Pianos Lure Students

[Avery Todd]

I agree it's a great program but I wonder if they mention anywhere that the 
student
has to pay for any tunings or they don't get done? One of our staff has a 
daughter
there now and told me that!

Avery

At 03:37 PM 04/16/03 -0700, you wrote:
>                                 Pianos Lure Students to Pa. Conservatory
>                                 The Associated Press
>                                 Apr 16 2003 3:00PM
>
>                                 PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Of the 800 or so 
> students who annually
>                                 audition for the Curtis Institute of 
> Music, about 40 are accepted.
>                                 And for some of those lucky - and 
> talented - chosen ones, it gets
>                                 even grander: their own Steinway piano 
> for the duration of their
>                                 enrollment.
>
>                                 The loan program has been a tradition 
> since the founding of the
>                                 79-year-old Curtis, regarded as one of 
> the world's most
>                                 prestigious music conservatories. Thirty 
> students now have
>                                 at-home Steinways.
>
>                                 ``This is something that's really unique 
> to Curtis on this kind of a
>                                 scope,'' said Sally Coveleskie, director 
> of institutional sales for
>                                 Steinway & Sons in New York.
>
>                                 Steven Hackman, now a 22-year-old 
> second-year conducting
>                                 student, had auditioned and was waiting 
> for his flight home to
>                                 Illinois when he read about the loan 
> program while browsing the
>                                 school's Web site in the airport.
>
>                                 ``My parents were here, too ... our jaws 
> just dropped,'' he said.
>                                 ``I'd never heard of anything like that.''
>
>                                 It can make apartment hunting tougher, 
> and the students have to
>                                 pay for the piano move, which costs at 
> least $150. But they're not
>                                 complaining.
>
>                                 ``We're really blessed to have this 
> program - it's one of the
>                                 reasons I came here,'' said Sheridan 
> Seyfried, 18. ``Otherwise,
>                                 you're relying on practice rooms and 
> trying to schedule time to use
>                                 them. To have one at home is just the 
> ultimate.''
>
>                                 This year, 38 students were accepted at 
> Curtis, founded in 1924
>                                 by publishing heiress Mary Louise Curtis 
> Bok. The school accepts
>                                 only enough students to fill all the 
> seats in an orchestra plus a small
>                                 number of keyboard, composition and 
> conducting students.
>                                 Currently there are 158 students; all are 
> on full scholarships.
>
>                                 The length of study is open-ended, 
> ranging from two years to 10
>                                 years or longer. Students, mostly 
> college-age but a few of whom
>                                 are in their early teens, graduate when 
> their teachers decide they
>                                 are ready.
>
>                                 Conductor Leonard Bernstein, opera singer 
> Anna Moffo, violinist
>                                 Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, pianist Peter 
> Serkin and composer
>                                 Samuel Barber are among Curtis' alumni - 
> as is the school
>                                 president, noted pianist Gary Graffman.
>
>                                 The Curtis Institute purchased its first 
> 45 Steinways shortly after
>                                 the school opened and it now has 91, 
> acquired through donations
>                                 and purchases. Besides the school's 16 
> piano students, 14 others
>                                 studying harpsichord, organ, composition 
> and conducting have
>                                 Steinways. Students try them out and pick 
> the one they like best.
>
>                                 The remaining grands, worth $12,000 and 
> up, grace the school's
>                                 performance venues and practice rooms.
>
>                                 ``Steinways are workhorses; they hold up 
> extremely well. And the
>                                 depth of the sound really gives students 
> idealized training that
>                                 allows them a fuller palette to work 
> with,'' said Hugh Sung, a
>                                 Curtis alumnus and faculty member.
>
>                                 Third-year piano student Di Wu, 18, said 
> she otherwise would
>                                 have rented an upright piano for her 
> studies. Instead, she practices
>                                 in her apartment on her 1931 Model B 
> Steinway - but she worries
>                                 it might be spoiling her.
>
>                                 ``It's an honor,'' she said. ``I just 
> don't know how I'll ever be able
>                                 to play on anything else after I leave.''
>
>                                 On the Net:
>
>                                 The Curtis Institute of Music Web site: 
> http://www.curtis.edu
>
>                                 Steinway & Sons Web site: 
> http://www.steinway.com
>
>                                 04/16/03 14:56 EDT
>
>
>
>Terry Peterson
>
>
>
>
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