The recent discussion about the Player Piano Concert in St. Louis based
upon a device built by Craig Brougher brought back some memories.  If I'm
not mistaken, the music director for that concert was Newton Wayland
using one of Bill Singleton's restorations.  I participated with him in
3 other similar concerts, all with the Rhapsody in Blue roll p/b George
Gershwin.

As far as I know, Newt still has the device which I fitted into a 7'
Steinway (Trudy & Bill Maier) for use with the Minnesota Philharmonic(?)
Orchestra, again with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra using my own 6'
Mason Duo-Art, and then again with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra.
For that last one in Calgary, I loaded my Mason into a U-Haul and hauled
it all the way out there from Winnipeg (800 miles); an adventure that
basically turned out to be a self-inflicted wound.  He has since invited
me to do another with the same piano in another western Canadian city
which I declined.

The device used, which may be the one built by Craig, was basically a
small switch on the podium, connected to a pouch interrupting the vacuum
to the wind motor.  The piano was placed immediately alongside New so
that he could see both his music score and the Duo-Art spool box at a
brief sideways glance.  While I sweated out the performance offstage,
he controlled stop/start.  All 3 concerts, 3 days each, went off without
a hitch and were well received.  Newt arranged lighting such that the
only light in the hall was a spotlight on the empty bench, orchestra
basically working only with small lamps on their music stands.

I never did know then who built the interrupter device, but it did work
just fine, and I believe Newt still has it, although I understand he has
not done the Gershwin concert in recent years.  Too hard to find a
suitable piano in the target cities where he travels.

On a much smaller scale I've done a couple of "Legendary Master of the
Piano - Live Performance" concerts on the 320 seat Muriel Richardson
auditorium in the Winnipeg Art Gallery, proceeds to the Gallery.  The
first one was with only my  Mason Duo-Art, and the second was with both
it and Steck Ampico A/B.  Both concerts were well attended: 250+.

Both concerts were a mix or visual and audio.  The visual was a collection
of 35 mm slides of anecdotal pictures of the legendary masters as
illustrated and reported in the news magazine of the day - Musical
America.  The entertainment package was a mix of anecdotal stories about
the artists, accompanied by these repro photos, each ending with a photo
of the artist seated at a grand piano (from the roll catalogs) which was
displayed throughout a roll performance.  During each roll performance,
I exited behind the curtain leaving the piano alone on stage with a
single spotlight on the empty bench.

By chance the auditorium is constructed somewhat like a diamond, with
the stage diagonal across a corner.  The control booth was in an opposing
corner equipped with a powerful projector capable of throwing a mammoth
image on the wall alongside the stage.  The auditorium has a screen, but
is mounted above and in front of the stage, not suitable for an event
where both a "screen" and a stage are needed simultaneously.

I have in mind to do a couple more of these concerts, but the critical
ingredient is those hard-to-find back issues of Musical America.  Very,
very few issues are ever found up here in Canada, so if anyone knows of
a collection of these somewhere that I might acquire or borrow, I would
appreciate hearing about it.

Anybody else done a somewhat similar approach for a player piano concert?

Regards,
•
Terry Smythe                    smythe@mts.net
55 Rowand Avenue                smythe@freenet.mb.ca
Winnipeg, MB, R3J 2N6, Canada   (204) 832-3982
http://www.winnipeg.freenet.mb.ca/~smythe