OMG, the Skaket is full!!! John, not to worry, bring your overnight bag; I'll bring a blanket and pillow for the Tahoe!!

Jeanne... you are not duplicating!! In case you forget a knife, I've been carrying a cheese knife around in my pocketbook for awhile and will be more than happy to let you use it !!

novelinda.. thank you for the directions!!

Bernard!!! I'm so happy that you will be joining us for our first Cape Cod PianoWorld sleepover!!

Another Motel to try....
Old Tavern Motel & Inn
Rt 6A, Orleans
Phone 800-544-7705
e-mail
baderson@msn.com
This motel is just a short ways from the Skaket towards the center of Orleans on the right.

Looking forward to seeing everyone! Linda is outside right now doing her "Good Weather Dance"!
Have a safe trip everyone! It may be too late to practice your scales....but that's ok....fun time ahead!
Jeremy

OK, guys,

I've just arrived home from the event.

Happily full from fun, friends, food, and
p(h)ianists fantastica!

Thank you to all who p(h)articipated.

Shall we start a new thread for pics and tales? Or shall we just continue here?

I'll be downloading the gazillion pics this evening as I relish every memory and will share ASAP!

LL (or Roberta II as I became known there)

Just arrived a little while ago myself, parked on the Mass Pike for over 45 minutes, not moving :-(

Incredible Weekend!

Gracious hosts, beautiful homes, wonderful pianos, and amazing food, music, and friends!

The Cape Cod crew has set a new standard.

4 pianos, 4 houses. Yikes! My poor chubby little fingers are tired from playing all those real pianos:-)

I vote we keep this thread going, so anyone stumbling across it gets the full story.

I'll have some pictures to put up later too.
LilyLady, please tell Dennis thank you for being the "official" photographer.

More later...

Ed Bonacci was kind enough to give me a CD with some pictures he took while we were at his house (house #3 on the tour), Thanks Ed.

Our favorite room (hey, you get hungry when you play)...



KathyK at the M&H A (2002)






The Dining Room (Ed Bonacci & Roberta Lang's house)


The Music Room (With Dennis [LilyLady's Friend], LilyLady, Bernard, A441/Jeremy Gloo, and (ok, help me out with the names here)


Doggie (I've forgotten the dogs names, but they were wonderful)


You gotta love that face...



Ok Ed, where's the pictures of the greenhouse?
I hope somebody got pictures of it, it was amazing.
And... tell me somebody took pictures of the deck and the view?

There were plenty of cameras (even though I forgot mine, it was sitting next to my list of things to bring, forgot the list too).

I'm sure there will be lots more pictures of this beautiful home, and the other 3 beautiful homes, pianos, and spreads.

Ok, next pictures??

Got home about 2 hours ago after a detour to take Bernard and Kathy to Ptown.

What a great weekend....

Lilylady, I vote for a NEW thread and posted in the Piano Forum. I think sometimes the newcomers miss out on what fun we have here!

What a great time! I'm still buzzing! I got back to TerryTune's house around 4:00, and stopped in to play her Ivers & Pond. I couldn't get enough piano in me.

I really want to thank our gracious hosts and hostess' for making this the best time I've had in a very long time! I can't remember when the last time I had this much fun.

John

I managed to take 75 or so photos of this phenomenal weekend event!

But first, I'd like to especially thank the host familes for so graciously opening their homes and allowing this event to be the very special event that it was.

So, Special Thanks to;


Keith & Marilyn Harrison - 1928 M&H A



John and Helga Williams - 1933 M&H B



Roberta Bonacci 2002 M&H A


The Gloo Family Steinway O 1906
Jerry, Linda, Eric (sitting) and Paul



PW Group Photo

Some pics from the Gloo's Steinway Birthday Party! Sunday Brunch.

Cake was chocolate and white for the piano theme!


Jeremy plays and we sang Happy Birthday to the Steinway O turning 100. Are we piano nuts or what? ;-)


Learning the history and the original receipt



Roberta studies the restoration pics - it was found painted white. Even the keys!


kk plays piano, lloyd plays 'axtremus' (looking at the piano's underside!


John Citron explains his music note pad to Ed


Terrytunes, Jeremy, Bernard, Beelady


Linda Gloo prepares Sunday Brunch which was yummy!

Sat we had a progressive dinner while we tried out the Mason and Hamlins at each. Here is the Harrison house and older A. It sounded beautiful! A delight to play.

Terrytunes hanging balloons and PW sign for our walk in the woods from one house to another.


Arriving. The piano is to the right of the door.


kk plays while Steve and Terry Tunes and John Citron look on.


Jeanne plays her own compositions


Jeanne's notations

This was quite seriously the best piano party ever. It was really and truly sensory overload - visual(beautiful Cape Cod homes and vistas), olfactory (4 mouth watering spreads of food) and of course aural with non-stop beautiful piano music. And the comradery is has no parallel - it really doesn't - old PW friends who become dearer with each meeting and the steady streaming in of new ones.

