculty member felt about it like
>my son would about a sports car -- loved it and wanted it. Without my
>knowledge, the administration secured a $50,000 grant to purchase it. When
>I found out, I restated my original feelings, that this piano was not a
>step up for us, pointed out its shortcomings, and said I couldn't support
>purchasing it. The faculty went back to look at it, decided it really
>wasn't for us, and thanked me profusely for saving the college from an
>expensive mistake. Amazing!
>
>But now we have $50,000. The college is holding it for us. We don't get
>the interest and we can't invest it, but it can sit indefinitely. We want
>a D, but don't have enough for a new one, and the development office and
>other administrators can't come up with the difference. (I suggested a
>bake sale and car wash.)(That's a joke.) For many reasons I think the
>college should have a new one. The faculty wants a Steinway and nothing
>else. I'd be thrilled to have a concert Yamaha or other, but absolutely
>not, they say.
>
>We will, of course, talk with Steinway, but that's not my department.
>Perhaps something used from the artist department would be a possibility.
>Anybody ever been in a similar situation? Anybody know of the perfect
>piano for us? By the way, I'm posting to pianotech and the caut forum.
>
>Mark Graham
>Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music
>Berea, Ohio




David M. Porritt
dporritt@swbell.net
Meadows School of the Arts
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX 75275