Clavinova Festival Participation...

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The Festival attracted 100 students and 15 teachers, and every teacher had their own Clavinova or a loaner CVP107 digital piano prior to the event. “We sold six Clavinovas to teachers, another six or seven to students, and about a dozen at Christmas time, all attributed to the Festival,” says Neff, a previous Yamaha dealer who sold her retail business to Hachenberg & Sons in 1989.

Across the country, even teachers most passionate about classical music are catching on to the benefits of the Clavinova. Last October, Thelma Johnson’s command performance of two jazz pieces at The Pied Piper’s first Clavinova Festival, held at Town Center Mall in Ashland, KY, highlighted this trend. “Thelma was tutored by Fats Waller, back in the 1940s,” says Yamaha specialist Joy Carden, on hand for the day long Saturday at the Mall event. “She wowed the audience and her students – performing on a Clavinova CVP107 – with her authentic jazz style because most of them know her for her classical training.”

The incredible visibility received by holding the festival at a mall boosted sales, too. “By Thanksgiving we’d sold one CVP105 and seven CVP107 digital pianos,” says Keyboard Department Manager Adam Gregory. All seven teachers had CVP107s in their home studios three months prior to the Festival, and 60 children, ages 7 – 15, performed on Clavinova CVP105 and CVP107 digital pianos at the mall.

The Pied Piper logged another milestone, providing Clavinova digital pianos for a follow-up event with Ashland teachers; a direct outcome of their first Clavinova Festival. Held this past March at the Paramount Arts Center in Ashland, Imagination Celebration: Bach to Rock featured 44 fifth-grade students performing on CVP105, CVP107, and CVP700 digital pianos in the Tri-State Piano Ensemble.

Top: Three friends make music together at Pied Piper's first Clavinova Festival. Bottom: Drawing winner Homer Meadows uses the Follow Lights feature to perform on his new Clavinova in Ashland, KY.

Capitol Hill

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Dr. Gardiner, a research associate at Brown University’s Center for the Study of Human Development and a faculty member at the New England Conservatory of Music’s Research Center for Learning Through Music, offered his insight into the value of music education based upon his ongoing scientific research. In 1998, Gardiner published findings linking music and arts education with improved math and reading skills in first-grade students, and he is now working on a three-year project to investigate the benefits of music training for children with learning disabilities. Gardiner’s current work is funded by the International Foundation for Music Research (IFMR), the research arm of NAMM.

Sands, a 19-year veteran teacher, also lends his expertise to the D.C. Youth Orchestra Program, the International French School, the Montgomery County Sixth Grade Honors Band, and the Mount Lebanon Baptist Church Choir. Miller, a senior student who has played in the marching, jazz, and concert band through all four years at Coolidge High, is an honor roll student who is active in local community service.

Marsalis, known to many for his Tonight Show duties from 1992 to 1995, recently won his third GRAMMY® for Contemporary Jazz (Columbia Records, 2000) by the Branford Marsalis Quartet. In addition to having produced more than a dozen highly acclaimed albums in a career spanning nearly 20 years, the jazz saxophonist hosts National Public Radio’s weekly program JazzSet with Branford Marsalis, and currently serves as an Artist-in-Residence at San Francisco State University’s Jazz and World Music Studies Program.