As we all may know, within the next couple of weeks Frank and Kathy will be wheeling along the sunny FL coast for the even "warmer" southern Maine countryside.

We have been talking about having a welcome "home" gathering for Frank and Kathy sometime about Mid March or first of April.

The Gathering will be here in Lowell at E. J Buck & Sons ..

BTW, there will be a "special guest" that likely will never be here again....

No firm date has been set as yet. If you would like to attend, please feel free to sign up here. Pot Luck.

I think in the next week we will decide on a date. Let us know if you would like to attend and have date considerations.

DATE ADDED:

THERE IS A PIANO WORLD GATHERING HERE ON SAT MARCH 23RD AT NOON.
We are celebrating the Owner, Frank Baxter and his return to New
England from Florida. Frank and his better half, Kathy will be our
Guests of Honor for this relaxing afternoon of Music and friends.

Thanks Larry, sounds like fun.
I hope our friends/members will consider coming.

If all goes well, by the summer we will be hosting a party ourselves in the new house, but we have a lot of work to do before then.

Oh, and by the way, I checked the weather in lovely Parsonsfield, Maine today.
The Hi was 11 degrees, tonight's low ... 11 degrees BELOW zero!

Just further proof that the owner of Piano World is nuts (as is his lovely lady).

It does sound like fun.

Roberta and I are in FL now but we plan to be back in MA by the second week in March.

Soo - tentatively sign us up.

Ed

We'd love to see you both.
Kathy and I are in Dunn, NC at the moment, driving toward Maine.
We will be in Parsonsfield (ME) Tuesday morning to meet with the people we are purchasing our house from (leasing it until the closing).

Best,

Frank & Kathy

Glad to hear that we're having another piano party. It should be especially great with your surprize guest. I'll be there.

PianoShel

After talking to Frank and Cathy, we are looking at Sat Mar 23rd.

How does look for everyone?

The time is flexible ... what every makes it workable for everyone. Ed, you and Roberta would be traveling. I would think early afternoon ??

Pianoshel, glad to see you will come.

The "special guest" has been confirmed and is looking forward to meeting everyone ans spending time with each and every person.

Ed, BTW, Robert Richter stopped by the shop to see our pianos. Seems you both share common interest. Robert says hello. He may very well be at the PW Gathering.

Somebody take pics! Please.

Sounds great, my wife and I are looking forward to it.

And we'll bring some type of food and wine.

Looking forward to seeing you and your wife there Dan.
I'm presuming we will be dug out of the snow by then :-)

Hello Frank,

I figure you guys dread the heat down in Florida and are looking to jumping around in the SNOW!

Don't forget winter coats.

Please share some picture here

Larry sent the following invitation to a group of (non forums members) musicians he knows. I thought it was a good description of a Piano Forums Party. I hope we get to see you there.

=======================================================

Hello Everyone,


I hope you have had a relaxing winter, especially with this new snow
last weekend.


THERE IS A PIANO WORLD GATHERING HERE ON SAT MARCH 23RD AT NOON.
We are celebrating the Owner, Frank Baxter and his return to New
England from Florida. Frank and his better half, Kathy will be our
Guests of Honor for this relaxing afternoon of Music and friends.


Many of you may not know about Piano World. It is an online
community of piano enthusiasts of all interests and "Piano Gatherings"
are a "Staple" of this enthusiastic community. I guarantee you will
be pleasantly surprised at the folks you will meet.
Bring your music as everyone will likely take their turn playing in
this very informal setting. It is not necessary to play though and
many come to just listen and socialize. Pot Luck if you would like
and we will also be providing food and drink.


There is also a special "Guest of Honor" you will meet there.


You can see Franks bio at;
http://www.pianoworld.com/aboutus.htm


RSVP if you can and if you are bringing a Pot Luck, give us an idea
of what that is.


As always, please feel free to invite you friends, that IS the spirit
of these events.


Best,
Larry Buck
--
E. J. Buck & Sons
Custom Piano Service
171 Lincoln St.
Lowell MA 01852
(978) 458-8688
http://www.ejbuckpiano.com

=====================================================

I guess it's time for another round of 'let's try to play the piano in public' so; yes, I am planning to be in attendance. Very nice of you Larry to put this together to celebrate Frank & Kathy's return to New England. I enjoyed visiting with them last weekend and touring their new home in Maine; PianoWorld Central! They are moving swiftly to renovate & update to their liking and are doing fabulous creating a warm & cozy musical gathering haven.

