C urator's C orner
October 14, 2011 ~ Benifit Concert
Friday, October 14 2011 at 7:30pm
The Church of St. Mary Magdalene
137 Robinson St, Napanee
(directly across the street from the museum)Featured artists will be pianist Cecilia Ignatieff and oboist Anke Carrington.
The program, entitled "A taste of Europe in Napanee", includes music from Denmark, Germany, Austria, France and Spain. Cecilia Ignatieff will play on a recently restored Nordheimer Grand piano of 1902, one of the oldest known Heintzman pianos, from 1858, and a recently restored square piano from 1777 - one of the oldest playable pianos in Canada. Anke Carrington will play an oboe concerto by Bach and a piece by Schumann on the oboe d'amore.
There will be a reception following the concert.
The proceeds from the concert will go toward the Canadian Piano Museum.
November 4, 2009 ~ Article In The Whig Standard
The Canadian Piano Museum is delighted to have been featured in the Kingston Whig Standard. Read the article here.
November 3, 2009 ~ More Instruments Arrive
Another truckload of pianos and related articles has just arrived from Alberta. These include two pianos made in the late 1800’s in the piano factory in Kingston, an early organ by W. Bell of Guelph, some antique stools, player piano rolls, an interesting amplified reed organ, a modern electronic organ and more books and records. The pianos will go into the George Weber room which is slowly taking shape.
The museum will host a meeting of the Canadian Association of Piano Technicians on November 14. An official opening will take place shortly after that.
October 30, 2009 ~ Edison's Concrete Piano
On October 9th, the Canadian Piano Museum took center stage as film crews from The Discovery Channel and Windswept productions gathered in our garage to witness Judy Wearing, author of Edison’s Concrete Piano, cover one of our 'more expendable' weber pianos in concrete! The experiment was featured on CBC Radio, on October 15th. Wearing's book will be available this November and you can find more information at www.concretepiano.com The Napanee Guide published an article about the spectacle which you can read here. They have also promised an article about the museum within the next few weeks. Video will also be available on YouTube in the coming weeks, thanks to Doug Knutson of Windswept Productions. Information about the Discovery Channel Coverage should be available soon.
August 20, 2009 ~ Moving In
Thanks to the help from my wife Margaret and sons Bob and Christopher, the new home of the Canadian Piano Museum is taking shape. We now have 18 pianos and organs in the Stevenson House and with the shipment of 10 more from Alberta in a few weeks, we hope to be open for viewing by the end of September. A few friends who have entered the chaos of our setting up, have been most impressed with the old house and with the Heintzman transposer piano. The stories linked with the other instruments will impress everyone when they hear them. We now have enough instruments to illustrate the evolution of the piano. Next, we have to set up a collection of locally made instruments.
We do not at this time have charitable status, but any contributions to help out with the cost of transportation would be most welcome.