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Public invited to Thursday (Dec. 8) unveiling: 
Rare piano expected to boost UNC’s arts profile

By L.J. TOLER
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL — The William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust has donated an exquisite concert grand piano to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, better positioning UNC to attract more of the world’s top artists to perform in Memorial Hall.

Like most U.S. venues, Memorial already had a New York Steinway D concert grand. Now, with the gift of a Hamburg Steinway D, UNC becomes one of the few institutions nationwide with both models.

"We are thrilled with the Kenan Trust’s generous and visionary gift of this remarkable and invaluable Steinway Hamburg concert grand piano," said Emil Kang, UNC’s executive director for the arts.

"Few universities, let alone performing arts centers, have access to such an instrument. Now, paired with our New York Steinway, we will be able to attract the world’s greatest pianists, some of whom prefer to perform on Hamburg Steinways."

UNC officials will unveil the Hamburg in a free public ceremony at noon Thursday (Dec. 8) in Memorial.

Speakers will be UNC Chancellor James Moeser; Richard M. Krasno, executive director of the Kenan Trust of Chapel Hill; and Kang. Members of the Carolina Performing Arts Series National Advisory Board and the university community also will attend.

UNC assistant professor of music Dr. Mayron Tsong (pronounced "MARE-on Song"), a pianist who has performed throughout the United States and abroad, will play Rachmaninov’s "Etude Tableaux" in C Major, Op.33 No. 2. She said the piece will capture well the qualities of the Hamburg and how it differs from the New York.

"Although each piano has a unique sound, in my opinion, the tone of a Hamburg Steinway is usually characterized as being rich and resonant, with a bell-like quality in the higher range and a clarity of tone within and between the registers," said Tsong. "The broad palette of colors available to a pianist frees him or her to rage with percussiveness or to purr in the most intimate moments."

Differences in design, materials used and especially the hammers that strike the strings of the piano are among reasons for the differences in sound between the New York and Hamburg models, she said.

Steinway & Sons manufactures pianos in two factories worldwide – in Long Island City, N.Y., and Hamburg, Germany – hence, the names of the pianos. The D model is a 9-foot concert grand piano. Each Steinway D is built by hand in a yearlong process that combines some 12,000 parts, Tsong said.

No one knows how many U.S. institutions are lucky enough to have both D models. Tsong knows of one other in North Carolina, Davidson College. In central and eastern North Carolina, only UNC has the distinction, said Paul Hopper of Hopper Piano Co. in Raleigh, which handled the purchase of UNC’s Hamburg. The last time Hopper sold a Hamburg was 20 years ago; that was for a private home.

Sally Covelisky, Steinway’s director of institutional sales, said that most U.S. colleges and universities have New York Steinways, but only a few – most of them music conservatories – are able to supplement those by adding Hamburgs. Among them are the Juilliard School and the Mannes College of Music in New York City, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio and the Yale University School of Music. "This is a very special thing for you," Covelisky said.

The cost of a Hamburg D varies with exchange rates, she said, but it is considerably more expensive than a New York D, which retails for about $99,900.

The gift of the piano counts toward the university's Carolina First Campaign goal of $2 billion. Carolina First is a comprehensive, multi-year, private fund-raising campaign to support Carolina's vision of becoming the nation's leading public university.

Leading the new fund-raising campaign for Memorial will be UNC alumnus Jim Heavner of Chapel Hill, president and chief executive officer of the media company VilCom, and Barbara Lee of Chapel Hill and Aspen, Colo., president of Point Made Inc., an Atlanta-based event and video production company. Lee is vice chair of the Carolina Performing Arts Society.

Heavner and his wife, Pam, led the campaign that raised more than $5 million in private donations toward the recent $18 million renovation of Memorial. The 1931 building reopened in September with a 2005-2006 series of concerts by top artists as diverse as Itzak Perlman, Youssou N’Dour and Bonnie Raitt.

"The acquiring of a Hamburg Steinway in our beautiful, newly renovated Memorial Hall puts us on par with major concert halls across the globe," Tsong said. "It speaks of our commitment to attract the best talent worldwide in our quest to attain the highest level of artistry in music-making."

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Photo URL: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/obj/piano_1.JPG

Note: Media representatives are invited to cover the event. Limited media parking will be available on a first-come, first-served basis in the Hanes visitor lot at the east side of Memorial. The hall is on Cameron Avenue just west of and across the street from the Old Well.

For more information, visit http://www.steinway.com/steinway/specs.shtml

Memorial Hall contacts: Emil Kang, (919) 843-7775, emil_kang@unc.edu;
Priscilla Bratcher, (919) 843-3307, priscilla_bratcher@unc.edu
News Services contacts: Print, L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589; broadcast, Karen Moon, (919) 962-8595