All, Keith played here 2 weeks ago. Nice enough fellow. I've never seen a piece like this before, and I wish I would have known because I would have preferred that he NOT play that repertoire on our #1 piano! We have another piano that we bring in for prepared things and more "inside the piano" stuff. I'm very open minded about new music, but am also very protective of certain pianos. Aside from demolishing a piano onstage etc. we try to accommodate most anything we can... within reason. But, where and how do we draw lines here? The stage managers had no idea until she witnessed the concert. Do you question each performer beforehand, "Now, what is your repertoire, and will you be smacking the heck out of the piano?" We usually don't tune Friday nights, and our Hamburg D is usually pretty good for the Saturday recitals... Boy was that not the case here! Like David S. said, the composer and composition need to be considered. The bottom line for me is in our piano policy; "Extreme volume. There is a fine line to be drawn between passionate musical expression and outright banging on a piano. Please use good judgment when playing above a forte. Harsh playing is damaging and will not be tolerated." But how do you approach this with an artist???? And we were told afterwards that Keith may have "tuned" the piano... Another no no to me. But what can we do? Jim Busby BYU
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