Alan, thank you for sharing. Perhaps the wrong list but I was unaware (I don’t care for the new PTG web interface). Stand up for what you believe in. Kindest Regards, Garret --- Garret Traylor - President High Point Piano & Music Inc. 88-PIANO (336) 887-4266 P Go Green! Print this email only when necessary. Thank you for helping High Point Music be environmentally responsible. From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Alan Eder Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2011 6:16 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: [pianotech] Fwd: Update on teaching in 2012 List(s), I am forwarding this post at the request of our esteemed colleague, Richard Davenport. Issues of who teaches what at conventions and how they are treated are not new to this list. The outcome of the present situation has ramifications that, I believe, are far-reaching for our organization and the profession of piano servicing in this country. Please read the post and attachments, and make your thoughts known--whatever they may be--to our leadership. Thanks you for your consideration, Alan Eder, RPT P. S. The post did not make it through with all of the attachments when I first sent it, so I will disperse them over multiple posts. Dear Colleagues. I'm writing to make you aware of a very bad situation occurring between 2012 Institute Director, Ryan Sowers and certain members of the Board. Long story short: Ryan asked me and a number of other national instructors to recommend outstanding instructors for our upcoming Convention in Bellevue, Washington. I and several others recommended Priscilla and Joel Rappaport. Priscilla declined to teach when asked, but Joel agreed after a long absence from PTG functions. When Jack Wyatt found out Joel was asked to teach, he threatened Ryan that Jack and later, his son, Rick Wyatt, would boycott the convention because of Joel's "ethics violations." The truth is, Joel was asked by a customer to evaluate a piano rebuilding that wasn't satisfactory. At the time, Joel was unaware that Jack did the work. All of these facts are documented by Joel in a letter to Ryan and the Board. I'm attaching Joel's 10 page rebuttal with documentation involving Jack and several other rebuilders who are also trying to convince the Board not to allow Joel to teach. There is no evidence of malfeasance. Joel has never committed an "ethics violation" of any kind. He and Priscilla do the finest rebuilding work I've ever seen and are ethical beyond all doubt. Please continue to read the letter that Ryan is sending to the Board. If you agree with me this is a "hatchet job" that's completely unwarranted, please take a moment to voice your support of Joel Rappaport with an e-mail. There's a kangaroo court that's trying to convict him of violations he's never committed. You all know me well. I don't get involved in PTG politics unless absolutely necessary. This is Ryan's first time as Institute Director and he's doing a great job. If he isn't free to pick and choose his instructors without Board intervention, he can't do his job. Help him and Joel out. Address your e-mails to Ryan Sowers and the PTG Board of Directors: pianovapianoservice at gmail.com I thank you for your support of Joel. Our National Convention will be much better with him as an instructor. Please don't wait to write. Ryan is trying to get the Board to postpone their meeting until all letters of support arrive. I know you're busy. This is important. Please! Respectfully, Richard Davenport Ryan's letter: To the PTG Board of Directors, I thank you for taking the time to read this letter. The Piano Technicians Guild Annual Conference is arguably the largest piano technology event in the world, and is one of the most significant ventures that the PTG invests in. Once a year, many of the nation’s top piano technicians, designers, manufacturers, and rebuilders gather in one place to share knowledge, inspire one another and move our industry forward. When I began my term as Institute Director, I took a break from tradition. Instead of sending out the usual “mass call for classes”, I decided to take a more measured approach and hand pick each instructor. This idea sprung from an earlier invention: the “Institute Think Tank” which is an email list that I put together in order to solicit ideas from some of the instructors that I admire most. These instructors include Richard Davenport, Rick Baldassin, Isaac Sadigursky, Dan Levitan, Steve Brady, Jim Busby and others. When I asked the Think Tank who PTG’s finest instructors are, one pair of instructors came up several times: Joel and Priscilla Rappaport. Based on this recommendation, I decided to contact the Rappaports and find out if they would be willing to teach at the 2012 conference in Bellevue. Joel was