A Grand Plan for Pianos

A Cincinnati Music School Embarks on a Mission: Provide Students and Faculty With 165 Steinways

(CBS)  We at "Sunday Morning" are great fans of the piano. So when we heard of a piano-loving place that far outdoes us, we just had to send Martha Teichner to investigate:

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The campus can't contain it: There's music, everywhere.

Not just on stages. From practice rooms it escapes into hallways, it seeps under doorways.

It infects everyone with its glorious exuberance.

Since 1867, what is now called the College-Conservatory of Music and is part of the University of Cincinnati, has been known for its excellence, but unfortunately not well known enough to compete with more famous schools - New York's Juilliard, for example.

When Douglas Knehans became dean last September, he set out to change that.

"My ambition for this school is to be a global player, to be one of the best music schools in the world," he told Teichner, "and indeed, it really already is."

But how to get the world to recognize it? Even before being hired, Knehans noticed something.

"I was just so impressed when I walked through this building, except for the pianos," he said.

Eric Wolfley, in charge of maintaining the school's 200-plus pianos, would have to constantly rebuild worn-out wrecks, many of them older than he was. One model in his workshop dates from 1904.

Not any more, thanks to Dean Knehans and his grand plan.

"I just laid the charge down to the faculty at my first interview," remarked Knehans. "I said, 'Let's make this an all-Steinway school. And I think there was enthusiasm, a little bit of incredulous laughter!'"

Only the best and most prestigious conservatories are all-Steinway schools, so the laughter turned to amazement when Knehans got the job, and convinced the university to buy new pianos. And not just a few replacements: 165 brand-new Steinways.

Price tag: $4.1 million.

It was the largest single purchase in the company's storied history.

Cabinet-maker Heinrich Steinweg and his sons anglicized their name to Steinway soon after moving to New York City from Germany. They opened for business in 1853. Their goal: To make the finest pianos in the world.

It takes a year to build a Steinway . . . by hand.

No wonder husband and wife piano professors Eugene and Elisabeth Pridonoff were excited when they arrived at the Steinway factory in the New York City borough of Queens, to pick out six of the Cincinnati Conservatory's new pianos.

"It's like so many toys," he exclaimed. "Which one do I play with first?"

All of them, of course.

It was just before Christmas last year, and the Pridonoffs were like two kids who hit the jackpot with Santa Claus.

In a show room with absolutely no lemons, choosing wasn't easy.

The Pridonoffs romped through piano's greatest hits. The entire process was subjective and emotional.

"My heart is all over the place with these instruments," Eugene said. "I want to be a part of all these instruments, you know?"

Finally, one by one, the lids came down. And then the instruments were packed up, numbered, loaded and sent on their way to face the music.

A week later the pianos arrived in Cincinnati, along with several other professors' choices - 21 Steinways, the second of seven shipments.

It was controlled chaos. These boxes weigh half a ton.

Old non-Steinways were moved out, the new pianos moved in, arriving in spasms of heavy lifting.

One by one, room by room, studio by studio they were deployed - like covert agents to foment a change for the better from within.

The Pridonoffs couldn't wait to get their hands on them.

"It has a soul," Eugene said. "The more I play it, the more I'm happy I chose it. It's just an incredible instrument."

And the rapture is contagious. Student Zachary Jones said, "I think it gives a lot more confidence when you're playing on a good piano to hear the sound that's coming out of it."

Everybody's walking around with a little more pep in their step, a little more excitement to go and practice every day.

There are 66 practice rooms at the College-Conservatory of Music. Open any door and inside you'll find a piano and a dream . . .

"I want to perform," said Rashon Murph. "I do want to teach, and I'm also going to start a production company."

But Finch put her own musical career on hold until she'd raised her family. At 53, she's spending 7 hours a day at the piano. "Now it's my time, and I'm back, and I'm full blast," she said. "I love it!"

Seth Killen, from Beckley, West Virginia, is getting his Ph.D. in voice. "So much of singing is communicating, and if the piano is incapable of giving different colors, then we're incapable of the full effect of performance, of communicating," he said.

For Israeli pianist Assaf Sommer, there is no question that good pianos matter.

"The situation here before was the instruments were pretty old and sometimes it's very hard to control," Sommer said. "And you get these brand new Steinways and you feel like you can do everything."

Eugene Pridonoff said he feels that his teaching has gone up to another level. "It's an energy. So all of these instruments playing, all the rehearsals, the magnitude of this many students, this many instruments, it multiplies."

