I have a confession to make. I am in love with another woman. She is black, and her name is Dee. She has a big frame, very large legs, very powerful. She is a big woman, robust, not small and delicate, yet very graceful in spite of her size. She is the center of attention wherever she goes. This past week found me thinking of her incessantly - I found myself wanting to be with her all the time, even at the expense of my family. I was jealous of the time that she spent with others. I would gaze at her across the crowded room, just watching as she would talk with others. I would strain to hear her faintest whisper, and chills would go down my back as she spoke, now softly, now loudly, now roaring out to fill the room. I can't get her out of my thoughts. She calls to me like a siren song. I am afraid that my family has suffered because of my attention to this other woman. I have neglected them to spend many hours with her. Most of the time others were present, and I would just watch her from across the room. I was only able to spend fleeting moments with her during the day. But she was mine alone during every lunch and dinner, and we spent a lot of time together early in the morning and late at night. There is a dark side to our relationship. I impose my will on her and force her to conform to my will. I arrange her the way I want and expect her to perform as I wish. She struggles in resistance, but it is no use. I pound on her until she submits. She is very temperamental - very sensitive to cold and heat. She becomes unpleasant very easily when rapid changes occur, and it is very difficult to get her to regain her composure. I beat her into submission until she does what I want and says what I want to hear. Alas, our relationship had to end - we knew it was not fated to last. I saw her one last time on Saturday evening. I caressed her with my fingers and felt the smoothness of her skin. I know I will see her again, but it will never be the same as this past week. Mom, I didn't mean to give you such a scare! In case you haven't figured it out by this time, Dee is the concert grand at our local college - Steinway and Sons D #524XXX. Her twin sister is Steinway and Sons D #516XXX. I had the honor and privilege to be the piano technician for the Missouri Southern International Piano Competition. We had 35 world-class pianists competing for over $21,000 in prizes. I began my work on Sunday afternoon, April 18, 1998. I tuned the concert pianos and the green room pianos. Monday morning early, I returned at 5:00 am to tune both concert pianos again, and to recheck everything. All day Monday, and during the morning on Tuesday the pianos were used as warm-up pianos for the competitors to get comfortable with the concert pianos. Tuesday evening the competition began with an opening concert by Dr. Susan Duehlmeier. Wednesday morning the junior semifinalists all played, and in the evening the names of the five finalists were announced. Thursday all day and Friday morning the Senior semifinalists played, with the finalists being annouced on Friday afternoon. Friday evening the Junior Finalists played again, and Saturday morning and afternoon the Senior Finalists played. Saturday evening was a gala concert featuring all of the finalists, and the awards and prizes were given out that evening. I was on the scene from early morning (about 5 or 6 a.m.) until 10 or 11 p.m. each day. I retuned the pianos (usually just checking a few unisons) at the intermissions, and doing a complete tuning at lunch and dinner. I took naps when I could, and took about an hour every afternoon to go home and have lunch with my family. It was stressful and exciting! Everything went very smoothly. The only problems were two broken strings, both in the high treble. One string broke on Sunday afternoon during my tuning, and the other broke 45 minutes before the opening concert as I was tuning. The pianos stayed within a half a cent of A-440 all week, with the exception of Thursday, when the thermostat in the small hall went out, and the air conditioner went haywire. Between 9 a.m. and noon, the piano went from A-440 to A-442. I made the mistake at noon of trying to lower the pitch a bit, to nudge it back in the right direction. The first competitor after lunch was playing some very loud piece extremely forcefully, and knocked my tuning out (the 2nd section beginning with F2 right past the bass/tenor break), and I didn't have a chance to tune again for another hour. I was wincing the whole time, thinking how terrible it must sound. Later I asked the judges what they thought of the piano going out of tune like that, and they said that they were pianists, and didn't really notice the piano being out of tune, since they have to play on all sorts of pianos, whether they are in tune or not. Nothing major happened beyond that, and early the next morning a new thermostat was installed and everything went fine. The director of the contest was satisfied with my work. I thoroughly enjoyed myself during the last week, but I am glad that the competition comes only every two years. I am taking it easy this week and enjoying my family again, after a week of being away from them. I actually enjoyed the excitement and the stress, but to do that all the time would not be my choice. I much prefer my private customers and churches and schools that I tune for. A web page ( not recently updated) about the MSIPC is at http://www.mssc.edu/pages/msipc/ for those of you who are interested to read more about it. Sincerely, David David A. Vanderhoofven, RPT http://www.clandjop.com/~dkvander/ #pianotech page: http://www.clandjop.com/~dkvander/ircpiano.html New web page for the Joplin Community Concert Association http://www.concerts.joplin.com
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