The Yamaha A440 Big Band

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In addition, Yamaha consultant LaRoy Edwards and piano service consultant Craig Fehrenbacher presented a class on service for vertical pianos and, with Yamaha Applications Specialist David Durben, a class on Aftertouch.

Yamaha also set the pace for entertainment at the gala reception. After five days of seminars, meetings, and discussions about the fine art of piano maintenance and repair, attendees were ready to spend the last night of the show kicking back, with the Yamaha staff acting as hosts.

The fun began with a performance by the Barbershop Chorus, an ensemble of piano technicians whose rousing renditions of classic tunes gives new meaning to “voicing” that has nothing to do with pianos. This is no mere quartet. With PTG member Larry Crabb directing as many as forty participants in matching uniforms emblazoned with the Yamaha logo, the chorus is capable of roaring “Sweet Adeline” with all the finesse and more than 10 times the volume of the finest foursomes.

Later, another group takes the stage to deliver a set of swing era material. With horns in hand, they perform as the Yamaha A440 Big Band to the delight of dancers as well as attentive connoisseurs.

Piano technicians playing sax? Of course, says Brandom, the official reception host. “There are lots of very good musicians in the Piano Technicians Guild,” he says. “They’re technicians by day, musicians by night. This gives them a chance to play together for an audience.”

At the convention, Yamaha had them learning, left them dancing, and already has America’s piano technicians waiting for next year’s gathering.

his past summer, 280 people in a Pennsylvania town of 2,000 attended a benefit concert to raise money to build a performing arts center. To help the effort, Jacobs Music Company, the largest Yamaha piano representative in the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware tri-state area, provided a Yamaha C3 conservatory grand piano.

Peter Becker, manager of Jacobs’ location in Whitehall, PA, approached musician Eric Doney, a pianist and teacher who lives in Pennsylvania, about doing some events together. One of their ideas became a jazz benefit concert in Pen Argyl, PA last August to raise funds to build the center. Becker provided the C3 piano on which Doney performed, along with Will Lee on bass (David Letterman’s bass player), Marko Marcinko on drums (from the David Liebman band), and Doney’s wife, GRAMMY®-nominated vocalist Vicki Doney.

“I’ve never been disappointed by Yamaha pianos,” Doney states. “There is an evenness of touch and tone throughout the keyboards, and a consistency of feel and response in the voices.” At home, he has a Yamaha U3 upright, and he is in the process of getting another.

“We had a wonderful time performing at the concert,” continues Doney. “It was family oriented, attitude free, and fun.”

The day after the fundraiser, the musician’s went to Red Rock Studio and used a Yamaha C7 conservatory grand piano to record Ms. Doney’s new CD, Natural Woman. Mr. Doney also recently produced a CD for saxophone and piano, entitled Giants at Play, in which pianist John Coates performed on a Yamaha S4 concert collection grand piano.