Thoughts and Concerns before accepting Piano Donation?

[NickVon]

Looks like a donor will be donating a Baby grand 5' piano for our Theater. It' looks like a done deal, which is fine, but I created a list for Cabinet with some bullet points of additional things to consider or "request' as part of the donation, so that we aren't out of pocket or surprised, about additional expenditure on the gift to use it. A bit like Giving Christmas present of a Game Boy but no including batteries.

This piano is coming from a trustee's who is moving, so some thoughts of things that we would need that would't be found in a typical home living setup.

· Hardboard cover, and Quilted Cover will need be obtain to protect it in a theater environment different from a home.
· Piano Bench to come with Piano?
· Grand Piano “spider” dolly
· Tuning history

• 1st major Tuning after move. (piano usually need 2 major tuning's and action tweaking after a major move and before it’s first use?
• Transport and Delivery and setup of Donated piano.
• Transport/Moving of current piano to other facility on campus?

Is any of this unconventional to request with the donation? Should there be other considerations? Should we not look a gift horse in the mouth?

 

[Scarrgo]

If I was donating a large dollar item such as a piano, if you asked me for those other things I would say, oh, never mind than...but thats just me...
and tuning is just an expense...you have to do it if the weather changes a lot, and/or over time....

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

I think its wise to ask those questions, and not have a something occupying space that can't be used. Likewise, it would be unfortunate if those additional expenses were to be from your current budget forcing you to give up something you normally expect to have. It seems the institution to whom the gift is made must come to grips with the expenses, not the employee charged with operating the theatre, nor necessarily the piano donor.

 

[icewolf08]

I think those are fin questions to ask the organization, not the donor. If the organization does not want to take on the costs of care and maintenance, that is not a concern of the donor.

 

[Footer]

The piano will have to be "voiced" after you move it. After that is just touch up tuning. It could need some action work if the felts are old/dry. It could need a lot. It could need nothing. All depends on how often it was played. The more it was played the better actually. The rest of the items I assume are your "you bought a car, you now have to keep the oil changed and full of gas" to your management, right?

You will also need a real piano bench. These things are stupid expensive for what they are. You are looking for a Jansen bench, they make the bench for both Yamaha and Steinway. Speaking of Steinway... who makes this piano? 5' is a bit of a small piano to hit most riders. Is that something anyone around there cares about?

 

[Van]

I agree with the trend; Make the board aware of the responsibilities that come with accepting a piano. Let them know that the little wheels on the legs are NOT for rolling it around on stage. Make sure they understand that tuning is a repetitive maintenance issue, and as Footer stated, a five foot baby grand is way small for most performers and in the event you have a pianist do a show you will still most likely need to rent a piano for the evening. <and buy a good bench>.


BTW, I used to work for a Piano Tuner/Mover.
I asked him once if you had to be a piano player
to be a piano tuner. His response was,
"No, but I know a lot of tuners that suffer from Pianist Envy."

 

[RonHebbard]

The piano will have to be "voiced" after you move it. After that is just touch up tuning. It could need some action work if the felts are old/dry. It could need a lot. It could need nothing. All depends on how often it was played. The more it was played the better actually. The rest of the items I assume are your "you bought a car, you now have to keep the oil changed and full of gas" to your management, right?

You will also need a real piano bench. These things are stupid expensive for what they are. You are looking for a Jansen bench, they make the bench for both Yamaha and Steinway. Speaking of Steinway... who makes this piano? 5' is a bit of a small piano to hit most riders. Is that something anyone around there cares about?

@Footer Writing in support. When the Hamilton Place Great Hall and Studio opened in Hamilton, Ontario in September 1973 a wealthy donor and her husband toured the great piano manufacturers of the world as basically a lengthy vacation with an excuse. The lady chose a Steinway built somewhere on the other side of the Atlantic even though the manufacturer strongly advised against it suggesting one built by their company from materials selected to survive better on our side of the ocean would be a far better choice. The lady wouldn't take the manufacturer (Steinway) 's word for it and paid through the nose to ship the piano she liked to Canada. Thus a 9' Steinway concert grand inhabited our larger, stage left, wing. Shortly after a 9' Yamaha designed for our climate sat next to the Steinway. Visiting pianists, if they weren't under a brand exclusive contract, were offered their choice of both instruments and the Yamaha saw far more service. Many touring pianists were under contract and only performed on Bosendorfers or Baldwins. It wasn't long before a 7' Yamaha was purchased for our smaller studio theatre space. All three pianos were regularly tuned and serviced with a tuner routinely kept on standby until post interval on any evenings with a piano or two featured. I always got a kick out of the big Bosendorfers with the four extra keys under a hinged wooden cover on the low end. A composer explained they were never meant to be scored but were intended to add resonance to the lower octave. The keys were there for the convenience of tuners. Every now and again a composer would write a piano score with notes which could only be played on one of the big Bosendorfers. The name Glass, possibly Phillip, comes to mind as a pianist who insisted on playing the lower four notes.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.

