Yamaha Keyboard Instruments Fuel California Summer School

CVP107

In idyllic Pebble Beach, Calif., 70 students from around the U. S. and the world are using Yamaha Clavinova digital pianos to get the most out of California Summer Music, the renowned annual festival and school held at the Robert Louis Stevenson School on the famed 17 Mile Drive.

Director Dr. Tim Bach says the Clavinova digital pianos are valuable for the Composition Program for their ability to record and recreate students’ performances, as well as for their range of instrument voices. Experimental passages, individual instrument parts or entire scores can be stored faithfully for later review, editing or orchestration. Also, students in the school’s Composition Program even have Clavinova digital pianos in their dorm rooms.

“We are a very traditional classical chamber music camp here,” says Dr. Bach. “Even so, the Clavinova digital pianos have helped us with the composition program because the kids are able to compose music in their room and save it to disk. It gives them more flexibility in terms of being able to compose when inspiration strikes.”

In addition to the Clavinova’s musical versatility, according to school administrative assistant Steve Trapani, the students and faculty value the instruments’ silent capabilities. “With headphones, they’re able to practice whenever they want,” he says.

“Some of our kids have discovered the unusual voices,” Trapani reports. “One of them wrote a whole horror story, complete with footsteps, creaky doors and screams.”

A variety of CVP103, CVP105, and CVP107 models, seven Clavinovas in all, were provided by Yamaha Peninsula Music Center in San Jose for use in the Composition Program. In addition to use by students, the Clavinovas are played by the school’s staff accompanists, the public in the main areas, and by Composition Teacher David Tcimpidis.

The three-week school combines private lessons with group meetings, student and faculty performances, and informal activities such as “sight-reading parties” to hone the skills of talented young musicians. Students audition for inclusion in the school’s Performance Program, and prospective Composition students have to submit examples of scores they have written. Dr. Bach and many of the other faculty members are associated with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

“We were having a sight-reading party the other evening,” Bach notes, “and we were performing Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5. The students used the Clavinova for the harpsichord solo part. I thought that was a nice touch.”

The school’s students also find the Clavinova in the public area an irresistible attraction. “There’s always somebody playing it,” Bach reports.

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