Eric, I agree with you completely! The Conservatory is just giving people what they want. Its to bad though that so many people don't know what a good piano is. I can't believe that anyone would choose an Essex over a Yamaha or a Kawai, but they do. Once an S&S dealer was shooting off his mouth to me about a Kawai dealer and he said "that fellow only stocks Kawai because he can't get anything better. Everyone knows Kawai is not a good solid product." I had a good laugh over that one... I had a better laugh when the same dealer spoke of how good the Bostons are. He thought just because the Boston is a Steinway product that it must be better than a Kawai regardless of who manufactures them. The university is just giving the majority what they want, nothing wrong with that. After all if people want to go back to the Baldwin 243s they can always go to a different school. I'm sure CCM will see an increase in enrollment because of this decision they sure won't see a decrease. The fact that any CAUT can get a budget for new pianos these days is just short of a miracle in my book. You deserve a pat on the back for helping to oversee this initiative. I'm perhaps a little indifferent where Steinway is concerned, I don't love them nor do I hate them. They are a good product and no one can deny that! If only Steinway pianos were as good as the Steinway company believes they are we would all be drinking that free bubble up and eating that rainbow stew! I wouldn't envy anyone who had mostly 1098s and Essex pianos to service, but I'm sure you boys are smarter than that. Congratulations again! You should be proud. Shawn Brock, RPT 513-316-0563 www.shawnbrock.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Wolfley, Eric (wolfleel)" <WOLFLEEL at UCMAIL.UC.EDU> To: <caut at ptg.org> Sent: Friday, November 21, 2008 12:18 PM Subject: Re: [CAUT] CCM goes "All Steinway" You know Rick, I've been trying to establish a budget here for piano replacement since I started 11 years ago with no results. The fact that there wasn't a budget to begin with speaks volumes, and believe me there are a couple of scenarios I would prefer over buying a whole bunch of Steinways all at once. The reality is however, that even if we didn't buy into the program we would still be buying a boatload of Steinways because we only had 38 of them here to start out with AND THAT'S WHAT EVERYBODY WANTS. Yes, it is a brilliant marketing strategy because both sides win. Steinway sells a bunch of pianos and we get a bunch of new pianos plus whatever "guise" of joining the elite such an act entails. Perception is an important factor as we attempt to market our school to the world. Calling it a "sellout" and calling it "a sad day for music" overly simplifies the matter and injects a bit of negativity which I don't think is necessary. There will still be a number of non-Steinway pianos here, but people will prefer the Steinways just as much as they do now. We have a fine Bosendorfer imperial grand and a Kawai EX on stage right now that are rarely used. Yamaha lent us a CF-III for a couple of years and even had the Yamaha concert tech team come prep it but it was almost universally passed over in favor of a 20-year old Steinway D on the same stage. It almost seems like a waste to have these pianos onstage because they are so rarely used...I'm all for piano diversity but the expense of "other" fine pianos precludes their being kept around if they are rarely used or desired. We have historically had a good diversity in our practice rooms over the years and guess what? The few Steinways we had were just being pounded into dust while the others were used only if there are no Steinways available. I don't think this would change if we put some new Yamahas, Kawais, Sauters, Schimmels or anything else in there. The people have spoken! They want Steinways because they like the sound and touch better. Who am I to force diversity upon our faculty and students? There will still be a wide range of artistic and intellectual diversity here and there will still be much discussion about what a being a good, lousy or great piano entails. In our case, the pros of maintaining diversity in the hardware were far outweighed by the vast improvement in our educational facility we will experience once all the new pianos arrive and have stabilized. I'm sure my arm is going to be sore for a year or two. Eric Eric Wolfley, RPT Director of Piano Services College-Conservatory of Music University of Cincinnati -----Original Message----- From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Rick Florence Sent: Friday, November 21, 2008 10:41 AM To: caut at ptg.org Subject: Re: [CAUT] CCM goes "All Steinway" I'm sure the infusion of the new Steinways will be an improvement over your present situation, but I can't help but think this is yet another sellout to a brilliant marketing campaign. I am constantly amazed at the number of educational institutions, whose very existence historically is possible because of a die-hard dedication to diversity and questioning status quo, making such a contradictory decision . Music institutions are being bought and paid for, robbing their students of the opportunity to make music on a variety of wonderful pianos, under the guise of joining the "elite." I wish more administrators had the guts to say to donors, "we would love to accept your donation and offer a complete musical education to our students by purchasing the best pianos from around the world, including Steinway." Instead, they are so excited about the money, they ignore the cornerstone of education - diversity. A sad day for music. ________________________ Rick Florence Senior Piano Technician Arizona State University School of Music -----Original Message----- From: caut-bounces at ptg.org on behalf of Wolfley, Eric (wolfleel) Sent: Fri 11/21/2008 7:59 AM To: 'caut at ptg.org' Subject: [CAUT] CCM goes "All Steinway" Hi All, Some of you may have already heard the news...Tuesday, the board of trustees at the University of Cincinnati approved a deal with Steinway that will make the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music an "All Steinway School". We will be purchasing 165 new pianos for the school all of which will be delivered before next June! This is the single largest deal in Steinway's history in terms of number of units purchased. The total price tag is 4.1 million. This deal is on the initiative of our new Dean, Douglas Knehans and is the cornerstone of a new capital campaign and just one of a plethora of sweeping moves he is making to improve CCM's global image. Here's a link for the deal...there was also a NY Times article last Tuesday, but I can't seem to make that link active. http://www.uc.edu/news/NR.asp?id=9235 I just got back from NYC where we selected the first batch of pianos, 2 D's and 8 B's and I was most happy to find the quality of the pianos in the selection room to be excellent...we had no trouble choosing our pianos. Our first shipment of 27 pianos arrives next week. While the quality of our performance pianos here at CCM has been perceived as excellent over the years, the age and quality of the pianos in the practice rooms, classrooms and studios has been a challenge. Before this deal, CCM had the largest inventory of Baldwins anywhere in the world I'm sure. The average age of our inventory here before this deal was 35 years so this will be quite an improvement for many years to come. I have no qualms or reservations about the deal...there's no question the quality level of our inventory is going way up. I am perfectly aware of the challenges that the next year will pose with all these green pianos but hey, there are worse problems to have. The nature of our jobs here will change dramatically for years to come...much less rebuilding, more tuning, voicing and regulating. I'll keep you all posted on how things go. Eric Eric Wolfley, RPT Director of Piano Services College-Conservatory of Music University of Cincinnati
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