Old World Craftsmanship /New World pianos

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Yury Feygin, owner of Amadeus Piano, shows off a Steinway piano on display at his business in Stamford, Conn., on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015. The piano company mainly deals with tuning, repairs, moving, storage, restoration and antique piano sales with locations in Westport and Long Island, NY.Photo: Jason Rearick

 

 

Yury Feygin likes playing with pianos — so much, in fact, that he occasionally forgets to eat and sleep.

Like his father, Mikhail, and grandfather, Semyon, Feygin is an expert at restoring, tuning and repairing antique pianos.

Feygin and his workers have built a first-of-its-kind double-decker storage system at their Lenox Avenue warehouse. They have stashed dozens of pianos in the racks, legs removed, filed side-by-side like massive dominos as they await restoration.

“Getting pianos off the ground isn’t a comfortable thing — you’ve got to worry about it falling when you’re handling it, but we have it down to a science,” said Feygin. “People were saying, my dad was saying, `Don’t do this, let me store your stuff.'”

Read more at http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/printpromotion/article/Russian-immigrant-brings-Old-World-craftsmanship-6083020.php

February 16 ~ Today in Music History

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. 1709 ~ Charles Avison, English composer during the Baroque and Classical periods. He was a church organist at St John The Baptist Church in Newcastle and at St. Nicholas’s Church.

. 1878 ~ Selim Palmgren, Finnish composer, pianist, and conductor

. 1866 ~ David Mannes, American violinist and conductor; founder of the Mannes College of music

. 1896 ~ Alexander Brailowsky, Pianist

. 1901 ~ Wayne King, ‘The Waltz King’, saxophonist and bandleader

. 1907 ~ Alec Wilder, American composer, arranger and songwriter

. 1910 ~ Albert Heinrich Zabel died.  He was a German composer and virtuoso harpist.

. 1916 ~ Bill Doggett, Musician

. 1918 ~ Patti Andrews (Patricia Marie Andrews), Lead singer with The Andrews Sisters

. 1935 ~ Sonny (Salvatore) Bono, Singer in the group Sonny and Cher. He later became mayor of Palm Springs, CA and a US Congressman

. 1938 ~ John Corigliano, American composer
More information about Corigliano

. 1939 ~ Herbie & Harold Kalin, Singers, The Kalin Twins

. 1942 ~ Shep Fields and his orchestra recorded Jersey Bounce on Bluebird Records.

. 1956 ~ James Ingram, Singer

. 1963 ~ The Beatles moved to the top of the British rock charts with Please, Please Me exactly one month after the record was released. It was the start of the Beatles domination of the British music charts, as well as the beginning of the British Invasion in America and elsewhere around the world.

. 1968 ~ Elvis Presley received a gold record for his sacred album of hymns, How< Great Thou Art. Despite his popularity in the pop music world, Elvis won only 3 Grammy Awards — one for this album, the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1970; then for He Touched Me in 1972. He did, however, receive over a dozen Grammy nominations.

. 2015 ~ Leslie Gore died.  She was an American singer. At the age of 16, in 1963, she recorded the pop hit “It’s My Party”, and followed it up with other hits including “Judy’s Turn to Cry” and “You Don’t Own Me”.