St. A's has a new piano! Praise God!

Wow--what a long, strange trip it has been. When my father died in 1999, it was finally possible to get both his estate and my mom's (who had died in 1993) resolved. With a tithe of my inheritance, I set up a memorial music fund at my church. Part of it was used some years ago to purchase a well-used but very serviceable electronic organ from a nearby community whose Episcopal church had been gifted with a new pipe organ. I continued using both the new-to-us organ and our old piano until my retirement as organist/choirmistress last summer. The piano is all that our current musician is using, and it has needed frequent repairs.

It was my joy as a bishop's committee member to be the piano committee when we determined that a new piano must be purchased. All of my internet research kept pointing to an excellent book by Larry Fine, called The Piano Book. It gives info based on surveys from piano techs as to the reliability of different brands, and it also has excellent information on the histories, warranties, and current prices of the multitude of piano brands out there.

Yesterday, the church pianist/choirmistress and I went to our local piano store to try out the two brands to which we'd narrowed our search. (Yamaha and Kawai) It was joyful to listen while she played, then to trade places. I really griped about the stupid, inconsequential music racks currently in vogue; The "stylish" ones are wide enough for about 2 sheets of music. No hymnals will stay up, nor could one have anyplace to put enough music to play a full church service. We also rejected the "apartment mute" center pedal. Listen, piano manufacturers! We downgraded to a less-expensive piano to get the usability and features we needed! The piano looks great, sounds great, has a terrific usable music rack AND the center sostenuto pedal which comes in handy (or footy??) every once in awhile.

Yep--I would have loved to have a Steinway in the sanctuary. I inherited my mom's studio model. However, they have priced themselves out of the small church market. We had their less-expensive Boston line on our final list--the brand is Steinway's design built by Kawai--but we opted not to go out of town. Perhaps I can will to the church my Steinway upon my death, and they can trade it in on whatever they want at that point!

There will be a dedicatory plate on this piano to the glory of God and in loving memory of my mom, who was a church organist (another denomination) for many years. How nice to have good quality music equipment for our little church as we struggle and grow. Thanks be to God!