I hope you are all well and enjoying your piano playing and teaching. I always find the piano is calling to be played at this time of year, the beauty of tone from a fine piano brings life to a home on the darkest of nights. The beauty of Autumn is giving way to the onset of winter; our wet streets are carpeted in the leaves that gave us such breathtaking beauty when I last wrote. Personally, I love all the seasons and the variety that they bring, for those of you that are not enamoured by our coldest season the good news is that winter never follows winter!
Life at the showroom since my last writing has remained busy and enjoyable. Activity has slowed down a little throughout November, after the peaks of October, but a steady flow of pianos have been leaving the showroom with new arrivals to fill their spaces. I am particularly excited by the imminent arrival of a Wilh. Steinberg S170 grand after receiving he customs documentation to herald its arrival. This is a truly impressive piano that Michelle and I both admired during our visit to the factory in Eisenberg. After housing a couple of S180 models I decided to bring the S170 to Little London for the first time, you are welcome to visit to put this fine piano through its paces! A new arrival since last writing was the Kawai GL20, I am really pleased with this piano with the extra size adding to the performance over the ever popular GL10
My forage into social media has not yet materialised due, in part, to a frozen camera on my phone. However, the intention is very much alive, steps have been taken towards creating content to feature some of our pianos on You Tube and starting my own regular updates on Facebook. I am hoping that all things will be aligned to begin with this in earnest in the New Year. Watch this space
I am very much looking forward to a visit next week from a Master Piano Artisan from Japan. These are incredibly skilled technicians employed by Kawai to primarily work on their Shigeru grand pianos. They are trained in Japan and gain experience in the piano factories in Europe to qualify as an MPA. Neil from Kawai is hosting a visit from an MPA for a month and is bringing the technician to my showroom to service my Shigeru SK3. He is also visiting our recent SK2 customer to service his piano without charge which is a real bonus. I will be watching like a hawk with my notebook at the ready to pick up new skills and techniques as he works.
Piano tuning remains incredibly busy with a huge demand before the Christmas break. Vicky is now working independently, and Michelle is running Richard’s diary for him, we are all working with full diaries. Christmas always has a habit of sneaking up on us, this year it has been particularly stealthy with us now being in the last few days of November. It feels too early to wish a happy one so I will hold off and hope to write again before the Festive holiday. Of course, this time of year is a wonderful time for beautiful music, we are looking forward to a John Rutter concert at the Albert Hall along with more local musical events to celebrate the season. I will be resurrecting my festive repertoire and perhaps adding a few more songs to it.
As ever, all visitors are welcome at the showroom. It really is a fantastic place to meet, drink fine coffee and enjoy some beautiful pianos. Email me to arrange a visit, you will be most welcome.
All best
Ben