 

[Footer]

@Footer Writing in support. When the Hamilton Place Great Hall and Studio opened in Hamilton, Ontario in September 1973 a wealthy donor and her husband toured the great piano manufacturers of the world as basically a lengthy vacation with an excuse. The lady chose a Steinway built somewhere on the other side of the Atlantic even though the manufacturer strongly advised against it suggesting one built by their company from materials selected to survive better on our side of the ocean would be a far better choice. The lady wouldn't take the manufacturer (Steinway) 's word for it and paid through the nose to ship the piano she liked to Canada. Thus a 9' Steinway concert grand inhabited our larger, stage left, wing. Shortly after a 9' Yamaha designed for our climate sat next to the Steinway. Visiting pianists, if they weren't under a brand exclusive contract, were offered their choice of both instruments and the Yamaha saw far more service. Many touring pianists were under contract and only performed on Bosendorfers or Baldwins. It wasn't long before a 7' Yamaha was purchased for our smaller studio theatre space. All three pianos were regularly tuned and serviced with a tuner routinely kept on standby until post interval on any evenings with a piano or two featured. I always got a kick out of the big Bosendorfers with the four extra keys under a hinged wooden cover on the low end. A composer explained they were never meant to be scored but were intended to add resonance to the lower octave. The keys were there for the convenience of tuners. Every now and again a composer would write a piano score with notes which could only be played on one of the big Bosendorfers. The name Glass, possibly Phillip, comes to mind as a pianist who insisted on playing the lower four notes.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.

That would be a Steinway Hamburg, built in Germany. They have a totally different action then the New York Steinway's. Its so rare to find one over here the most people don't like the action. Then you have Yamaha's that have a lot more attack then the Steinway and a lot of the jazz folks like those. Right now the sweet spot tends to be to Yamaha C7's. We own a Steinway D and Steinway L. The L is only used if stage space won't allow us to use the 9' D. Baby grands are not really concert quality pianos... they were built to put into peoples living rooms. You also run into the issue that a lot of the ones that are out there are utter crap.

 

[FMEng]

Add to the accessory list a Dampp Chaser Piano Lifesaver. It's a little warming element and humidistat that mounts underneath. My church put one on a Steinway grand, and the tuning became much more more stable. They really work because variations in humidity is what really screws it up . You just have to keep the thing plugged in as much as possible.

As for tuning, most stage pianos don't get used often. That means they generally need to be tuned before a show run starts, so just build it into the rental price. Most pianists will insist on it being tuned anyway. Find a good tuner and build a relationship with them.

 

[AudJ]

I’m still stuck on what brand/quality we are talking about. We had a piano donation several years ago that literally went to the dumpster a couple years after accepting. We have many pianos that are under contract for regular tuning/maintenance, so that was taken care of already. Not sure why the administration accepted it.

 

[Calc]

Add to the accessory list a Dampp Chaser Piano Lifesaver. It's a little warming element and humidistat that mounts underneath. My church put one on a Steinway grand, and the tuning became much more more stable. They really work because variations in humidity is what really screws it up . You just have to keep the thing plugged in as much as possible.

As originally built, the back stage of our Recital Hall was built to store the two Steinway D's in the building. The room had it's own climate controls set just for the pianos. While everyone was pretty good about it at first, eventually priorities shift and people get tired of pushing pianos around . So a couple years back, the music department purchased and installed devices mentioned above (not sure what brand). I'm no judge, but they seem much happier with the piano, and the pre-concert tunings all seem to go much faster.

tldr; If you're playing/tuning often, WELL worth the money.

 

[NickVon]

Thank you for all your thoughts folks. We have a small stage and even for musicals sometimes rentals will need to build sets over, above and around our current Piano. (It's well loved Steinway "B" which will move to the live recording room on campus.) Still don't know what the donation one is. We don't have any room for keeping or storing a piano larger then a 5' Baby Grand and for this newer one, we'll be looking into purchasing tools, dolley/padded blankets and straps to hopefully secured it in a corner in the green room except for the 7-8 times it's used for the year.

We don't need to full-fill piano riders, and if an event needed/or wanted something specific we would address that on a case by case circumstance.

The piano humidifier is an interesting though which hadn't previously thought as something to invest in. An Older piano at one of our local Community theater's studios has one in there upright and haven't had any complaints.

I think I will address these potential post donation expenses to the Business VP and not to the donor for awareness's sake.

Regarding the potential of it being a "garbage piano" we'll have to assess that when it arrives; if it is, I'll fight to keep our Steinway in house (even though it has a very heavy action), and look to move this "new piano" to our Recording Live room.

Thanks again for all your input.