October Meeting

This month's meeting will feature Steve Brady RPT from Washington State. Steve has recently published a book called Under the Lid - The Art & Craft of the Concert Piano Technician. The topic will be "Between the Technician and the Artist" featuring a discussion between he and his wife who is a concert pianist. This is a meeting you won't want to miss. More information on the topic will follow.

Date: October 16th
Time: Out of State 4 PM to 6 PM
Time: Vermont Technicians 3:30 PM to 6 PM
Place: Ed and Emily Hilbert
40 Pleasant St.
Bristol, VT
Contact: Hilbert Pianos
802-453-3743

♫

hilbert@middlebury.edu

Please RSVP as soon as possible.

September Meeting

Attention all Piano Technicians!

Announcing a Free All-Day Technical Seminar

Saturday, September 27^th, 9am to 4pm

Sponsored by:

&

Hilbert Pianos

Don Mannino RPT

Presenting technical seminars on 3 topics:

• “Action Centers: The Secret to Consistent Touch”

• “Introduction to the Shigeru Kawai Piano and Millennium-III Action”
  

• “High-Performance Grand Action Regulation”

Barbecue Lunch Included!

Free All-Day technical seminar by Don Mannino!

Where: Hilbert Pianos

40 Pleasant Street

Bristol, Vermont

When: September 27^th, 2008 9am - 4pm

What’s Included: 3 technical seminars plus lunch!

Don Mannino RPT, Director of Shigeru Kawai Field Services and Director of Technical Training for Kawai America, will be making a visit to Vermont to present 3 very popular technical seminars September 27^th. Don is well known for his seminars at PTG conventions, as well as for technical articles in the Piano Technicians Journal. Don’s seminars have a reputation for being interesting, thorough, and applicable to the technician’s every day work.

“Action Centers: The Secret to Consistent Touch” is Don’s seminar describing the importance of well fit action centers to the performance of fine piano actions, and demonstrating a method for repinning action centers that is fast and extremely accurate.

“Introduction to the Shigeru Kawai Pianos” is an overview of these new, hand-built pianos from Japan in which Don describes why Kawai is building these instruments, what is different about them as compared to other Kawai pianos, and some of the research and development process involved in creating them. Included will be photos of the factory as well as extreme slow-motion films taken during the development of the Kawai Millennium-III action in Kawai’s R&D department.

“High Performance Grand Action Regulation” is a new seminar on getting the best performance from Kawai grand pianos. Included will be discussion and demonstration of factory style regulating techniques, the trade-offs of various regulation specifications to meet different needs, service pointers for getting the performance back into worn actions, and a full top-to-bottom regulation process. Although this class will feature the Kawai actions, much of the class material is applicable to all fine grand piano actions.

Don’s seminars are usually presented to packed rooms at PTG seminars - don’t miss this chance to see him locally!

To attend, please call Ed and Emily Hilbert at (802) 453-3743 , or E-mail him at: hilbert@middlebury.edu

You may also e-mail or call Don Mannino at Kawai: (800) 660-5607 ext. 883, or E-mail: tech@shigerukawai.com

About the Meal: This is a potluck meal, so please contact the Hilberts ahead of time to make sure you bring the right thing. Chicken will be provided. This will help with food preparations!

Out of State: If you are coming from out of state and are planning on staying overnight, please let us know ahead of time so we can help you make arrangements.

Vermont Members, if you have accommodations you can offer please let us know. We will try to match you up with out-of-state guests.

We hope to see you there!

Don Mannino, RPT
While completing piano performance studies at San Diego State in 1979, Don apprenticed with a piano rebuilder. As an independent piano technician in the San Diego area Don divided his business between normal tuning, concert piano preparation, rebuilding, and providing warranty work for dealers and manufacturers. He held the position of National Service Manager for Young Chang Pianos from 1990 - 1995, then was Manager of Technical Support for Kawai Pianos in the US and Canada, and now serves as the Director of Technical Training for Kawai and Shigeru Kawai Pianos. Don and his wife Patty are the editors of the Southern California Combined PTG newsletter. He teaches regularly at regional technician seminars, PTG Annual conventions, and at PTG chapter meetings. He has prepared articles on a variety of technical topics for the Piano Technicians Journal.

June Meeting

The next Vermont PTG Chapter Meeting--

WILL START EARLY, at 2 PM.

Tuesday, June 10

at the Hilberts'
40 Court St, in Bristol

We're very fortunate and excited to have Marcel Lapointe as a featured guest from Quebec City. Marcel will spend the afternoon with us in a voicing class you won't want to miss. The extra time
will give plenty of opportunity for some hands-on experience with some of the many innovative voicing techniques that Marcel has developed over the years. Marcel has a well-earned reputation within PTG for his skill, enthusiasm, generosity, and good-nature.

