[CAUT] Care and feeding of stage grands

[Ron Poire]

Hi Kent and everyone,
When I was at the U of Mn, we had a director for part of the time who was 
very aggressive in making sure the pianos were taken care of.
During his tenure, we replaced the hinge pins on both of our D's and the 
harpsichord with drillrod which was bent so it could not be removed.  This 
director, Jeffrey Kimpton, was also a pianist and professor, who knew what 
was going on in the musical world.
It was his feeling, that if you let people get away with whatever they 
wanted, everything would be trashed in a very short time.

If the administration won't stand behind you to take care of the 
instruments, it will be a losing battle for you to do so.

regards,

Ron Poire


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kent Swafford" <kswafford at gmail.com>
To: "College and University Technicians" <caut at ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 9:00 PM
Subject: [CAUT] Care and feeding of stage grands


>I have a couple questions about maintaining concert pianos on stages  at 
>universities.
>
> 1) Do you have a policy about the touch-up of finish damage? I would 
> think a good-looking piano would generate more respect and care than a 
> beat-up one.  (Although I didn't think that the time a couple years  ago 
> when we had a D refinished and the first week-end it was back in  service, 
> it received more damage than it had before being refinished.  I still 
> haven't recovered from that one.) Does anyone touch-up as  needed? Or 
> perhaps annually? Never?
>
> 2) Do you have a policy on removing lids? It seems like every  recording 
> project, every duo-piano performance, every large ensemble  performance 
> requires the lid to be removed. There is also a history of  damage being 
> done while removing and replacing grand piano lids.
>
> Sure would like to know what various schools do. Thanks.
>
>
> Kent Swafford
>