The general meeting for this month will be held on Tuesday, Tuesday May 11, 2021 starting at 7 p.m. For everyone's safety, we will be holding this meeting remotely via Zoom. To participate, make sure you have Zoom installed on your device: download Zoom

You will receive an invitation by e-mail early on the day of the meeting with a reminder shortly before the meeting.

Our technical presentation will be given by Boaz Kirschenbaum, topic: Practical Voicing

Boaz has been a piano technician for two decades. He is a graduate of the CF Theodore Steinway Academy in Hamburg, Germany, and holds a Diploma in Advanced Piano Technology from the North Bennet Street School. Boaz was employed by Steinway & Sons from 2003-2006 and by Mason & Hamlin from 2016-2017. His mentors include Bruce Clark, Ron Coners, Aleks Markovich, Eric Schandall, and David Stanwood. Boaz specializes in custom action work and voicing. He works as a full-time road warrior for Fredrick Mudge RPT, servicing all of New England, Westchester and New York City.

This class will focus on practical, effective, and efficient voicing techniques for both American-style soft hammer felt and German-style tension-compression hammer felt. Time permitting, we will also explore the concept of soundboard impedance, as well as delve into room acoustics.

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Mike Slavin pointed out this short WQXR video on the original Cristofori piano: https://youtu.be/6XDJ2O4P97I

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Mike Slavin called the Zoom meeting to order at 7 p.m. Nine members were present.

This months technical was a little different -- more of a discussion and evaluation of a customer's Steinway piano.

Alex Kostakis of AC Pianocraft retold the story of how he was contacted to evaluate and regulate a poorly reconditioned Steinway B. The name of the company and the customer were not disclosed to the members as it was not appropriate to do so. (All the members wanted to know the parties involved but Alex stood his ground).

Alex explained all the problems he experienced in working with the client, who did not want to invest any more money in the repair. Alex did get paid for his time and work but said it really wasn't worth the trouble.

The members concluded that the customer wanted a Steinway piano for the name and didn't care about the quality. He discovered the poor workmanship after the piano was in his house. But -- this company sold the customer a very badly regulated or reconditioned piano and they knew it.

Alex said there may be a court case and he may be called as a witness.

The meeting continued with an open discussion and Alex was very informative on running a business and the problems that arise.

Meeting was adjourned at 8:20 p.m.

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