it is unclear to me who among ptg members may have known Wihelm Gertz. His obituary follows. Please forgive me if this info is inappropriate/redundant to this list. Wilhelm Gertz, born July 1, 1927 in Hanover, Germany, passed away March 14, 2007 at Yale-New Haven Hospital after a long illness. He is survived by four children: Emil Gertz of Capetown, South Africa; Thomas Gertz of Dubai, Arab Emirates; Elisabeth Gertz and Wilhelm Gertz, Jr., both of New Haven; also Angela Cunningham, his companion of several years, and many proud friends and associates. Mr. Gertz grew up around his family’s piano factory established in Hanover in 1873. The Gertz company made keyboard instruments, supplied pianos to the likes of Brahms, Liszt, Rubenstein, Saint-Saëns, and Wagner, designed pianos for prestigious firms Weber and Mason & Hamlin—the latter of which they were part owner—as part of a long, respected tradition of excellence, innovation, and service. Wilhelm himself apprenticed with various factories across Europe, including Steinway in Hamburg. Over the course of his long and varied career he established production facilities for a British piano manufacturer in South Africa, worked with leading musicians in Australia and India, concurrently making harpsichords and clavichords, was Director of Quality Control at Mason & Hamlin, Knabe and Chickering, provided concert services for Bösendorfer in Germany and France, was a consulting director of John Broadwood & Sons as well as their operative in London, which included the service contract with Buckingham Palace. Establishing his main base of operations in the U.S. in 1987, he worked as a consultant to Aeolian American Corp. while teaching courses on Musical Technology at Ithaca College; he also lectured at Cornell University and Hamilton & Wells College, and provided new and restored concert pianos for many universities across the northeast and Midwest. He remained deeply involved in importing European pianos while maintaining a shop engrossed in all aspects of piano sales, care and regeneration in New Haven, CT. Most recently he has been closely associated with Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, consulting and overseeing the acquisition of new instruments, several of which he rebuilt and restored. In addition to his formidable knowledge and skill relating to all aspects of the piano and also harpsichords (for which he had a special fondness), Wilhelm sustained an interest in trains, high-end sports cars, and old clocks. He always kept a garden. His native Germany was always close to his heart: German cuisine, the River Rhine, old castles. While thoroughly up-to-date in matters of business, politics, and culture, he retained an “old world” European style and sensibility. Those who were close to him knew him to be quite particular in his tastes, strong in his opinions, and quiet but unstinting in his generosity. Perhaps most of all, his closest friends realized that to be his close friend was a privilege indeed, for he was always a very private person and did not easily surrender that privacy—thus the memories of him are all the more dear. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 3382 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20070401/d4528528/attachment.bin
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