Corea Concert in Bergen

[A440A@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 11/20/99 7:05:09 PM, ETomlinCF3@AOL.COM writes:

<< LeRoy Edwards <snip> wants the 
piano to be at concert temp for a day and at least two hours of silence.  If 
for any reason (sound and lighting people) the place is not quiet he politely 
gets up and leaves.  He lets the promoter know this ahead of time.   
 I have adopted his policy after long conversations with him about this at 
dinner.  Does any one else have special rules you live by in these situations?
 >>

Greetings, 
   Yes, I do. I make sure that the promoter and artist understand that even a 
perfect tuner(which I can't claim to be, myself), in a compromised situation 
will leave a compromised result.  If that is the situation,  I tell them that 
they are paying top dollar for a compromised result, but that it is their 
choice. It is their money, and if they want to waste it by poor planning, I 
will be glad to take it.  
   I am reminded of Elton John playing at the Opry house.  The truck had been 
stuck in a blizzard, got there late, and the Steinway D (the orange and 
yellow one) was so cold when it hit the stage two hours before the curtain 
went up that it was covered in condensation.  I explained that it was 20 
cents sharp for a reason, and we should leave it alone. ( It was reasonably 
in tune with itself!)  What did they do?  They lowered a row of lights and 
turned them on the piano, and Elton said "Start tuning!  It was a disaster, 
but I had told them before hand it would be and they didn't believe me until 
after the show.  
    The road manager tried to frame it as a tuning problem on my part, but I 
told him in front of the whole crew that he was totally ignorant of this 
particular piece of equipment and he would continue to have disasters until 
he learned to listen to the technicnians that weren't. 
regards,
Ed Foote
( who doesn't seek that work venue anymore, but will take a swing at if it 
happens.)