a Merry Christmas & Happy Birthday piano!

A young high school player came home from school this week to find this instrument in his home. … Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas from his father!   Gotta love it.     Wish I could have gotten a big red bow on it, but Ken forgot to tell me which day was the delivery day.

A Parisian Mustel celeste!

Cool.. we have an old, old French celeste in the shop!   Likely a good deal more than 100 years old!  Great project and will be very satisfying to refurbish.    Can’t help but play the Harry Potter themes on it!!

From Wikipedia:

“The celesta was invented in 1886 by Parisian harmonium builder Auguste Mustel. His father, Victor Mustel, had developed the forerunner of the celesta, the typophone or the dulcitone, in 1860. This consisted of struck tuning forks   instead of metal plates, but the sound produced was considered too small to be of use in an orchestral situation.”

Our friend, Pamela Paulsrud, a book artist in Chicago has international recognition of her work!    http://www.recyclart.org/2011/07/bibliophile/

What stunning incarnations!   Thank you Pam for breathing a different life into these cool old piano parts!

Ken just was written up in one of our local papers, the St. Croix Valley Press.   Until I can figure out how we link it to the website proper, I’ll brag about him here.   It’s a very nice article.

http://presspubs.com/articles/2011/04/14/st_croix_valley_press/news/doc4da74ff3be774284952922.txt

Nicest part from my side of the business is that the reporter, Julie Kink, saw through to the fact that Ken really does still feel passionate about this work and his care for every instrument.   Not many people in careers for 30 plus years are lucky enough to feel that, to have found something that challenges them and feeds them.

He *has* done his part to leave the world a better place.

1880s Steinway with 2011 score!

Ken provided this rebuilt Steinway for use by the Color Field Ensemble who toured in St. Paul in March.  I couldn’t help but take a picture of the piano score and muse about the range of music played on this instrument.   Surely something here about historic voice entwined within 21st century expression.

The Ensemble was amazing, their repertoire inspired.  Passionate musicians with astounding skills are ageless.

A grand graduation gift!

Very happy to report that this nice instrument will be a graduation gift for a 2011 St. Olaf grad!   [Ken had donated it as part Black and Gold Winter Gala 2011 live auction] Fabulous!   Travels off to Texas this summer!

http://bit.ly/gBl2h9

It was  exhilarating to be part of an extremely successful fundraising event for St. Olaf College, our alma mater.

Hamilton Grand on St. Olaf auction

Ken has offered this 1925 Baldwin Hamilton 5’2″ Mahogany Grand Piano to the St. Olaf Black & Gold Winter Gala to be auctioned at the event on February 19th.

In a nutshell: nice size instrument for most homes, great piano for a family with student players, newly re-built, nice case.   We are hoping that a good match can be made at the event.   Do alert any of your friends who may have dreams of a new instrument!

http://bit.ly/eM8UB4

We are happy to offer this donation to the college, it is the kind that fits for us.  I’ve always wanted to donate a piano to a practice room as a swan song; thankfully I’m not quite there!

Hoping the Gala is a huge success and that this little grand will find it’s happy home.

Dusted off some Ravel from my college recital days.  One gets to play the longest string of all in the 3rd movement of the Sonatine.  aaaah.

Ken replaced the pinblock, the bridges and restrung this beauty.

This fantastic instrument will enrich all the U of M musicians in 2011.

We have a piano in the shop that was presented to Ottolee Elizabeth Macamber on April 20, 1938 by the Mason * Hamlin Company Boston.  She was the winner of the 29th Annual Piano Competition at the New England Conservatory.   It is being completely restored by her generous family who is then donating it to a high school here in the metro area!   What a tribute and what a lucky school!

As a player myself, as the owner of a Steinway & Sons L since shortly after my college graduation and *before* I had much to do with this piano guy, and as the lover of S&S CD 350, I wondered what took me so long to track this documentary down!   It’s a beautiful artistic presentation not only of complexity of building the highest quality instruments, but also the many facets of the “bonding” of players and instruments.   The ultimate, of course, is the “selection room” at S&S in New York.  Few players will have the opportunity to listen to the souls of those giant pianos played side by side.   Goes with the territory of the most esteemed accomplished pianists.    Ken and I both had the opportunity to play the pianos in the selection room of the Hamburg Steinway & Sons a few years ago though.  We toured the factory and Ken compared notes with several of the factory people.  A once in a lifetime opportunity.

Hamburg Steinway & Sons Selection Room