A Day Off

[Avery Todd]

List,

   I'm considering sending a memo about various things to all our faculty
who would have a student doing a degree recital: piano, voice, composition,
etc. and stating that I will no longer be available to do tunings on
Sunday. I've just gotten to the point, that with 150 pianos plus four
concert instruments to try and take care of, I need to have at least one
day off each week that I can count on. After all, I'm not a "spring chicken"
any more. :-)
   I would still tune for special events on a Sunday, like our
International Piano Festival, guest artists who were invited in and perhaps
faculty.
   Saturdays, I usually tune first thing in the morning if there are
recitals that day. Yesterday, there were no recitals but several rehearsals
so I didn't tune. However, today (Sunday) there are three recitals, so I
did.
   I've seen comments at various times that range all the way from "the
concert instruments are tuned on a Friday and that's it until the next
Friday" to "I've put in my 40 hours, so recitals over the weekend won't be
tuned for."
   I guess I've gone to the other extreme and spoiled everyone by tuning
for almost every recital there was time for. On weekends, they're sometimes
stacked so much that I couldn't tune, even if I wanted to. Currently, if
there is a student recital on a weekday I tune at 5 PM.
   One other area I'm going to mention in the memo is that in our recital
book, there's a column specifically labeled "which piano" (there are two).
I'm tired of using my time trying to track down a student who doesn't
indicate that, to find out which piano they want to use. Lately, in those
cases, I've been tuning whichever one happens to be on stage or if both are
on stage, the one *I* like best. That, of course, is the one which is
easiest to tune and holds a tune the best. :-)
   Do you feel that I'm out of place by saying things like this? I'd
appreciate your opinions. Thanks.

Regards,
Avery

___________________________
Avery Todd, RPT
Moores School of Music
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-4893
713-743-3226
atodd@uh.edu
http://www.music.uh.edu/

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