Piano World Home Page Forums Fun Stuff! - Parties, Tours, Projects & More... Forum Members Parties, Tours, Cruises, & Meetings EUROPEAN PIANO PARTY 2016 - MILAN ITALY - 2 JULY

Delighted to see more interest!
Frank - of course there is always a spot for you and Kathy! We would be delighted to have you join us!

Nikolas, it would be so great if you could come! I am going to practice from your duet book so if you do make it, I can play a duet with the composer! That would be terrific fun!

So, our newly revised list is:

9 pianists confirmed!
6 hopefuls
4-6 friends/family

Nikolas - hopeful
Pianoworld + ladyford - very hopeful!
Saranoya - hopeful
Sinophilia+ Robi - confirmed
f3r - confirmed!
Wisebuff + Mr WiseBuff! Confirmed
Torquenale - Confirmed
patH - Confirmed
UKIkarus - Confirmed
earlofmar + Mrs Earlofmar- hopeful
SwissMs + G-Major confirmed
CarlosCC + Mrs Carlos- hopeful (maybe 2 kids)
Casinitaly + mr casinitaly

Last week our friend forum friend Whizbang was in Milan - and along with new forum member f3r, we went to check out a hotel with a piano in its bar area.

The manager wasn't there, but the folks in reception were very happy to have us play, and I have since written to the manager. (Thanks Torquenale for checking my Italian!) --- It turns out he is passionate about piano and is very happy to talk about organizing this party!

I will be talking to him in person soon and hope to have more news to share with you all shortly.

I will be amazed (and relieved) if this major point can be organized so soon!

Sounds good, Cheryl!

Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly for everyone, looking forward to meeting those I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting, as well as all of those who over the last few years, have made the last few trips an absolute pleasure.

We have a venue.

It is the Hotel Pierre Milano.

http://www.hotelpierremilano.it/eng/index.html
It is a five star hotel, in the centre, near a subway stop, (S. Ambrogio).
The staff that I met speak English, and the hotel has been recently rennovated, so the rooms are supposed to be very nice. I will check them out personally as soon as I can. I plan to go into town again to meet the manager in person and discuss the menu for the buffet lunch.

For our lunch, and full use of the bar/piano room from 1pm to 6pm, the cost is 45 euros per person.

If any children attend we will negotiate a lower fare for them.

The hotel has some good rates for rooms, going from about 150 a night for the more simple rooms - not bad for a five star hotel in Milan! Of course there are also more expensive rooms!

You can book on line - those prices are probably the cheapest.

There are also a number of hotels in the area with different price ranges.

It is a very nice area, shops, one of the main universities, an ancient church, restaurants, a 10 minute walk to the heart of the city - it's a good location.

Later I will be discussing the menu with him, for the buffet so please let me know if anyone has any food allergies.

The manager is a very pleasant fellow, quite happy to have a piano party in his hotel - (he really likes piano but doesn't play - who knows, we may convince him to start!).

He knows we are at 12 confirmed now and didn't impose any minimum.


Our list to-date:

CONFIRMED
Sinophilia+ Robi
f3r
Wisebuff + Mr WiseBuff
Torquenale (MAYBE + Mr. Torquenale , maybe + 2 kiddy Torquenale)
patH
UKIkarus
SwissMs + G-Major
Casinitaly + mr casinitaly

HOPEFULS
earlofmar + Mrs Earlofmar- hopeful
Nikolas - hopeful
Pianoworld + ladyford - very hopeful!
Saranoya - hopeful
CarlosCC + Mrs Carlos- hopeful (maybe 2 teens)


Draft PROGRAMME:

For those who arrive on Friday, I will organize a dinner.
Depending on how and when you arrive I will try to meet you but as some will be flying in, some will be driving in and some will be coming in by train... .that could be tricky!

I will work to provide you all with good instructions for how to get from your arrival point to your hotel.

Saturday - free morning, meet at hotel 12.30/13.00 for the party.

After the party, a little walk in the area - dinner at about 8pm.

