In a message dated 12/10/2007 2:05:25 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, jim_busby at byu.edu writes: Anyone remember the foreign woman who stood up and blasted the Steinway guy in Kansas City at the piano maker's showcase? Helga Kasimoff has been the Bluthner dealer in the LA area for nearly 50 years. I first visited the Kasimoff Bluthner/Neupert store in Pasadena when I was 17 (that would have been about 1972), when she and her husband Bill were...younger than I am now! They emigrated to America in the 1950s, I believe. Many in southern California remember Bill with affection; Bill's been gone for several years, and their son Kyril is actively involved in the business now. The Kasimoffs can never be accused of lack of courage...their store has had anti-Bush and anti-Iraq war signs on it for years, and even though their local demographic might be amenable to this, I'm sure they lose business over it, too. Helga and Kyril actively attend PTG conventions, and usually always follow up and attend the AMIS (American Musical Instrument Society) annual conference shortly afterwards....a serious commitment of time and expense which I've never quite been able to pull off, myself. As much as I love the Steinway piano, I myself have coordinated a seminar on brand name pluralism in college piano inventories (California State Conference 2005). The earlier that young pianists can be exposed to the incredible variety of great modern pianos - as well as the rich variety of historical instruments, both replica and restored original, the more likelihood of greater musical discovery, broadened musical insight and understanding. But as I worked on the idea of pluralism in schools, I realized that many great piano companies do not produce the volume of pianos needed to supply the numbers needed in institutions. I'd love to see large numbers of Mason and Hamlin pianos in schools, and there isn't a better institutional vertical than their model 50 - but their production output won't support the demands of institutional sales. I wish Sauter, Seiler, Forster, Bluthner, Bechstein, Bosendorfer and Schimmel could be better represented in schools, but these companies also have fairly low-volume production. Kawai and Yamaha have worked hard on this recently, and are in a better position to compete for institutional work...and if they can they'll try to be "all......schools" too. I know of one rapidly growing school in southern California that has recently become an all-Kawai school. Further, the European companies have had difficulty maintaining consistent marketing, dealerships and distributorships in the US. I've suggested to some European mfg US sales reps that they team up to develop a joint institutional sales and service program in the US, but that's a complicated, thorny idea. If they ever succeeded with this idea, though, it would be incredible. You've got to credit Steinway for their success supplying a product capable of meeting institutional orders, in creatively sustaining their image in various ways, and in having an able institutional sales program. I'm not going to complain that my college just purchased a D and a B....and I'll also continue to encourage them to include distinctively different instruments of high quality in their inventory, too. Whatever the fundraising or marketing value of single-brand institutional inventories, I believe that fundamentally students benefit most with an exposure to a variety of piano brand experiences. But that's not always a luxury schools think they can afford....or are willing to wrap their institutional brains around.... Bill Shull, RPT La Sierra University, Riverside, CA **************************************See AOL's top rated recipes (http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20071211/9174fcbf/attachment.html
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