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<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>Allen</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>The piano was delivered in a heavy
down pour of rain and the pitch was A440+ 2 cents. Although it held decently
from the day before all pins had to be tuned due to the raise in
pitch.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>My normal routine is with a single
mute only, doing unisons as I go. I also keep my Accutuner going in the
background as a good general guide and I tweak the best position as I
go.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>This was a legitimate full tuning
with all pins being tuned and with a slight pitch adjustment thrown in, just to
make it interesting.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>Prior to this event, my best time
usually was around 28 mins, however I shattered that by 8 mins. I make no bones
about...I'm a fast tuner as I have had to do quite a bit of concert type tunings
on a very limited time basis.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>I'm with the 5 Browns this week.
They are the 5 siblings from one family who went to Julliard, and travel
around with 5 Steinway C& A pianos. I'm in charge of the piano prep for
their S. Florida tour all week. That's getting 5 pianos out of a truck (with
help of course), getting them set up and tuned, then getting them torn down and
loaded back in the truck x 5 days. That's one of the reasons why I've learned to
be able to tune fast and efficient.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>This is the type of world I'll live
in up until Easter. Very intense, very fast paced, and exhausting work for about
5 months.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>Tom</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=akwright@btopenworld.com href="mailto:akwright@btopenworld.com">Allen
Wright</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org
href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Monday, January 07, 2008 4:39
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Being called on stage,
revisited</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2></FONT><FONT
face="Century Schoolbook" size=2></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">So Tom, </BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2></FONT><FONT
face="Century Schoolbook" size=2></FONT><BR
class=webkit-block-placeholder></DIV>Tell us about the tuning; how badly out
was the piano, and was it the kind of situation where you basically have to
hit the worst octaves and unisons and hope for the best? Or was it in fairly
good shape to begin with, so that you felt pretty good about the overall note
placement, and were able to finesse things a bit? Also, did you use
electronics (or was there even time enough to turn on the computer?!). I mean,
twenty minutes isn't much time, is it? </DIV>
<DIV><BR class=webkit-block-placeholder></DIV>
<DIV>Sounds like an exciting evening, indeed.</DIV>
<DIV><BR class=webkit-block-placeholder></DIV>
<DIV>Allen Wright, RPT</DIV>
<DIV>London, UK<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><BR>
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style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 37px; FONT: 12px Helvetica; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); TEXT-INDENT: -37px"><B></B><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 37px; TEXT-INDENT: -37px"><FONT
style="FONT: 12px Helvetica; COLOR: #000000" face=Helvetica color=#000000
size=3><B>From: </B></FONT><FONT style="FONT: 12px Helvetica" face=Helvetica
size=3>"Tom Servinsky" <<A
href="mailto:tompiano@bellsouth.net">tompiano@bellsouth.net</A>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 34px; TEXT-INDENT: -34px"><FONT
style="FONT: 12px Helvetica; COLOR: #000000" face=Helvetica color=#000000
size=3><B>Date: </B></FONT><FONT style="FONT: 12px Helvetica" face=Helvetica
size=3>January 7, 2008 2:35:15 AM BST</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 21px; TEXT-INDENT: -21px"><FONT
style="FONT: 12px Helvetica; COLOR: #000000" face=Helvetica color=#000000
size=3><B>To: </B></FONT><FONT style="FONT: 12px Helvetica" face=Helvetica
size=3><<A href="mailto:ilvey@sbcglobal.net">ilvey@sbcglobal.net</A>>,
"Pianotech List" <<A
href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 50px; TEXT-INDENT: -50px"><FONT
style="FONT: 12px Helvetica; COLOR: #000000" face=Helvetica color=#000000
size=3><B>Subject: </B></FONT><FONT style="FONT: 12px Helvetica"
face=Helvetica size=3><B>Being called on stage, revisited</B></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 58px; TEXT-INDENT: -58px"><FONT
style="FONT: 12px Helvetica; COLOR: #000000" face=Helvetica color=#000000
size=3><B>Reply-To: </B></FONT><FONT style="FONT: 12px Helvetica"
face=Helvetica size=3>Pianotech List <<A
href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 14px; MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>List,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>I had a first in my 28 yr
career. I've tuned countless times to packed audiences due
to scheduling and last minute issues. Do this type of work long enough
and you quickly learn that this comes with the
territory. But never have I had a situation when 1/2 hr prior
to showtime, with the
house completely sold out, with the full orchestra
in place on stage, the conductor and artist in the wings pacing back
and forth....and no piano. If I ever write a book, this
story needs to have it's own chapter titled " a 24 hrs I'll never
forget".</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2> My career has me wearing
several hats. Not only do I manage my piano technician career, but I
also play professionally as a symphony musician with several
orchestras, as well as being one the techs for the Steinway C&
A rental fleet for S. Florida. This past week I was doing double
duty as I was playing in the orchestra and being the concert tech
for Christopher O'Reilly performances of Beethoven's 4th
Piano Concerto. No big deal as this situation happens quite
regularly in my world.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>The artist had picked out a
particular piano through the Steinway dealership, which was then to be
used for several concerts in several cities. The Steinway dealership was