very gracious on the phone. He mentioned that although he had let his membership lapse in 2004, he would still be delighted to teach at the conference. Since PTG has a tradition of allowing non-member technicians to present classes at the Annual Conference I did not anticipate any problems. As recently as 2006 the Rappaports had given presentations to full and enthusiastic classrooms at the California State PTG Conference. Here is a short bio of his credentials: "Joel worked for over five years in grand piano production in the Bösendorfer factory in Vienna and the Bechstein factory in Berlin where his activities included all facets of the building, regulation, tuning and voicing of grand pianos. He attended the world famous school for piano builders in Ludwigsburg, Germany, graduating with honors, and passed the State Examinations for the Master Piano Builders Diploma at the Handwerkskammer in Stuttgart. He has had technical training with Steinway company personnel in New York, Hamburg and London as well as specialized training on Shigeru pianos at the Kawai factory in Japan. Further experience has included Chief Piano Technician at Tanglewood (the summer home of the Boston Symphony), extensive rebuilding in his own shop, concert services nationwide, and educational/technical presentations at many conventions and seminars for piano technicians. Today, Joel and his wife Priscilla, also a Master Piano Builder, operate Rappaport's Piano Workshop in Round Rock, Texas and have been profiled in The New York Times by esteemed music critic Harold Schonberg.” At last we come to the reason for this correspondence. As Institute Director I am charged with finding the most qualified instructors available for the Annual conference. Despite the fact that Joel Rappaport easily fits this description, there are influential members who, for reasons of their own, want to blacklist him from teaching at an Annual Convention. This is a grave decision and should be taken very seriously, and may have ethical and legal implications for PTG. Character assassination is no small matter. I have personally checked into the allegations and have not been able to substantiate them in any way. The decision appears to be based on rumor and hearsay. Is this how we want to base our decisions? It looks like a decision to blacklist Joel Rappaport as an instructor for the 2012 Annual Conference will soon be going to the Board. It is certainly not my intent to create a controversy or hassle for anyone. However, I strongly feel that a reasonable case has not been made against him. The only clear accusations I have heard so far have come from Chris Solliday, who made it clear that he believed Joel had ethical and moral issues that should prevent him from being an instructor. What these issues were he would not say nor were his sources divulged. Committee confidentiality was the reason given. This comes across as a very convenient way to destroy someone's reputation. I understand that that the high-end rebuilding niche of our industry is a highly competitive one. Joel and his wife Priscilla are arguably at the top of their field, and their standards are high. Conflicts over rebuilding work are common in this business, where mild to grossly incompetent work is regularly done by technicians who lack any sort of formal training, and where most clients are naive about what high quality work looks like. Sometimes the conflict comes down to a different rebuilding philosophy or esthetic. There are many cases in my own region where a piano that was rebuilt by one company, ends up being rebuilt by another company. Sometimes the courts get involved and it can be quite painful for the losing party. That's business. It can be hard sometimes. I have never heard of any of the parties involved being banned as instructors. It appears the controversy over Joel Rappaort is rooted in a conflict over some rebuilding work that was done by Bernard Mollberg, an Associate Member of PTG who had Mary Smith of Austin working as a subcontractor. The rebuilding work was questioned by the client, and the Rappaports were involved in evaluating and later redoing some of the work. This also resulted in a law suit that caused some hardship for Mr. Mollberg, and Ms. Smith. I can tell you for certain that Jack Wyatt, a member of the Austin Chapter and friend of Bernard Mollberg, called me on the phone and literally ranted about how unethical the Rappaports are, so there is strong evidence that much of the rumor mongering has its origins there. Jack is an influential icon of PTG. In stark contrast to Mr. Wyatt's strong personal attacks against Mr. Rappaport, in my extensive conversations with Joel, he has been very careful to never say anything negative towards any of the parties involved, and has acted in