Wm, I'm sure you are aware of the Steinway leasing program. Working with the local dealer, you can have your inventory of pianos analyzed free. NYC Steinway has a person dedicated to this program and they have several ways to assist you and dept. chair to "sell" it. You can get all the new Steinways you need right away and perhaps keep the best of the existing inventory. You would also probably then qualify to be an "All Steinway" school...or maybe atleast a "Steinway Grand School"....whatever that means...since Boston pianos will also qualify you for that.... The lease to own has a very low interest rate. Even if you don't go for the Steinway program, they will still analyze your inventory and give you the results in grafs/and pie charts. Ammo for when you do have to plead for new pianos. I would love to do that here, but we don't have the means at the moment. It would help if the department chair is willing to get behind the project. Ours is not. For now, we just keep the old ones going and get by elsewhere with the Yamaha loaner program. So far we've only purchased P-22 and U-1s where grands are not needed. We are holding out for some miracle that will get us new Steinway grands, but the situation does not look promising for that. Endowment took a big hit w/the stock market "crash" and all funds are frozen. Too bad we didn't commit to the Steinway Lease program before that happened. I think it is a super good deal for us, and for Steinway. Good luck Richard
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