I got in quite late last night and have work beckoning (unfair!), so it will be awhile before I get to see what pics I have in my camera to add here.

Terry, Ms. coordinator extraordinaire, you are so good! And I very pleased that you had the foresight to get those wonderful shots of each of our hosts by their pianos - what lovely, lovely people, all. I'm hoping some of them will be enticed to join PW.

And of course we have Jeremy and Linda Gloo to heartily thank for conceiving the whole thing and talking their friends into opening their homes and pianos to us. They all say they're up for doing it again. So whether you're from the east coast or not, take my word, the trek would be well worth your while.

More later.

Well, this morning I am still floating on air after a sensational weekend with friends, old and new, beautiful views, delicious and abundant food, wonderful music.

Thanks to our hosts, The Lang-Bonacci's, The Harrison's, The Williams for opening their homes to us.

A big thank you to Jerry and Linda Gloo who are responsible for this extraordinary gathering and the care and feeding of all those beautiful pianos.

Terry went above and beyond to organize and coordinate this event. She has been responsible for many of our gatherings here in New England and has provided us with unique venues.

We are all so blessed. I can't wait for the next gathering!

Got some more pics uploaded!

We met at Roberta and Ed's to park. A walk through the woods brought us to the Harrison house (Marilyn and Keith) where we had Hors d'oeuvres and homemade squash soup and enjoyed our first Mason Hamlin A. See Above.

Another short stroll through the woods brought us to the Williams' home for more goodies and the BB.

Piano teacher of Marilyn and Roberta arrives while Roberta plays with the most elegant tall poodles. Older sister poodle actually strutted.


PW founder, Frank and Bernard


Bernard plays so beautifully, with soul.


He listens closely as well.


Jeremy hams it up with a Victor Borge imitation




Terrytunes plays! Yeah Terry!!! And she has an infectious smile


Couldn't keep my fingers off these pianos either! Thought I would have a heart attack before finishing.


Whoops, where's Franks rock n roll pic? Seems I need to start another post. 8 pic limit.

Aha...here he is. He doesn't sound bad for an old rock and roller.
:-)
Actually Frank is amazing! Can those fingers ever move.

Hard to leave Helga and John's beautiful home and piano as well...but back into the woods we went to arrive at Roberta and Ed's place for dinner and more playing! Roberta has a newer MH A with those to die for rosewood black keys that I drool over!

Cape Cod's can be very deceiving. Typical basic beginning with picket fence gets add ons, and ons, and here, even a state of the art two story greenhouse for Ed's orchids!



Roberta's music room is left of the front door with Ed's greenhouse in the back


Cape Cod Friend, Jim entertained us. Jim was a professional acoustic bass player as well.


Ed showing a Gloo son and friend, the greenhouse full of orchids.


Above the 2 story greenhouse was a peak/copula and these amazing staghorn ferns.


KathyK blew our minds with her Rachmaninoff (help me out here Kathy) rendition. Standing ovation!

Wow Wow Wow.

What beautiful pianos people and homes.
Wish I could have joined you all.!!!

And here's the tail end of the Moonlight
like you've never heard it before.

It says the movie is private, so we can't access it.

Wow! What a whoppin' wonderful weekend! What parties! I hardly know where to begin.

First of all, many thanks to BeeLady for putting me up Friday night and for her patience when I didn't arrive on the train I said I would because the NYC->Boston bus crawled through Connecticut for reasons I couldn't figure out, and I couldn't phone her because I don't use a cell phone (I think I'll go and get one of those pre-paid programs now). Thanks for the drive to Provincetown too--what a special place. It is definitely at the top of my list now. Can't get the image of the 74 (or was it 64?) year old chanteuse out of my mind.

Thanks to Axtremus for picking me up at the train station when I did finally arrive. It was really nice to see you again Ax, ditto the twins and your lovely wife.

Thank you Keith and Marilyn Harrison, John and Helga Williams, Roberta Bonacci and Ed Bonacci, and Jeremy and Linda Gloo for opening your beautiful homes and so graciously hosting these parties. I still think I must have been dreaming it all. My heartfelt thanks to all of you for the warm and inviting welcome.

The food was superb; sooo delicious. Kudos to all the chefs extraordinaire: 5 stars all around!! (Kerri, we've got to get your idea of a PW cookbook rolling. I want some of those recipes! ) Lilylady, as I said, the salsa you made is the best I've ever had. Marilyn's squash soup! Terrytune's spinach lasagna and blueberry muffins! Linda's crab quiche! Gastronomic heaven. (Pardon me a moment--I need to go raid the fridge. ).

Thank you Ed Bonacci for opening your greenhouse to us. I am speechless.

