Hi Paul, We have, all in all, pretty nice pianos here at UNL. All piano faculty have very nice grands; 4 Steinway B's, 2 Steinway M's, a Steinway L and one C-5 Yamaha (her personal piano) The voice faculty have a mix of Baldwin R's, U-1 Disklaviers. The voice faculty pianos get tuned 2 times a year, but the piano faculty get constant attention. Our practice rooms are a mix. The grands are mostly Steinway M's, but there are Baldwin R's, a Yamaha C3, and Mason and Hamlins (albeit most of these pianos are old, but I've done quite a bit of rebuilding on them). All the other practice rooms are Yamaha U-1's, some Steinway 1098's, Some Baldwin R's, and several Disklaviers including one brand new one. Unfortunately, I'm so swamped with the piano major grands, faculty grands, classroom grands, and concert instruments, that they are lucky to get 2 tunings a year. As far as which are in better shape comparing faculty vs. practice pianos, it varies. Some of the practice rooms are fresh rebuilds, some need it, and some of the faculty pianos are in need of same. How is your concert/recital tuning demands? How about classroom pianos? How many do you care for? Good luck with your new adventure! Paul From: Paul Milesi <paul at pmpiano.com> To: PTG CAUT List <caut at ptg.org> Date: 12/08/2009 11:33 AM Subject: [CAUT] What Types of Pianos in Non-Piano Teaching Studios and Classrooms? I’m wondering what sorts of pianos other schools have in teaching studios for theory/comp, flute, trombone, choir director, and, particularly, voice. Are they verticals or grands? How frequently tuned? Better or worse shape than practice rooms? When I came on board here a few months ago, I removed grands from all teaching studios except piano and voice. It just seemed like a misallocation of limited assets to me, since we didn’t have any playable grands in practice rooms (3 Webers with lyres that had come apart, on the ground). The new chairman (an insider) agreed. Now we have 12, including 6 Baldwin Rs and Ls and 2 Steinways, in various states of (dis)repair. None of them is great. But at least I can get to them for major reconditioning. The faculty, once they got over the blow to their egos, are much happier with vertical pianos that are in better condition and better tune, and that take less space in their studios. And students are happier as well. We currently have studio uprights in 4 classrooms. Again, I removed 1 very old Steinway S to a practice room for reconditioning for use by piano majors. It seemed like a waste to have it sitting in a classroom, never really played except for ear training. This has dramatically changed the face of things at the school, obviously. I’m just curious to see if I’m in line with others’ thinking about asset allocation, since I’m a pianist myself and rather sensitive to providing students with some “real” instruments. Have I gone overboard? :) -- Paul Milesi, RPT Staff Piano Technician Howard University Department of Music College of Arts and Sciences, Division of Fine Arts 2455 Sixth Street NW Washington, DC 20059 University: (202) 806-4565 Home: (202) 667-3136 Cell: (202) 246-3136 E-mail: paul at pmpiano.com Website: http://www.pmpiano.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20091208/18e3477d/attachment.htm>
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