For the College-Conservatory of Music, the calculation has paid off.

"Our piano applications have gone up dramatically already," said Dean Knehans. "We've had more confirmations than we've had in many years."

This equation for excellence is simple really: 165 pianos times 1,400 students . . . and the average Steinway lasts 50 years.

For more info:
College Conservatory of Music
Steinway.com
www.notebynotethemovie.com

[debann554]

I would also love to see this story, was told about it but missed that week. My son just started at CCM and music literally floats in the air as one walks between buildings. If there is a link please share.

[caitlin-johnston]

Could Anyone tell me the Opus/name of the Chopin Polonaise played on the show? (I think it was a polonaise) I've been asked to learn this one, but I can't seem to find out which it is.

[foxhall]

I would love to see the video for this story! If it has been posted, please tell me. Thanks! I missed this segment because i was attending mass. Does that warrant a posting?

[luvspianos]

What an interesting article - wish I had been able to see it last Sunday, or online, but alas, must be content with the text version.

As a pianist who has been playing a variety of different pianos (from 1887 Vose & Sons Upright Grands, 1905 Steinways, Bosendorfers, to more recent Yamahas, and all the brands mentioned above), I too am a little sad that the students will eventually only have access to Steinways. I have played good Steinways, and not-so-good Steinways, so to suggest that there's no such thing as a "bad Steinway" is not really true. I can say the same thing for all of the manufacturers as well. What IS interesting is HOW differently each piano plays, sounds, and feels, and what kind of different mood you can evoke from the different pianos (and shapes, i.e. upright vs. grand vs. console, etc.). It is my personal opinion that as an educational institution, CCM would best serve its students by having a variety of pianos. I hope they don't toss out all their old pianos - I'm sure some are worth keeping!
And, for anyone really interested in learning more about different sounds from different instruments, they should check out the National Shrine to Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota, where they research what makes different instruments sound better. They have an entire room of pianos, some like I've never seen. You can't play them, but you CAN hear recordings of some of them.

[oshey48]

We watched this program Sunday and I was disappointed on fact they did not tell the real story. Premiere Piano's out of West Chester, Ohio sold the Conservatory thier Steinways. They were not even mentioned in the piece and she made it sound like New York was the seller. Of course they were made there, but they were purchased from Preimere Pianos. I know the store and the gentleman, who own the store. It is ashame, because they did all the work and Steinway had really nothing to do with it.
Hate being lied too.

[Relayman5C]

What? Premier Pianos didn't build a single piano. They're just the dealer involved. If Premier weren't the Steinway dealer for Cincinnati, they wouldn't have been involved at all. And if they dared put stickers on these pianos, like some car dealers put on cars, shame on them.

[amirakh]

I've heard about this feature at the office and have been searching for the video without success. Would you post it?

[ehmli]

I missed tne show. Could you please post the video?

[Relayman5C]

@breuschp: Don't worry about the "All Steinway" designation. I'll guarantee that the jazz department has at least one Yamaha piano. Steinway may be the elite piano for classical music, but not for other genres.

[gbillings]

Perhaps they have some around, but all of the jazz greats play Steinway. Herbie Hancock, Marcus Roberts, Ahmad Jamal and future great Rashan Murph... maybe you missed him. He was the recent Jazz Major grad they featured.

[Relayman5C]

I'll match your Herbie Hancock with Chick Corea (Yamaha), Marcus Roberts with Hank Jones (Yamaha), etc. I'm not knocking Steinway, but just saying that Steinway has less market share of the jazz piano market than it does of the classical market. You can't say, "All of the jazz greats..." because it isn't true.

[fmrchiro]

The last guy should watch the "mad as hell segment!" How could anyone complain about an elite conservatory getting new equipment. I enjoyed the piece...especially the part with Andre Catrini. He's a star in the rough!

[brueschp]

As a piano technician, I enjoyed this piece to an extent. But as a consumer, I found it appalling, because an "All-Steinway" facility contractually closes any possibility for diversity of tastes. Steinway is great in many ways, no doubt about it, but there are other fine (some even finer!) pianos on the market. Locking the college-age kid into one manufacturer is the same selfish marketing tactic used by Budweiser/Miller and Coke/Pepsi, except on a much "grander" scale.

[gbillings]

You obviously work for a store that sells the other pianos. The All-Steinway agreement does not close out other pianos from being in the university. In fact, schools can have up to 10% of their inventory other brands. I've heard these sour grapes from many tuners who work for companies that provided free pianos to schools, then had them sent back so the school could buy Steinways.

