Piano World Home Page Forums Fun Stuff! - Parties, Tours, Projects & More... Forum Members Parties, Tours, Cruises, & Meetings Piano Gathering - Now with Pictures! - Lowell, MA 12/1/07

Herr Vogel, Pres of Schimmel, and delightful, is 2nd from the left




Herr Vogel honoring Axtremus for his wonderful performance, and Ax bowing in honor of Herr Vogel's Schimmel pianos




Marc Weinert (of Pique's 'Grand Obsession' book) prepped the new 230 Schimmel grand



Is this unique or what? Just how many piano parties have their own Glass Harmonica being shared? And we got to try it too! Ethereal!



Pat Frederick from the Frederick Historical Piano Center Ashburnham, MA. and John Citron discuss a piece John just played. Pat played one of my favorites - Schumann's Arabeske.

I'd just like to thank Terry and Larry and everyone who helped to make this such a wonderful gathering. We had a great time.

Well, it was another great gathering at Larry's place!

It was fun to see so many new faces, and always a pleasure to see old friends.

As usual, the food was wonderful and the company even better. And of course there was lots of live music :-)

I'm not sure how many people there were all together, as people kept coming and going all afternoon, and they kept wandering around Larry's shop (it's a big place).

I'd guess there were somewhere around 40-50 people total.

I'll caption a few of the pictures below, but I'm terrible at names so someone else may have to jump in and rescue me.

It was a real treat meeting the special guests, including Marc Wienert "The Voicer" in Perri Knize's new book, Grand Obsession and Hannes Schimmel-Vogel President of Schimmel, along with the Schimmel rep (who's name escapes me), and the wonderful folks at Darrell's Music in NH (who provided the piano).

I also enjoyed chatting with Pat Frederick of the Frederick Historical Piano Collection (you gotta see/hear this collection). It seems the collection is still growing, yikes!



The beautiful Schimmel Grand


Our Harmonium Concert


Pat plays the Schimmel


Part of the audience listening to Pat


Another audience shot, this time I think they were listening to John Citron



Axtremus gives the piano a good workout (sounded great)


Herr Vogel talks about his families involvement in the Schimmel piano business, and about his pianos.



JazzManToo does his thing. I'm jealous, I love jazz piano!

Sounds like great fun; wish I could have been there!

Hey, my piano needs voicing...sounds like Marc's the guy! But what do I tell my regular tech?

It is always so much fun to have these gatherings.

Frank, The Schimmel Rep's name is Glenn Clutter.

Thank You Terrytunes and Stevetunes, Ed and Roberta Lang, as well as everyone who brought food and Spirit.

It was great to meet Pat Fredrickson and talk about her efforts at the Museum. Pat brought along some pictures and history for people to see and read.

It was a pleasure to meet Hannes Schimmel-Vogul. He is a gentleman and very knowledgeable.

Thank You to Marc Wienert, whom I have had the pleasure to get to know over more than the last year. It is interesting to work with him on projects. He helps bring fabulous results to everything he touches. Funny, no shortcuts!
Dedication, hard work and time spent to achieve his results.

Below are a few pictures. Coming In just a bit

Before Larry adds his pictures, I'd like to add a special thanks to TerryTunes.

Thanks Terry for all your usual help in organizing things and setting up the food presentations, for creating the PWPF members badges, and for the wonderful "home-made baked from scratch" birthday cake.

Thanks,Frank... The cake is comical enough but if you could have seen me frosting it around noontime with a frosting bag that sprung a leak... well, let's just say it wasn't funny at the time! :rolleyes:


All the piano gatherings and events I've attended the last few years have added such a wonderful new chapter to my life. Each one has been an absolute joy to experience and an opportunity I hope to convince more members to experience.

I didn't get a chance to capture a pic of all the PW members who attended their first gathering. I hope you all enjoyed your first visit and will come back often.

This was an extremely active gathering between the lovely lady who entertained us with the glass harmonica, along with Marc having the Glenn Gould cd setup for our listening pleasure and providing further info on the cd along with one other he surprised us with!

Trying to keep up with everyone's playing in the performance room, and especially delighted with Pat Frederick visiting this event along with having the chance to chat with her is always a wonderful experience.


Meeting Hannes Schimmel-Vogel at our event and having him be a part of this gathering along with having the Schimmel 230 brought in for our playing pleasure was a generous bonus. Thanks so much to the folks at Darrell's Music Store in NH for making this piano available.

And if you should be reading this Marc, a very special thank you for the time spent on voicing this beautiful instrument. What a pleasure to meet you and to have had the opportunity to have you share your joy of piano voicing with all of us. I certainly will be looking forward to you joining us for many more memorable gatherings and hopefully with Connie taking the journey with you for our next event.


