<html> <body> Hi, Barbara, A nod = grand slam. BRAVA! Best. Horace At 07:03 AM 5/5/2005, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Hi all,   Last Friday night there was an concert at the big (nearly 3500 seats), acoustically marginal, auditorium I work for.  This was the first *major* performance for this Steinway D, since I rebuilt the action.  When I was hired on there, we had (or I thought we had) an agreement that the piano would always be amplified.  Keeping that in mind while voicing, I just made it the most musical instrument I could.  When a local professor came to test the piano, I did notice that it had no problem filling the (empty) hall on its own.   So, along comes the orchestra and its soloist, a Russian fellow from Birmingham (Hey, Wim, I took extra time on that una corda!), playing Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini.  As the rehearsal set up started, I went to talk to the orchestra's stage manager about miking.  "Nope, we never use amplification."  I just about fainted.   I was at the back of the hall for the performance.  The piano could be heard (though I wouldn't have minded if it had just a bit more power).  Which proves to me that one doesn't need hammers voiced like granite to carry--a belief, I'm afraid, that prevails around "these parts."     A pianist I know was also sitting in the last row (I had told her this was the new action's maiden run).  After the performance she came up to me and said, "The piano sounded fabulous----what nuances!"   God Bless her--those nuances, that's what I shoot for!  When I went backstage, I also had compliments from some orchestra members.  The soloist didn't say much (and I had been told that he doesn't say much), but he did nod at me when I saw him at intermission, so I guess it was acceptable.     Whew!   Barbara Richmond, RPT Braden Auditorium at Illinois State University  </blockquote></body> </html>