GranTouch
Enhances
Children's Benefit in Beverly Hills
On October 10 at the home of Alan Ladd, Jr. in Beverly Hills, the annual fundraising party for the Children's Health Environmental Coalition was in full swing. An all-star lineup of entertainers, backed by an 18-piece orchestra, was midway through its rendition of the final number on the program, James Taylor's You've Got a Friend. Seated at the Yamaha Disklavier®‚ GranTouch™ DGT2A on the Ladd family's tennis court, Dane Bryant was concentrating on his part when Meryl Streep, standing right in front of him, suddenly turned around.
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 Meryl
Streep, Kelly Preston, John Travolta and Sheryl Crow |
"It was pretty funny, actually," he remembers. "She just looked at the keyboard, and then she said to me, 'What happened to your piano? It's so much smaller than it sounds!'"
Bryant was in full agreement. Although he has enthusiastically played a Yamaha C6 conservatory grand piano for three years on tour with Clint Black, he had never played a Disklavier GranTouch until that afternoon. One of the performers at the event, Sheryl Crow, had specifically requested it, since she was used to playing on and singing with one in her own shows. For Bryant, it proved the next best thing to having an acoustic piano on the stage.
"I felt immediately comfortable with it," he says. "I've played all the digital keyboards, and this one responded more like an acoustic grand than anything else. I was really surprised at how responsive it was."
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Sheryl
Crow |
This wasn't Yamaha's first appearance at a CHEC benefit. Last year, Yamaha artist Jim Brickman appeared at the event with his C5 conservatory grand piano, along with CHEC spokeswoman Olivia Newton-John and other headliners, in support of the non-profit organization's efforts to end children's ailments caused by toxins in air, food, water, and commercial products. This year, in addition to Streep, Newton-John, and Crow, Melissa Etheridge and John Travolta were among the celebrities who donated their talent.
Further information about CHEC is available at its website, www.checnet.org. As for Bryant, expect to see him onstage with Black or Newton-John during her overseas tour in 2003.