Sunday: for those who stay, I will take you on a guided tour of Milan - or we can look at the options of going to a winery and out for lunch, or up to one of the lakes with a boat trip and lunch.


None of this is fixed - except the party time.
I know that some people arrive earlier than others, and some stay longer - some come just for the day.
There is no real rush to let me know your plans, we have the most important details set.

I would advise you to book your rooms no later than March though, as July can be a busy month here in Milan.

Over the next few weeks I will start posting some information about the city.

That's great!
So are we going to use the Schimmel that is already there?

That's correct Mark --- do you know, I had remembered it as a Kawai? It must be because we went to the Kawai showroom after we were at the hotel and I got confused!!!

Thanks for the correction!!!!

Well, you played the Kawai but not the Schimmel while I did the opposite. That might be a reason too.

The Schimmel is not bad at all but needs to be at least tuned... I'm too used to the perfect tuning of my digital, it's incredible how I found that to be so distracting. The action was not only heavy but also a bit stiff, if I remember correctly.
I know that money is needed to set it up (duh), so I'm willing to cover a part of that, however... the piano is theirs and they should take more care of it or maybe I'm just being a bit picky because I know I can quickly get used to it, the piano is still playable and all of what I've mentioned is not a real problem for me.
There is one thing I'm concerned about: I didn't take a close look to it but the bench had a crooked leg...

2 weeks have passed from that day so I'm not 100% sure of the things I listed.

I'm not sure how much it is to get the piano tuned, maybe €80-100? So that's makes me wonder how much does a proper set-up cost and if it's worth.

Yes, I am sure we can have it tuned before the party - I don't think that will be a problem at all - thanks for offering to chip in - I hope that the hotel will do it, but I'll chip in too if they don't offer.

If Frank comes, he says he'll tune it That would be an interesting twist to the party.

Whizbang said the action was a little heavy, but not hard to adjust to.

I didn't find the piano glaringly out of tune while you and Whizbang were playing - and I'm usually pretty sensitive to that. In any event it will be tuned before the party.

That's cool, I would like to watch the piano being tuned!




Yes, I think the same. I played multiple times on a Tallone baby grand with a heavy action in my music school and realised it takes just a bit of time to get used to it.




I had the same impression while Whizbang was playing but than I started and made me wonder if I was playing the right notes... add that to the fact I wasn't really prepared to play, I was quite confused, haha. Maybe it is a beginner thing.

That could be it, you are doing really amazingly well with your progress and what you can do, but you have only been playing a few months, and a lot of that has been on the digital.

Plus you could be super-senstive as to the sound.
Anyway, I repeat, I will make sure it gets tuned before the party, one way or another.

I'll be going back - probably several times and can check on it over the next few months to see how stable it is.

Wow! the plans for 2016 are moving along very nicely. G major and I will book a room in the hotel pretty soon. We will probably drive down, but we might come be train. We will come down Friday and stay through Sunday.

I love the plans that are taking shape!

Brava Casinitaly!

Of course count me in for a contribution to the tuning!

Thanks Torquenale!

If possible, I will just try to get the hotel to "save" their tuning for the day of the party so as not to incur a cost - but we'll see. Thanks for the offer!

Add me to the hopefuls. I've been wanting to get back to Europe for a long time, 2 July is my birthday, and Milan is not far from my mother's village (Molvena near Vicenza). So.... I can't think of a single reason not to join the party!

Hi Cathryn999 - Vicenza to Milan is an easy day trip - you may want to think about staying overnight to join us for dinner after the party, but there's lots of time to organize details.

Consider yourself added !

I finally got a reply that we are confirmed, booked, at Hotel Pierre!

I will meet with the manager in the new year to talk about the menu and other plans.

Feel free to start booking your accommodation!

Fabulous!
I've to confess that I wasn't waiting for *this* confirmation to start thinking in our trip. I knew you weren't going to fail

I must add that the party area in Hotel Pierre is really going to be a fun and relaxing place to enjoy some great piano music.

Hotel Pierre Milano?
Address: Via Edmondo de Amicis, 32, 20123 Milano, Italy?

Yes, it's that one!