I missed playing the piano at the Harrison's but the others I played were all very fine instruments indeed. Jeremy Gloo's Steinway is a special instrument and I'm thrilled to have heard it and played it on it's 100th Birthday. To my ears the tone is as perfect a piano tone as one could wish for. Totally gorgeous. Jeremy, I dare say your piano ranks 1 or 2 as the best sounding piano I've ever heard, and at the moment I'm inclined to say #1.

A round of applause to all the pianists who played this weekend. Awesome--and I mean everyone. Jeanne, you should publish your music. Period.

I can't believe I spent the weekend on Cape Cod attending 4 piano parties! Wake me up, I must be dreaming.

P.S. Thanks to everyone who took pictures too! (Thanks for reminding me of Jeremy's Horowitz impersonation, Lilylady. Hilarious! What fun.)

We missed you Kenny. Too bad you couldn't have made it. (Rumor has it it may happen again next year so...)

What a terrific weekend! Thank You Keith & Marilyn, John and Helga, Roberta and Ed, Jeremy and Linda for hosting this event. It was nice meeting you and having the opportunity to hob knob with fellow PianoWorld members. Thanks to Terrytunes and everyone who had some hand in making this possible. Thank you, Frank, for PianoWorld!

Having the opportunity to play the pianos was priceless, and traveling from one house (and piano) to the next was a terrific way to hear the differences and similarities in the pianos.

The music.... OH, YES, THE MUSIC!!!

Hearing a variety of music from improvisation to cocktail lounge type music (fake book playing? I don't know really what to call it) to rock and roll (courtesy of Frank ) , ragtime (Terrytunes!) and classical, what a wonderful thing that was!

The People, the Pianos, the Food, the Music...

!!!

Jeanne W

P.S. Thanks, Bernard, for your comments about my music.

you guys are sooo lucky

A few random pics...

Even the puppies enjoyed all the visitors!


Jeanne W & Lilylady (Roberta)


A great pic of Jerry Gloo and John Williams - love the tie, Jerry!!


Linda Gloo followed by Jeanne W and Lloyd W - heading over to check out the next piano


smooth sounding melodies from Eric Gloo

apple.. we'd love to have you join us!!.. you too kenny!

maybe next year

This post is dedicated to Frank Baxter.




Three years ago, I received an invitation from Frank to join an online piano forum.

The special person who had brought the piano into my life departed soon after my arrival to this forum, while a host of new and very special friends entered to bring me hope and encouragement to further enjoy the piano in her absence.

I am so humbled to have found ALL of you!!

Thank you, Frank.

Woops. My first Youtube upload. Should work now.

Another pose of the obligatory piano group shot


Bernard and John first meet.


Roberta and Terry listen.


A rapt audience


Roberta lovingly playing the Brahms intermezzo. It turns out that about four others played it at one point or another, and we had fun comparing techniques and interpretations. Roberta wowed us with the Chopin military polinaise the next day. She said that it was a benchmark of sorts for her - not only learning it, but also performing it for a group. This is one of the things that I love the most about these piano parties, is watching the progession of us itinerant pianists. Most of us suffer varying degrees of performance anxiety - some severe, and these soires provide such an inviting and gentle venue to help us overcome this. And, having that opportunity to play for and listen to others has also really motivated many of us to continue to challenge ourselves by continuing to learn new pieces. As Terry and others have said, I am so grateful that I found Pianoworld and all of the wonderful comradery.

Off from one beautiful house and piano to the next.


John plays with his super electronic music pad. John has got that thing loaded with sheet music, and it's amazing how much of it is at his finger tips.


Everyone listens as Jeremy spins out the history of his Steinway. I'm not sure if someone mentioned this already, but this party was also celebrating his piano's 100th birthday. He even had the original receipt to prove it. It was purchased in 1906 for the grand sum of $600. When Jeremy acquired it, it was white - had the picture to prove it! Jerremy said it needs a complete rebuild. I disagree. I think it played and sounded beautifully.


And here he is playing chopsticks. Don't let him fool you. He'll take any old standard you shout out and and shape it into a jazz classic. You should have heard his Happy Birthday that we sang along with in honor of his piano.


Here's the Gloo clan sans one of the boys.


And the whole family here. And they're as friendly and gracious as they are good looking.

All eyes are glued on Frank as he does his impressario act.


And then he elucidates on his technique


Frank and Beelady

And finally a few shots from Bernard's, Beelady's and my foray to Provincetown after the last revelry on Sunday. I post these as a further enticement to those of you who aren't from New England and might need a little extra incentive to get you out to the next Cape Cod party. It would be well worth making a several day vacation out of it. It had been 14 years since I had visited Cape Cod, and I'm telling you, I've got a major itch to return well before another 14 years passes. There's so much to see and do. And the natural beauty is just overwhelming.


This was at the end of the pier. I was intrigued by the photo images of the women, who I'm guessing are Portugese immigrants.


Docked fishing boats


A schooner that was at port having just made the run from the Great Lakes through the St. Lawrence Seaway. I was seriously considering hanging up my job for awhile and signing on as a crew member - contingent on having a piano aboard, of course.