Donna R taking a turn on the glass harmonica


first time to our gatherings; sepstein! totally enjoyed your performance!



Frank Baxter - Our very own and talented Mr PianoWorld cranking up the volume and enjoying his time at the Schimmel. I don't think Frank has ever missed one of our gatherings.




One more pic from the performance room.



Oh, and Mr Larry Buck... making this gathering and all others possible has been an enormous effort on your part.

At one time in my life I never could have imagined the excitement of a piano event.

Thanks for all the joyful memories these gatherings have created in my life.

And BTW, a total pleasure meeting Ruth and the rest of the crew!

hi, jeanne! not only do i remember you i quoted you in the book!

any chance you can make it to the new york events on january 11 and 12?

looks like a wonderful time, larry and terry. i'm so sorry i wasn't able to make it. i look forward to meeting you in nyc in january and visiting your shop in the spring.

Funny thing, There were more people standing aside than in the Piano World photo ... Any ideas Frank?




Axtremus ripping it up on the Schimmel. Very nice playing indeed !



Of course, My son Brian ..


And , Frank, Taking my recently rebuilt Steinway B, still being finished, for a test ride.

I noticed that too Larry. I tried to get them to join us but they said something about their pictures already being on the post office wall.

It was a pleasure meeting Brian. He plays piano, drums, and guitar, and plays in a band. And best of all, he likes the music of the 60's and 70's (good choice Brian).



Larry asked me to check out the B. I figured I play a few chords and be done. Wrong. I loved the piano, didn't want to stop playing it.

Now let's see, if I move the couch in the breezeway ...

Check this out on YouTube: Glass Harmonica - Vera Meyer!!

I have to say that there were 2 things that struck me when Herr Vogel was giving his talk. The first was how much a family company they are. Not only in that the comapny is still owned and run by the original family, but so many of their employees are 2nd, 3rd and 4th generations of working for the company. Herr Vogel said that everyone knows everyone else and it is really a family feeling. I thought that was great, especially in this day and age where many people don't even know (or barely know) the name of the person who works next to them.

The second thing was when he was talking about the more unusual pianos they have built, like the transparent piano and the Pegasus. I know a lot of people don't like them, but Herr Vogel said they enjoy the challenge of doing something innovative. He also said that while they do enjoy doing them, they truly are meant to be showpieces and that the main focus of the company is on their more "normal" pianos like the gorgeous K230 he was standing in front of.

Just a couple things that stuck in my mind.

And now for some pictures:

The Glass Armonium:






Vera Meyer playing her Armomium:





And me taking a turn:

A few more:

The inside of the Schimmel K230 (a beautiful burled wood finish):



The plate of the K230:



A general shot of the crowd:



The Group Shot:

May I add my thanks to all responsible for making the event so enjoyable. I'm very glad I attended. Listening to - and playing - both the Schimmel and Larry's almost completed Steinway B was a great pleasure, as was the company, food, libations, and the ghost of Art Tatum.

I wanted to thank Larry and Terry for inviting me to my first PW event. It was great to finally meet many of the folks from the forum in person (Terrytunes/Lilylady) and of course Mr Pianoworld Frank B. I had no idea previously I was so close to the epicenter of Pianoworld and hope to make it to other events in the future.

Larry's Steinway B was really impressive as was his discussion on rebuilding. The Schimmel 230 sounded amazing- was really right up there among the best I've ever heard (no doubt a combination of great instrument and great prep by Marc Weinert, Larry, and Darrell's Music Hall) and the talk by Herr Vogel was quite informative. The Schimmel had amazing dynamic range and it had both color and evenness of tone throughout the registers.
Anyway, thanks PW members and all above for putting this on,
Danielou

THanks for the pictures everybody. Looks like great fun.
The finish on this piano is gorgeous.

TimTheRookie... we'll all be looking forward to meeting you at our next local event!



Wishing you a safe journey home!

This was one of the best piano parties I've attended. The performances by everyone were really great. Hey Terry Tunes. Your Chopin sounds really great. Good job there!

It was wonderful to meet the creator of my Vogel 177T! The long family tradition is evident in both the Vogel and its bigger cousins.

The Schimmel 230 was a really wonderful piano, and perhaps I could some day 'upgrade' to the bigger piano. I kept thinking about it on my way home that night.

John

Wow, what an awesome party! I'm sorry to have missed it! Wonderful guests. Interesting discussions. Great pianos. Even a glass harmonium! I recall from recordings the glass harmonium as sounding very ethereal. I've never heard one in person though. That certainly would have been a treat. Let alone the piano music!

Aside to Pique (if you're reading this): You remember me? And quoted me in your book? What - WHAT was it I said? NO! Don't tell, me, I'm going to have to read your book to find out! You asked about New York in January? Hmmm.... Well, I'll have to see, but can't promise.

Jeanne W