[gbillings]

You obviously work for a store that sells the other pianos. The All-Steinway agreement does not close out other pianos from being in the university. In fact, schools can have up to 10% of their inventory other brands. I've heard these sour grapes from many tuners who work for companies that provided free pianos to schools, then had them sent back so the school could buy Steinways.

[ritter73]

We thought this was a great piece?well-deserved attention for one of the country's finest music conservatories. The part where we question the research done by the writers is their statement that "unfortunately (CCM is) not well known enough to compete with more famous schools - New York's Julliard (sic), for example." For those in the know, CCM is, without question, on the top shelf right along with Juilliard et al. To say anything otherwise of this school is naive/uninformed.

[Jamesmarcus]

What kind of fluff piece is this supposed to be? CBS kindly donated 10 minutes of network time to advertise Steinway Pianos -- offering a plug to the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music as an added bonus. The piece runs like a PR piece for Steinway Musical Instruments.

In a free-trade market like the United States, such heavily-biased stories should be shown up for their fraudulent (certainly biased) and unthorough reporting - assuming this item can even be described as journalism. CCM is hardly all-Steinway as "Julliard" (misspelled in this transcription) is. The Juilliard School uses almost all Steinway product made at the Steinway factory in Queens, NY and Hamburg, Germany. CCM has just partaken of some New York, some Hamburg product, and a lot of pianos made for Steinway by Kawai and Pearl River ("Essex"). Otherwise, the deal would be unaffordable. You even see one of the "Boston" (Kawai-made) pianos coming off the liftgate truck into the conservatory. That is not a Steinway piano.

As to the CBS News claim, fed to them by the manufacturer, that Steinway pianos last fifty years -- this is true of many decent makes. If one can actually "do the math" in the final so-noted "equation", one will find CCM, even twenty years from now, bemoaning its aging fleet of Steinways, Bostons, and Essex's, wondering how in the world such a deal got made. Shame on CBS for airing this poorly-written ten minutes of dross.

[pianogirl1216]

CCM is an excellent school, and really is one of the best conservatories in the country. I saw the Boston coming off the truck, too, and that was an upright...the uprights are used mainly in the non-piano major practice rooms, or in theory or musicology offices. The Bostons and Essexes not going in the piano professors' studios or in the piano major practice rooms, as far as I can tell. It was a well-written and interesting piece, despite whatever miniscule mistakes were in it, and this is very exciting for CCM. Stop your griping!

[cassiecole]

"Fluff piece," my foot. I loved it!

This piece is not about Steinway or Juilliard. It's about giving serious music students in a serious music program access to quality pianos that are superior to what was there.

And what a JOY it is to play on a piano that sings and responds and is a significant improvement over the old one. I was thrilled for the students, the faculty, and the university when I saw/heard this piece.

I loved watching the piano faculty test the pianos and fall in love with their choices, and I loved hearing the pianos that they played and that the students played. I loved hearing classical and jazz students play and respond to the new pianos.

For a serious pianist or composer, the joy and inspiration that comes from playing a good piano is unmatched by any other human experience. Every instrumentalist feels that way about playing a quality instrument in their specialty, and every singer feels that way about singing. It takes you to a different, more perfect place.

This was a great piece for Sunday Morning.

[ap88pk4]

Is this the jim marcus from pianofest years ago?
At ccm we took possession of 2 new york D's, 1 Hamburg D, at least 12 New York B's (2 per piano faculty), sufficient A's L's, and M's to fill all the piano practice rooms, non-piano teacher's studios, and all the main classrooms, ( theory, history, etc). I have yet to see an essex or a boston, though I'm sure they are here somewhere, likely in support of practice rooms for non-pianists. this was a major, fundamentally STEINWAY purchase, which has done wonders for the school, and piano program. I'm not sure what we'd be bemoaning twenty years hence, as we have one of the best and most diligent technicians in the country, Eric Wolfley, ( ask around) in our employ. Do you think we'll wish we had purchased used baldwins instead?
You may wish not to have seen or heard the story, but you don't have any information to find fault with the purchase, and I know you don't doubt the quality of the product.

[gbillings]

Steinway seemed fair if they told the producers 50 years was the expected life. While many last longer than this in home settings, this is a fair estimate in an institutional setting. The big piano companies today seldom allow a piano to stay in an institution for more than a year!