Pianos: SU is on All-Steinway Path
To be a great musician, you need a great instrument. That's the message Shenandoah Conservatory Dean Michael Stepniak had for the audience in Ruebush Hall Friday.
Shenandoah Conservatory student Soo Yeon Ham plays the new Steinway piano nicknamed "Bronco" during an event to announce the conservatory's intention to seek the distinction of an "All-Steinway School."
(Photo by Jeff Taylor/The Winchester Star)
By Rebecca Layne
Reprinted with permission from Winchester Star
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To be a great musician, you need a great instrument.
That's the message Shenandoah Conservatory Dean Michael Stepniak had for the audience in Ruebush Hall Friday.
"If we expect the best of our students, we've got to give them the best," said Stepniak, who with Shenandoah University President Tracy Fitzsimmons stood among six pianos and announced that the conservatory is on the path to becoming an All-Steinway School.
To reach this distinction, 90 percent of the pianos owned by the conservatory must be Steinways or Steinway-designed - an elite brand established in 1853 and considered by some to be in the top rank of pianos.
Recently, SU obtained 17 Steinways, six of which were donated. On Oct. 14, a group of students and faculty traveled to Queens, N.Y., to try out and select most of the 6-foot-wide pianos at the headquarters of Steinway & Sons.
The pianos were delivered Thursday.
"It felt on my hands like a set of gloves," said Silvan Negrutiu, a Conservatory graduate student who made the trip north.
The Steinways are perfect, according to graduate student Soo Yeon Ham, who was also chosen for the New York trip.
"I can express what I feel and think to the audience" when I play a Steinway, she said.
The goal for the conservatory is to own 87 Steinways in the next few years, which would make SU one of about five or six conservatories in the country to be All-Steinway.
The pianos can range from $44,000 to more than $100,000. The ones purchased by SU range from $63,000 to $70,000.
The total cost of the project is estimated to be $3 million. About $600,000 of that amount will be used to endow a fund for piano maintenance and replacement. SU plans to raise funds over the next four years to pay for the undertaking.
SU has about 100 pianos of all varieties. The older ones will be traded in as the Steinways arrive. In the end, the Conservatory will have 96 pianos.
During Friday's announcement, piano faculty members were acknowledged with thundering applause for their contributions to SU's musical success.
"Isn't it a special place where piano faculty can be rock stars?" Fitzsimmons asked.
Stepniak said the pianos were purchased to replace SU's aging fleet, enhance learning and attract talented pianists.
"A piano in the music community is like a computer anywhere else," he said. "The one thing that makes such a big impact is a piano."
James Madison University in Harrisonburg has been designated an All-Steinway School. The designation was made possible when retired obstetrician Dr. Elizabeth Swallow of Harrisonburg donated $1 million toward the purchase of 100 new pianos.
JMU added $1.3 million to Swallow's gift to purchase 44 more pianos, said George Sparks, dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts.
Ron Losby, president of Steinway & Sons, was also present at Friday's announcement.
The event ended with a performance of "The Hall of the Mountain Kings" on the new pianos.
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