a very professional manner. He never said anything negative about Mary Smith, Bernard Mollberg, or Jack Wyatt. According to Joel, their company only reported what they saw in the rebuilding work that he had been hired to evaluate. In the next few days a full and extensive report from Mr. Rappaport will be made available. I encourage you to take the time to study it before deciding where you stand on this important issue. Don Mannino recently told me that “Joel Rappaport is one of PTG’s finest instructors. PTG misses out by not having him involved”. Nick Gravagne, another icon of PTG also speaks very highly of him. Should we put more stock in unsubstantiated rumors than the opinions of other top instructors? Should we start blacklisting any instructors who might be viewed as “controversial”? Soon the Board will be voting about whether to allow Joel Rappaport to share his extensive knowledge and experience with us. I see much to lose and little to gain by shutting him out. I question the ethical and legal ramifications of doing so, especially as it is based on defamation of character. Who would it serve and for what purpose? I leave you with these quotes: Those who feed on rumors are small, suspicious souls. ~Charles R. Swindoll, Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life “I resolve to speak ill of no man whatever, not even in a matter of truth; but rather by some means excuse the faults I hear charged upon others, and upon proper occasions speak all the good I know of everybody.” ~Benjamin Franklin Rumors are seen as crimes committed by third parties. They are perfect crimes and leave not the slightest trace and require no weapons whatsoever--the defense is left without a leg to stand on. ~Jean-Noel Kapferer, Rumors: Uses, Interpretations, and Images Respectfully submitted, Ryan W. Sowers, RPT Director, PTG Technical Institute 2012 – Seattle, Washington On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 8:06 AM, Ryan Sowers <2012inst at gmail.com> wrote: Well said, Joel. I will forward this to Chris Solliday. All the best, Ryan On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 6:44 AM, RappaportPiano <RappaportPiano at austin.rr.com> wrote: Ryan, Well, wait until you read the whole of my report. I just edited in the facts you provided. Here is a small portion near the end of what I'll be sending you later this week: Who knows how far these lies and distortions have spread? We have one example right now on the Board and in your institute steering committee, Ryan. PTG Vice President Chris Solliday whom I do not know personally nor does he know me personally, and who objected to my participation because I was involved in ethics charges, should present those charges in writing and in detail. This is preposterous. Then the contention that rather than be brought up on these fantasy ethics charges, I resigned instead of seeing it through is the worst kind of nastiness and absurdity. There are no ethics charges against me nor has there ever been a hint of such. Mr. Solliday should immediately show evidence or publicly recant his concerns. A letter of apology to me would not be out of order. Hiding behind the excuse that what happens in committee is confidential cannot be tolerated. This leads to any number of rumors, false allegation and outright lies being the basis of decisions made by PTG officials. Is this how the Board wants to run the organization? It is just this sort of behavior that convinced me to let my membership lapse and in speaking with top technicians around the country I find that this opinion of the PTG is widespread. Priscilla still keeps up her membership by paying dues, but is no longer interested in participating in such a group. I would make a change if Solliday sent me an apology; then I'll leave him out of it. I'm fair if someone realizes their mistake and recants publicly. ----Joel On 10/05/11 12:59 AM, Ryan Sowers wrote: Hi Joel, Nice plane!! PTG, Vice President, Chris Solliday was the member of the Executive Committee who was trying to convince me that you shouldn't teach because of your ethics and morals. He did not divulge his sources nor would he go into specifics, so I don't know where he is getting his information from. He is a controversial figure himself, and he almost lost his seat in a very close election this past summer. That's about all I can say about him - I don't really know him that well. Generally I have gotten along well with him so far, although the way this whole episode has been handled has really made me wonder. -- Ryan Sowers, Director 2012 PTG Technical Institute Bellevue, WA 2012inst at gmail.com experience harmony -- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20111017/d2682cfc/attachment.htm>
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