responsible for handling the logistics of getting
the piano from one venue to another. Let me also point out that
this dealership is about as good as they get...very
professionally run from top to bottom. However as luck would have
it, a snag in the workings occurred and I ended having the 24 hour
from hell. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>My "Tale of Woes"
started on Thursday, Jan 3 as we had a dress rehearsal and concert at
4PM and 8PM. The piano was scheduled to arrive at the hall at
noontime, which would had provided plenty of time for the piano to
acclimate and for me to do the necessary work. Noontime...no
piano. 12:30...no piano. Finally I called the dealer</FONT><FONT
face="Century Schoolbook" size=2> asking where the piano was. They said it
should have been there by now.I waited and waited.. Several phone calls
later I come to find out that the truck broke down and the
guys needed to get a wheel replaced. They were 80 miles away and that was
1:30. Ok...I'm figuring that they get moving, they might get here by
3PM, which would still a enough time to get a quick tuning in.. As a
backup plan I made the decision to get the house piano tuned and
prepped just in case the piano didn't make it
time. My intuition turned out to be correct and the piano never
arrived on time for the dress rehearsal. The artist was
livid. It wasn't until the end of the dress rehearsal that the
piano arrived. The dress rehearsal finished at 6:30 and I had
a 30 mins. to get his piano ready prior to a pre-concert lecture
which would begin at 7PM. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>The piano got tuned and the
concert went smoothly and the piano held fine throughout. That was
Thursday.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>Friday, Jan 4th: I thinking that
I'm not going take any chances. I'll keep in close contact with the mover
not take any chances. The piano was scheduled to be delivered to another
city and be in place by noontime. This time I called the mover directly at
9AM...no answer. 10AM no answer and finally get him at 11:30 to get a
feel where he was in his schedule. He said, " no problem, I'll
have the piano there by 4:30PM". I said, "dude, the concert starts at
4PM and this piano better be here ASAP. Out of nowhere comes this
attitude of "take it or leave it". The best that I can do is
4:30." If we didn't like his offer, get another mover. I couldn't
believe what I was hearing, nor could the Steinway dealer when I relayed his
remarks. This piano mover does all of the C& A moving for
the Steinway dealership and we have never had an issue with them prior to
this situation. The dealership had to scramble to find another mover
who could travel 110 miles with very heavy traffic, pick the piano up, turn
around head back south 53 miles to the next venue for the 4pm performance.
Keep in mind a pre-concert lecture began at 3PM so I debated
whether I should get the house piano ready just in case the worse
possible scenario actually came true, again. However,the artist was
insistent that he would only use this particular C & A
piano, no matter what. So we waited and waited and waited. </FONT><FONT
face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>Imagine the feeling of standing back
stage with the artist and conductor and no piano. It was the worse
feeling of misery one could ever imagine. Finally the
piano arrived at 3:35 and the audience went wild. The piano was
rolled into position and by 3:40 I had my tuning hammer going
to work. I finished right at 4PM with 35 musicians, 600 in
the audience, and Christopher O'Reilly and the
conductor ( pacing back and forth) as my
witness.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>The concert went on right on
time and the piano held beautifully.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>Here's the good news: My
colleagues in the orchestra took a new interest in the world of a
concert piano technician. They have watched me get pianos ready
for other performances, but they never watched with so much
interest as they did on this particular occasion. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2> What I found of interest
was that many of the musicians really never full appreciated the vital
role a concert technician plays on any given performance. Yes they
understood the pianos are tuned prior to the performance but they never got
a close-up and personal experience of a near
impossible situation and have someone be able to work at a blazing
speed. I think they also felt a new sense of empathy for the pianist who are
completely dependent upon others to get their instruments to the gig, and
others to tune, regulate and voice the instrument up to performance
standards.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>Many of the musicians approached
me after the concert asking me about our profession with a new
profound sense of curiosity and respect. And for the first time, many
even ask me for my card. </FONT><FONT face="Century Schoolbook"
size=2>Even Christopher O'Reilly walked up to me at the very end and said
that was one of the most remarkable achievements he had ever witnessed in
all of his professional career. He said that had he not witnessed this first
hand he never would have believed that this could have been pulled off. He
commented that he had never seen a tech be so calm and collected in the
midst of such a chaotic scenario. Had I reacted differently he would
have flipped out. But the show went on 4 standing ovations later I just
sat there in utter disbelief of the wild ride I had just experienced. It's
one thing to have to deal with adversities in this type of work, and it's
another to have perform at a very high professional level. But put the 2
together...that's another story.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2> Now for my apologies if
this long winded threads sounds like a bit of gloating on my part. But heck
I earned some well deserved chest beating and bragging rights
through this experience.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>God I love this
business!!!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2>Tom Servinsky</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Schoolbook" size=2></FONT> </DIV>
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