Omigosh! Thank you so much Rick! I am so glad someone had the courage to bring this important point up. I couldn't have said it better. Thank goodness someone else sees the problem with having a music school that only uses one brand of piano. What about all the other great pianos out there? Is there really a BEST piano? (Perhaps- -for marketing your music school, or for making money for that manufacturer.) As a pianist, I found it utterly necessary to be able to practice on a number of different pianos with different actions and touches, and sounds, and designs, because I would be running into all kinds of different brands and makes and designs of pianos in real life. (And what a wealth of quality and experience that was!) Only practicing on one kind of piano, or one brand, severely limits the pianist in his ability to be able to cope with a number of different pianos in diverse venues and performance situations. The piano competitions have had a similar myopic outlook for many years. Can we have the courage to ask ourselves - "Is it true, this premise on which the competition is so often based? Is there truly a "Best Pianist" (or a "Best Piano")? What about all the other pianists (or piano builders) who have devoted, and sacrificed, their lives to perfecting their skills, who also have something of great value and worth to offer?" Unfortunately these days it is generally "Winner-take-all," even though there is lip service to 2nd and 3rd prize and runner up. A Nation, a World of "All Steinway Schools"! Yes, and a MacDonalds on every major intersection in every town in every country, except those who are wise enough neither to sell out to mediocrity, nor a "one-size-fits-all" solution to the world's diverse problems. Whose vision is this, anyway? Not mine, and hopefully not the vision of a number of thoughtful folk out there, either. It's not that Steinway isn't a great piano (or wasn't, at one time). It's just that it isn't the only one, and we truly deprive ourselves of so many valuable and significant perspectives and experiences when we only focus on what we think is "The Most Famous, the Greatest, or the Best". So. What's suddenly wrong with Baldwin, (which CCM reportedly boasted the "largest" inventory of, "anywhere in the world" for the past several decades)? Or Mason & Hamlin? Or Charles Walters? Or Yamaha? Or Kawai? Bechstein? Or Bosendorfer? Or... (Any one of myriad other wonderful brands?) -Except that perhaps one less-informed but influential segment of the public doesn't consider them "Top Dog", as they do Steinway, because of S.& S.'s hyper-aggressive marketing program? How would it be only being able to work on, or perform on Steinways? I think it would truly drive a person crazy, eventually. But apparently that is the professed dream of many piano technicians, if you believe their testimonials in Steinway promotional pieces. I truly believe that a conservatory that only offers their students one make of piano to practice and perform on, is truly depriving those students of an important opportunity and learning experience that should be available to them. Diversity. Yes, that says it all. Please, please, can we continue to encourage diversity? Isn't that what really makes institutions of higher learning relevant, in this diverse world we have today? Too often I feel people in positions of power, who are making important decisions, have decided we need "One-size-fits-all." Certainly that outlook tends to make life less complicated. But, I also feel, ultimately less fulfilling. Money and donations, and the desires of donors certainly aren't everything. But unfortunately they seem to have "top billing" in many of our institutions of "higher" learning today. I truly don't mean to rain on anyone's parade. I'm sure that, for those involved, this was a real coup or accomplishment. But unfortunately when a large number of people have a huge investment in seeing something happen a certain way, different or equally valid and valuable perspectives go out the door. Yes, I agree wholeheartedly, Rick. A truly sad day for music. Thank you, so much, for your cogent and all-too-pertinent observations. Kendall Ross Bean PianoFinders. -----Original Message----- From: Rick Florence [mailto:Rick.Florence at asu.edu] Sent: Friday, November 21, 2008 7:41 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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