Daily Archives: April 8, 2015

Handmade instrument donated to Black Hills State

Posted by MaryO on

steinway-new

A Steinway Model-B is the new addition to Black Hills State’s Meier Recital Hall.

The nearly $100,000 piano was fully funded by donations, including Rachel Headley, the Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics liaison to Academic Affairs at BHSU.

The university donors purchased the 7-foot handmade instrument from Black Hills Piano Gallery in Rapid City.

Gallery owner Tony Thomas believes the Meier Recital Hall is the perfect home for a Steinway.

“That hall cries for the best possible sound,” he said. “The Meier Hall is just a wonderful hall and they have a great faculty to provide good instruction to the students there.”

Thomas, a musician himself, understands the decision of purchasing a top-of-the-line instrument.

“Anytime you have a good hall that provides that kind of acoustics, Steinway is the choice of 98 percent of concert artists on stage. That’s the sound that they want to hear. You can head all of the textures of tunes, it’s beautiful.”

Black hills state received the handcrafted piano Monday afternoon, with an unveiling ceremony planned for that evening.

via Handmade instrument donated to Black Hills State | KOTATV.com Rapid City, Black Hills, So Dak. Gillette Sheridan KOTA Territory News.

April 8 ~ Today in Music History

Posted by MaryO on

today

 

Buddha’s Birthday

. 1848 ~ Gaetano Donizetti (born in 1797), died in Bergamo. He was an Italian composer.

. 1889 ~ Sir Adrian Boult, British conductor. In 1918 Gustav Holst asked him to conduct the first performance of “The Planets.”

. 1922 ~ Carmen McRae, Singer

. 1923 ~ Franco Corelli, Italian tenor, debut: Spoleto (Italy) as Don Jose in Bizet’s Carmen in 1951; in films: Great Moments in Opera, Franco Corelli in Tosca, The Great Tenors – Voice of Firestone Classic Performances

. 1929 ~ Jacques Brel, Belgian-born French singer and songwriter

. 1941 ~ Peggy Lennon, Singer with The Lennon Sisters

. 1950 ~ Vaslav Nijinsky, legendary Russian ballet dancer, died. He is generally regarded as the 20th century’s greatest male dancer.

. 1963 ~ Julian Lennon, Singer, son of John and Cynthia Lennon

. 1968 ~ The Beatles went gold again, receiving a gold record for the single, Lady Madonna.

. 1971 ~ Chicago became the first rock group to play Carnegie Hall in New York City.

. 1986 ~ It took 18 years of singing the U.S. national anthem, but on this day, at long last, baritone Robert Merrill of the Metropolitan Opera became the first person to both sing the anthem and throw out the first ball at Yankee Stadium for the Yanks home opener.

. 2001 ~ Van Stephenson, a hit Nashville songwriter who also earned onstage success as a member of the trio BlackHawk, died after suffering from cancer at the age of 47. Stephenson released two albums as a solo pop artist in the 1980s, and scored the hit Modern Day Delilah in 1984. Moving back to Nashville from Los Angeles, Stephenson partnered with songwriter Dave Robbins to write a string of hits for Restless Heart, Dan Seals, and others. Stephenson and Robbins teamed up with former Outlaws singer Henry Paul at the suggestion of record executive Tim DuBois. The trio has had a string of hits since 1993, including Goodbye Says it All and Down in Flames.