Welcome to the latest news update!
As ever I can’t quite believe where the time has gone with school half term approaching. The new year has started in the most enjoyable way with possibly one of the busiest periods of activity in the showroom that we have known! Neil has been flat out fitting in deliveries and we have had to be very secure in our processes to make sure the piano chosen is the piano delivered! Michelle and I have enjoyed meeting many new customers and some old ones too. The coffee grinder has been working hard and hopefully a good time has been had by all!
One of the highlights of the last month or so has been supporting the Berkshire Music and Arts Festival at Ufton Court, Ufton Nervet. This music festival is in its second year and through the commitment and hard work of the festival organisers saw four times the number of participants from last year! I am very keen to support local music events with my business and with help from Kawai UK supplied the pianos for the event. The piano section enjoyed the luxury of performing on a 9ft Shigeru Kawai concert grand piano that we delivered into the fabulous Tudor barn the day before. The enjoyment of performing on such a fine instrument helped to enhance the overall festival experience and it was a real pleasure to see and hear pianists of all abilities. We also took along a Kawai K200 ATX so that pianists could warm up silently whilst hearing their piano playing through headphones. We had actually sold this piano the week before, thank you to Mark, Emma and Elspeth for allowing us to still use the piano at the festival! The singing section enjoyed the use of a Kawai K15 and the strings a Kawai K200, all pianos were appreciated and we received some lovely comments and feedback from many of the accompanists. Neil from Kawai kindly joined us for the day and spent time chatting to people whilst manning the ATX to explain its function and invite pianists to play it. It was great to be part of such an enjoyable event promoting the joy of music by giving musicians the opportunity to perform in front of an audience. There was such a positive and friendly atmosphere to the day, I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of it and will offer our support again in the future without hesitation.
Kawai upright pianos are always a popular choice in our showroom but since the start of the year the demand has been unprecedented. Our fabulous K8 has just been selected, this was one of those stand out pianos that has been admired by many. Many K200’s have been chosen, almost as quickly as they arrive I am preparing them for delivery to go out. The set up of the pianos when they arrive from Kawai is excellent but I always set aside a few hours on every piano to get the best out of them with small regulation and voicing adjustments. I really enjoy this preparation work, getting the most from each and every piano before it leaves. Of course, the follow up care and attention to tuning, regulation and voicing is equally important, especially in the first couple of years as the new materials settle. As piano specialists this is what we thrive on, maintaining the best performance from each of the pianos that we supply with genuine enthusiasm to do so. With K300’ also being chosen and current interest in the K500 and K600 it has been an excellent start to 2016 with Kawai uprights!
Last week saw the arrival of Grotrian-Steinweg 192 grand production number 303! this was the beautiful piano that we selected in the factory before Christmas. It finally arrived in Hertfordshire and to my delight was well received and has even ‘exceeded expectations’. I am looking forward to a trip to Hertfordshire in March to tune and check the piano over. Unfortunately, another 192 Grotrian was delivered to a flat in London but the delivery proved unsuccessful. Imagine the disappointment! Thankfully, the delivery team have taken the piano away to completely strip down before a redelivery that they are confident of success. If this didn’t work out there is a crane option but we’re hoping not to have to resort to this.
We are hoping to encourage more and more people to the showrooms to enjoy playing our pianos this year. Our location is very rural so our challenge is always to let potential customers know that we are here! Michelle’s challenge this year is to actively present our business to as many people as possible and encourage visitors. If you are reading this and would enjoy a visit to play our pianos get in touch, you’ll be most welcome. Perhaps as a music teacher you would like to bring a few students along to have a lesson on our grand pianos or just to sit and enjoy playing them yourself. We’d love to hear from as many people as possible and enjoy the chance to show off our pianos.
All the best.
Ben
