Piano World Home Page Forums Fun Stuff! - Parties, Tours, Projects & More... Forum Members Parties, Tours, Cruises, & Meetings 2013 Piano World Party in Lowell MA Be there or ?????

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 :-)

This is a piece I wrote for Kathy called Love Everlasting.

It reflects our commitment to each other now that we have found each other again after 40+ years.

Recorded by Howard (HV), one of our piano forums members, at a Piano Forums Party welcoming Kathy and I back to New England (on Sat. March 23, 2013). The party was at Larry Buck's place in Lowell MA.

I'm a little rusty having not touched my piano in two months. But this was recorded by me on my Estonia L-190 at Larry's place. I hope you enjoy it.

http://www.pianoworld.com/Uploads/files/12ForKathy_Estonia.mp3

Thank You to everyone who came and supported this.

It takes the efforts of many people to make this happen.

It was good to see Frank and Kathy again and nice that they are now in the area.

I have known Frank now for almost 40 years. My how time flies. Way back when, Frank was working with McGraw Hill standing up their web site I believe. I caught up with Frank again during these days and he says to me, "I think I will start a web forum forum for piano lovers" .... I commented, "Nobody would go to a forum like that"

I was certainly wrong about that one.

Piano World has brought together so many interesting and enjoyable people.

Thank You Frank !

WOW, it was a great afternoon and now these very fine recordings to enjoy at home, thanks to all who helped put this on and play so wonderfuly that day.

Robert J. Richter
North Reading, MA
Yamaha DGX-640

Here's the video of Frank with his special guest, his Estonia piano:

[video:youtube]cE6RDle4RwM[/video]

If anyone's interested in the all the videos I was able to capture, here's a link to the YouTube playlist:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6aiNL66Z7u2hTXbeaj1A-iSz7k_y2FxS

Howard