[CAUT] stand-by & pitch change charges

[Israel Stein]

At 11:00 AM 8/6/2005, "Barbara Richmond" <piano57@insightbb.com> wrote:

>Fred, Jon, Avery, Alan........
>
>It's the hall's piano and it's that Pops orchestra out of Boston as 
>part of a subscription series making a stop here in the corn and 
>soybean fields of Central Illinois.

Ah, yes. They do play at 442, and have been since anyone can 
remember... I am sure that they run into this issue on their tours 
all the time.

>  (A nice little Christmas-time gig to bring out the families.)  I 
> already let the hall's director know that there would be an 
> additional charge for the pitch change, but haven't given her an 
> amount yet.  Shucks, it's the first request I've had for anything 
> besides 440 since I started tuning 23 years ago.
>  How could that be?   I attribute it to clean 
> living.....ahem.     I  said I'd let her know how I would charge 
> for the stand-by thing.  The hall always pays me--how they collect 
> or cover for my services, as you said, is their business.  Thanks 
> all, I appreciate the input.
>
>This is a learning experience for both the management and me.

It certainly should be. You need to tell your director to read her 
contract with the Pops carefully, and see if there are provisions for 
who pays for non-standard tuning costs. And if there aren't, she 
should know for the future and add riders to contracts involving 
pitch changes and stand-by times covering these costs. When I worked 
Steinway C&A  tunings in Boston in the early nineties, the contracts 
specified stand-by fees and fees for pitch raises, etc. And I assure 
you that the guys who tune for the Boston Pops and the Boston 
Symphony at Symphony Hall in Boston (it's a contract - not an 
employee situation there) charge them for stand-by time - so it isn't 
anything that would be news to them...

Israel Stein





>In the past they used the university tech, who didn't charge them 
>(long story) and when he got fed up with the piano and environs, he 
>quit providing service to the hall.  Then they used anyone they 
>could get their hands on.  New management called on me and I only 
>agreed to do the job if I was allowed to make the piano sound and 
>play better.  That's how I ended up rebuilding the action.   I'm 
>training them about real piano care and getting professional 
>results.  Silly me, I thought my previous experience as a university 
>technician prepared me for this job (ha!).  Oh yeah, well, I suppose 
>I did have to train the faculty back then, but things ran smoothly 
>after that.  The rules were established and that was that.  Here, it 
>seems every group that comes in has its own rules.
>
>You may ask, why, Barb, do you know the details about this concert 
>so far in advance?  In trying to get the staff to respect my time 
>(making sure I'm available) and to put an end to those panicky last 
>minute requests, I asked that I be contacted every time a <contract> 
>came through that includes the use of our pianos.  Golly, they're doing it!!
>
>
>Barbara  Richmond, RPT