Great piano wanted - Thanks, Avery!!!!

[Erwinspiano at aol.com]

Hi Mark
  I love this story because it is a familiar one. You went  the extra mile 
because of passion for & skill of the craft & you proved  it ,showed it & 
demonstarted to your clients that YOU are a hero in your  business.
  Congratulations
  Dale Erwin

Mark, 
 
Thanks for letting me know this. I've been thinking about posting Fred to  
ask him about everything. I've known him for probably 20 yrs. and have tuned  
for him several times. He's a really wonderful pianist! I wish I could have  
gotten him here at the university before I retired! 
 
Avery 


On 6/5/07, Mark  Dierauf <_pianotech at nhpianos.com_ 
(mailto:pianotech at nhpianos.com) >  wrote:  

Back in March, Avery Todd  forwarded a message from concert pianist Fred 
Moyer about a school on the  island of Vinalhaven, ME that was looking for a 
restored B or D for their  summer concert series. It turned out that I had tuned 
for Fred a couple of  years back and happened to have two re-manufactured B's 
more or less ready  to go, so I emailed him and we made arrangements to have him 
stop in for a  look. He had already looked at several pianos, and was 
planning on seeing  two more B's and a D in my area that same day. My most recently 
completed B  was a 1906 ebony with a really sweet sound and an action to die 
for, with  low touchwieghts and very low frontweights, thanks largely to 
techniques I  learned at the wonderful two day class taught by Bob Marinelli, Chris  
Solliday and Dave Stanwood at Rochester last summer. Fred sat down and was  
immediately in heaven, saying that there was just no point in looking any  
further. The piano just "played iteself". He returned a couple of weeks  later with 
Rona Hokanson, in whose husband Leonard's honor the new hall on  Vinalhaven 
is named. Rona also loved the piano, but we all had some concerns  about its 
ability to project and fill a large hall, considering that we were  hearing it 
in a tiny, dead room with very low acoustic tile ceilings and  wall to wall 
carpet. So they began to look more closely at my other B, a  1910 in a mahogany 
case and a much more powerful tone. It also had a very  nice action, utilizing 
the Tokiwa "miracle whips".  At one point Rona  asked what I'd be willing to 
do if they bought one of the pianos and moved  it out to the island only to 
find that as good as it sounded in my house it  just wouldn't cut it in a 400 
seat hall. Without really thinking, I blurted  out that we'd be willing to move 
both pianos up to Maine, tune & voice  them for the hall, and let them make 
their selection on site. If they  decided that neither was suitable, then they 
would be responsible for the  cost of the move, otherwise it would be on me. At 
that point, their jaws  just dropped - "You'd be willing to do that?!" they 
asked. I figured  that I had nothing to lose. So last Friday we packed up the 
pianos in a  U-haul and drove 200 miles up the coast of Maine to Rockland to 
catch the  ferry. Since we were unable to reserve a place on board, the islanders 
had  arranged to have a local firewood supplier wait in line in his truck all 
 morning to hold our place. We arrived at Vinalhaven in the late afternoon,  
set up and tuned the pianos and got our first hearing. The ebony piano was  
even more beautiful, but definitely lacking in projection in the large hall,  
whereas the Mahogany needed to be voiced back somewhat. After some  discussion 
with my long time moving and sometimes shop partner and great  technician and 
friend Bill Faller, we decided against doing anything  dramatic until after 
Fred arrived the next day. When he did, and after going  back and forth for a few 
minutes with some Mozart and Rachmaninoff, he still  liked the ebony piano, 
but knew it needed more. So with Fred, Rona, and  several other Fox Islands 
Concerts board members as an audience, Bill got  out the needles on the Mahogany 
piano while I broke out the acetone/keytop  mix for the ebony, and we went at 
it. It took surprising little time, and it  was like a great performance with 
our audience listening as they would have  at a concert. We took a lunch break 
while the juice dried on the hammers,  and then Fred joined us on stage, he 
playing, a bit, us needling a bit, and  the audience asking to hear one piano 
and then the other. Schubert, Chopin,  Gershwin, more Rachmaninoff and Mozart 
all came and went. Fred joined the  audience while I played some Schumann and 
Chopin. Gradually we brought the  two pianos closer and closer, and the choice 
became more and more difficult,  but finally  it was decided, and Fred said, 
"Mark, I'm afraid you've  lost your ebony piano!" 

So thanks, Avery, Bob, Chris, David, Bill,  Fred, Rona, Norah and all the 
other wonderful people of Vinalhaven who made  our stay there and the whole 
experience absolutely magical. Thanks for  giving my baby a wonderful new home, and 
I will see you on August 17th for  the Inaugural Concert! 

Mark Dierauf
NH Pianos
Concord,  NH

The 1910 Mahogany and 1906 ebony B's. Notice how much shorter the  Victorian 
B appears. It must be that double half-round molding around the  rim, because 
they are exactly the same length. 

_http://www.ptg.org/files/2007/06/1.jpg_ 
(http://www.ptg.org/files/2007/06/1.jpg) 

Here I am  with the final selection

_http://www.ptg.org/files/2007/06/2.jpg_ 
(http://www.ptg.org/files/2007/06/2.jpg) 

And here's  Fred (the third piano at the end of the line is their old 6'4" A)

_http://www.ptg.org/files/2007/06/3.jpg_ 
(http://www.ptg.org/files/2007/06/3.jpg) 










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