Not sure what I'll bring along; thinking a fumi salad since it tends to be a traditional PW gathering food item, especially if any of our Cape friends will be joining us. And most definitely, an enjoyable bottle of vino!

I also put the word out to a couple of Mom's who have 13 yo's taking piano lessons. It's always nice to have a good age mix when socializing around the piano.

Looking forward to seeing new and old familiar faces!

Welcome back north, Frank and Kathy!

I would love to come to the party. I will bring some Japanese sweets or snacks and maybe a bottle of plum wine? (I'm coming back home from Japan the week before the party.) If I'm up at 3 am from jetlag, I might be able to make some vegetarian sushi.

Terrytunes, I will bring my piano and viola playing "almost 13 year old" daughter with me. It is so nice for the kids to see how much fun they are going to have with the piano for the rest of their lives. I'll bring my piano-playing 12 year old son if I can peel him off the computer. (unlikely)

Junko

Thanks Junko! We are looking forward to seeing you at the party.
Tell the 12 year old I was once hooked to the computer, and I still spend far too much time on it :-)

Ooops! Sorry Terrytown, I just realized that my daughter is singing in the Junior District Festival that's taking place at Lowell H.S. that day so my daughter will not be coming with me.

I will be there with my family. Is there any restrictions on kids? My boys are 6 & 8 and both are budding musicians.

Hi Dave,

I am sure kids are OK, we look forward to their getting up and doing a little playing.

My wife Sue and I are planning on coming. Looking forward to seeing everyone, and especially meeting the "special guest".

Howard

Howard, we are looking forward to seeing you and Sue. I hope you will be able to record and perhaps share with the PW folks ...

A perfect Saturday afternoon piano gathering at Larry Buck's grandly remodeled shop in Lowell! I should have made better note of all the beautiful piano's but got too involved in meeting with all the special guests and wonderful people in attendance. An afternoon rich in musical piano performance & excellent company. Color me tickled with happiness!!

The guests of Honor; Mr & Mrs PianoWorld

Thanks for posting the picture Terry.

And a special thank you to Larry, Patti, and Brian for all their hard work in putting the party together.

We had a great afternoon, so much fun to see everyone and listen to the talented group of piano lovers playing different pianos.

Larry, Patti, Brian, and company have done a great job remodeling the shop!

And they had a wonderful selection of pianos to play, including:
Feurich, Estonia, Steingraeber, Bosendorfer, Mason & Hamlin, and Steinway to name a few.

Good company, good music, good food. What more could you ask for? We got to chat with members we've known for years, and meet some new ones.

The piano playing ranged from Rag Time to Classical, to Rock (with a little jazz and blues thrown in).

Oh, and Kirby (the wonder dog) had a fun day too. He was so warn out from playing and visiting, he fell asleep as soon as we got in the car, and slept all the way home just like a little kid :-)

I'll post a few pictures later.
Hopefully Howard and Mark will have some video to post as well.

Our thanks to Howard for recording Sue (and later me) playing my piano. Yes, the Estonia L-190 at Larry's belongs to Mr. Pianoworld. Larry is storing the piano for us until our house is ready to bring it home. (He's also regulating the action and will be voicing it for me).

And speaking of members, two of the good people from Cape Cod who graciously open their homes to us for piano parties were in attendance. And now that Sue & Howard are living in the same area we (hopefully) will have another piano party house to visit for the next big party! (hint, hint to the Cape Cod folks).

Now that Kathy and I are back in New England (Parsonsfield Maine to be exact) we are looking forward to more piano parties, and plan to host one ourselves this summer.

We will also get back on track hosting forums member tours of the Mason & Hamlin factory in Haverhill, MA. Watch for news on the forums and in our newsletter.

Frank finding a moment to tickle those keys on his gorgeous Estonia at Larry's shop in Lowell MA






Howard (HV) recording engineer:



Marc Weinert & Larry Buck (FinePianoDevelopment.com)


The Entertainer - Sue Keller/ragtime pianist extraordinaire
Sue will be performing at Larry's shop on April 27th; rtpress.com for add'l info

pianoshel aka Sheldon
A quick story; I've met Sheldon and his brother Dan (woodfab) at previous piano gatherings at Larry's shop. Last year when my neighbor invited me to a cook-out, Sheldon & Dan were also in attendance. Come to find out, Sheldon is my neighbor's father! small world.

very smooth and relaxing musical vibes courtesy of Sheldon



A few people in the audience enjoying all the pianists. It was difficult to decide which room to be in now that there are 2 performance rooms!! I found myself in this room waiting for a certain 13yo to make a promised performance.



