John Minor's account of Dickran Atamian and the shoe polish brought back memories. Here's one all of you might enjoy. The Oak Ridge (TN) Symphony plays at the Oak Ridge High School because it has the biggest audituriun in town. When Dickran was younger and just getting started, he did a solo concert here. My seat was near enough the front that I could see him clearly. I got the uneasy feeling that something was wrong. The tension level was much too high - too much sweating, dripping, and wiping. A few days later, one of the fellows who plays in the Symphony told me what happened: Prior to the concert, Dickran came in alone and helped hinself to the piano. As was typical, communication between the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association and the Oak Ridge High School was poor. One of the High School staff members happened to come in, and not knowing who Atamian was, or what the occasion was, told him that they did not allow people to wander in off the street and help themselves to school facilities. According to the report, Atamian snapped back with some smart remark, and continued with what he was doing. The H.S. staff member called the police, who promptly came and took him to jail and locked him up. News traveled fast, and the matter was all cleared up in time for Atamian to be released and make his concert appearance. I had almost forgotten about this when I read the posts about the shoe polish. By the way, Horace, Rubinstein did not want the keys cleaned before a concert, but if someone did clean them, that's when he used the hair spray. Rachmaninoff gave the final concert of his life in Knoxville TN in 1943. According to the late Harold Clark, who tuned the piano, Rachmaninoff chewed him out because he did NOT clean the keys. Zhe Li has played with the Oak Ridge Symphony three times during the past five years - the Tchaikovsky I on the first occasion, and the Rachmaninoff II on the most recent. Both got standing ovations. On her first trip here, she came in while I was tuning the piano, and I asked her if she wanted me to clean the keys. "Oh Yes, yes, thank you, very nice, yes, thank you - nice to meet you!" It takes all kinds, I guess. Jim Ellis
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