Looking forward to seeing you all with Marcel Lapointe, at the Hilberts' in Bristol, 2:00 pm on June 10!

The following is Marcel's "bio" and class description, in his own words:

********
Bio.

ML,
Born by curiosity, ( direct translation from French) at 4 years old, I decided
to become a tuner.
After a small detour studying the saxophone at Quebec Conservatory for 7
years, (before I was too small to pull the tuning hammer).
I started learning in the old French way as master and apprentice with the
Conservatory tuner.
I started being a real tuner at 18 years old. My first factory training was at
Mason Hamlin in Boston, and 15 years ago studied in Hamburg at Steinway.
I discovered PTG 25 years ago and since that time spended all the possible time
at the conventions Nationnal or regionnal.
There not only you can learn zillions of things, but best of all, you will meet
friends for life.
I tune and voice mainly for concerts for the last 20 years.
Piano is an endless quest for Graal for someone born by curiosity.


Class.
We will explore many different ways to eliminate false beats, some are
unorthodoxes, some are old ones forgotten.
Maybe we will find a new one altogether, who knows?
Thanks to the readings of pianotek list for almost 10 years, many fine PTG
members drove me on the path of finding many differents solutions. They will
not work all the time, ( differents causes), but you will have many more tricks
in your bag to find solutions.
I will show a cross / breed way of sanding the hammers
(German/French/American) .
I will give a demonstration of hammers/strings mating , with accuracy and
speed. All the tools needed are very easy to do yourself.

Meeting update

May 13 found PTGers arriving at Frederick Johnson Pianos in White River Junction; some an hour early! Now that's dedication. As was anticipated, we had a gathering of 8 including a new face: Helen Weston, from Bristol who is contemplating entering the other side of the piano world. It was also good to see Michael Lynam, a new comer visiting a second time. We were all treated to a class with Dale Howe as he taught on tuning. With about 40 years of tuning experience, it was a challenge to fit all his knowledge inside the time alloted. However, he persevered and gave us a chance to get a good meal at a local restaurant before heading home.

Meeting Notice

Our next meeting will be at

Frederick Johnson Pianos Inc.

in
White River Junction.
Date: May 13
Time: 4:30
Phone: (802) 985-5406
Map
E-mail: vtptg (dot) now (at) gmail (dot) com

Dale Howe will do a tuning technical. We will go out to eat afterward. Hope to see you there!

This Month's Meeting

Allan Day showing us some unique and interesting projects he is working on.





1790 Longman & Broderip square fortepiano






Allan demonstrating the way this thing works







We had a good-size turnout -- nine in all







Ed Hilbert explaining the effect of swelling and shrinking of wood over 2 plus centuries




Unfortunately, no pictures were taken of the Steinway action which Allan is working on. Thanks, Allan, for leading the discussion and showing us your one-of-a-kind instruments.

NEECSO

The New Hampshire Chapter of the Piano Technicians Guild proudly presents our finest offering ever:

NEECSO 2008

“ART, CRAFT, & INNOVATION”

April 24 to 27, 2008

Highlights include:

35 classes by 29 instructors

13 brand spankin’ new classes (that’s 37 %!)

Thrifty Thursday, with 5 one day classes by nationally known instructors – yours for only $50 more!

A 9 class series “Grand Action Restoration – Raising the Bar”

“Rib Crowned and Supported Soundboards – Towards A New Paradigm?”

Two days of classes on soundboard design and construction by Ron Nossaman and Terry Farrell

“Of Mics and Men (Women and Pianos) – The Art of Recording the Piano” presented by NYC studio piano technician veteran Barbara Pease Renner and 11 time Grammy winning recording engineer Jack Renner

Other instructors include: David Anderson, Steve Brady, Kent Webb, Wally Brooks, Don Manino, Andre & Christian Bolduc, David Stanwood, and many, many more!

Special seminar hotel rate of $99 per night at the Radisson Hotel.

A pdf. of our brochure, class descriptions, other highlights, and online registration are available on our website at www.ptg.org/neecso. Or contact:

Bill Ballard

NEECSO '08 Registrar

POB 84

Saxtons River, VT 05154

neecso.registrar@ptg.org

Air travelers can fly into the Manchester, N. H. airport and take the free Radisson limo service directly to the hotel.

This will be the only Region 1 Conference prior to the Annual in Anaheim!