It was a long wait but he did it!! Thank you Cameron!!



I don't know this young lady but she stepped up and played a piece with confidence. I only wished she had played longer. It's quite enjoyable to have younger people in attendance and have them share their piano talents.




I had low battery issues with my camera which I think played a part in a few fuzzy pics. And I was late on the draw to the food table, which was bountifully displayed early on. The dessert table was also impressive. I can never pass on a sugar cookie especially one in the shape of a piano or musical note. Thanks to The Nosey Ape for the cookie contribution; a pleasure meeting you Steve!

Thanks for posting these pictures (above) Terry, love them!

And thank you for uploading them to our servers instead of linking from some far off place.
We prefer to host any pictures, videos, mp3s, etc. on Piano World so they don't disappear on us.

I'm hoping Marc and Howard will also consider letting us host a copy of the videos they took at the party.

And thanks for mentioning that Sue Keller will be performing at Larry's place on April 27th.
Kathy and I will definitely want to make that performance if we can. Hope to see other member/friends there.

My first post!

I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed being at the gathering and meeting so many great people. Frank and Kathy were delightful, and I enjoyed hearing Sue, Sheldon, and others play. There were some great pianos there, and it was a joy to play the Steingraeber-Phoenix 212, the Steingraeber 168, Marc Wienert's Steinway Centennial D, etc. (I'm the one who played Liszt and Chopin). Frank's Estonia was a real gem of an instrument with a velvety, bell-like treble, rich bass, and great balance. It was good to be among so many people who love pianos.

Many thanks to Larry for hosting a great event, and to all who contributed.

miss you all!!!!!!!

Had a perfectly wonderful time at the party and did manage to capture about a dozen recordings with video, mostly of Sue in the room with the carbon fiber Steingraeber. Marc Weinert was stationed in the other room where his Decca tree Neumann 150 tube rig was set up on his Steinway D Centennial. Upon seeing that, I decided to stick my neck out and used a mid-side array composed of a modest pair of Oktavas kludged into a figure 8 and an omni qtc40k. Once the crowd thinned out, I moved my rig along side Marc's on the Steinway and then moved it again onto the Estonia where I convinced Frank to play a piece too. I gotta say, each of the 3 pianos were wonderful sounding and I hope my recordings do them justice. There were a number of other wonderful sounding pianos on hand that I didn't get a chance to record, like a Bosendorfer... so many pianos, so little time.

Sue on the Steingraeber:

Peter Gink (George L Cobb, with apologies to Greig)
Jingles (James P Johnson)
Alabamy Bound (Henderson, et al.)
Snowy Morning Blues (James P Johnson)
Kitten On The Keys (Zez Confrey, Freddie Slack arr.)

Sue on the Steinway D Centennial:

What's New (Bob Haggart)
Alabama Jubilee (Yellen & Cobb)
Dizzy Fingers (Zez Confrey)
Kitten On The Keys (Zez Confrey, Freddie Slack arr.)

Sue on Mr PianoWorld's Estonia:

Maple Leaf Rag (Scott Joplin)
Strenuous Life (Scott Joplin)

Mr PianoWorld on his Estonia:

For Kathy (Frank Baxter)

I didn't get all the audio of What's New or any of it on video. Sue just started playing it as a get aquainted piece when she sat down at the Steinway while I was setting up... perhaps Marc got more of it. I specifically asked Sue to repeat Kitten on the Steinway because I thought it sounded so different from the Steingraeber, particularly on the low end, where some pianos have insufficient definition for this piece. Larry told me later that he's not finished voicing the low end of the Steingraeber but I'm amazed that it stands up so well against the Steinway whose bass strings are 2 feet longer. And I'm not sure Marc is finished voicing the Steinway high end... he seemed to be working on it when we arrived.

Haven't started working on the videos yet... more to follow.

Howard

Howard, thanks so much for posting these, love having quality recordings of performances from the party!

Can't wait to see some of the video (well, I don't need to see any with me in them :-)