<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>CA PTG Convention</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> Hey, kids------- Got back yesterday (Monday AM) at 4:30---driving up the Tejon Pass in the s= low, SLOW lane in a low-power U-Haul truck with my fantastic, HEAVY M&H = CC strapped to the right side of this POS, under-powered dog, which had alre= ady left me stranded earlier that night with a dead battery in a rest stop r= ight in the middle of frickin’ nowhere---hey: are we having fun yet?<B= R> That said, the convention, for me and especially for my booth-sharing broth= er in crime Dale Erwin, was a luminous, triumphant time.  His rebuilt, = new-board 1928 Steinway D, side by side with my old-board Mason & Hamlin= CC, were really kind of the buzz of the show, and on Saturday I was witness= to one of the best concerts I have ever heard---on  Dale’s D. It= was in a 400-seat, sweet little auditorium, and the program was Gershwin, p= layed by a world-class pianist, Richard Glazer, who has dedicated his profes= sional and personal life to the music of George and Ira Gershwin. To say that Dale’s D was triumphant, shining, beautiful, powerful---i= t doesn’t quite get it. A concert grand’s true power to amaze do= esn’t come out unless the artist is capable, and loving the instrument= . It crashes; it screams; it whispers; it sings. The true power of THIS pian= o was evident from the first note of the concert to the last----it was certa= inly one of the two or three best instruments I have ever heard in concert i= n 40 years. I was completely, and I mean completely blown away.  So was= everybody else in the room; before the last number, the pianist turned to t= he audience and said something to the effect that this was a truly great pia= no, that it could do anything he asked it to; that it had shown him colors a= nd tonal shadings he had never heard before; that it almost played itself; t= hat he was so inspired that he would now play the entire “Rhapsody in = Blue” suite, uninterrupted, and “give it my best, my all.”=  Wow. I have never heard anything like it in my life. The audience would not stop clapping and yelling. My friends, there is a true artisan in Modesto, California.  To be abl= e to make a piano sound and feel this beautiful, not only in the shop, but o= n the stage, is the work of a rare, rare artist.  I am humbly grateful = to be the friend, student, peer and collaborator of Dale Erwin. This was Dale’s FIRST attempt at installing a new board in a D, which= makes it all that much more mind-blowing. In the near future, and for as long as he’s working, artists and appr= eciators will beat a path to this man’s door from all over the world, = begging him to let them put their fingers on his beautiful spawn. God willing, I’ll be there smiling and sticking my head inside the pi= anos to feel and hear the beauty. Gotta go to work; more later. Dave Stahl, David Ilvedsen, Jurgen Goering, Carl Meyer, Vladan, Terry Mille= r, Bob Davis---great to see you pianotech list guys....and Ilvedsen is actua= lly a good, good player; tell ‘em about my big beast, Dave.... Best to all.... David Andersen Malibu, CA </BODY> </HTML>