Hi, welcome to the first of many blog posts for Piano Dance. The purpose of these articles is to enhance your interest in the stories featured in my book, by providing more of the interesting “behind the scenes” information. If you have not yet read Piano Dance, I recommend reading the book before reading these […]

Hi, this is the second blog post giving background information about the stories in Piano Dance. Chapter 2 discussed learning piano tuning at North Bennet School, the Vendome fire, and the Boston Pops’ performance of Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man. While I was in piano tuning school, my hope was simply to be able […]

This article is about Alfred Nash Patterson, director of the Chorus Pro Musica (CPM) of Boston. He is the reason Serge Koussevitsky, director of the Boston Symphony, called CPM the best chorus he had ever heard. Mr. Patterson had a unique talent for working with a chorus to  create the greatest beauty of sound possible. […]

The chapter about flying pianos needs only videos to complete the story of how to have fun with pianos. There are a number of videos available from YouTube now, but lately I have not been able to find the original video of the first piano drop. If you find it, please send me a link. […]

Chapter 5 told some of the story of Barry, an exceptional tuner I worked with at the piano store in downtown Boston. I told of one incident when I followed up on a tuning by Barry at a radio studio. Another time that I got to follow up on one of Barry’s tunings was at […]

Chapter 6 told of Steinert Hall, an abandoned concert hall below street level in Boston, that I was able to explore in 1972. There are several videos now, so that you can get a sense of what it looks like. All of them have lighting, so it does not look near as spooky as the […]

Chapter 7 tells of tuning for Gladys Troupin, a fixture of the Boston music scene, and of her story of being engaged to George Gershwin at the time of his death. There is a new announcement put out by the Lenox Hotel about a tribute that was held for Gladys. Both the announcement and the […]

Chapter 8 talked about the experience of meeting Aaron Copland after hearing him conduct his composition, “Quiet City” at Tanglewood, on a summer evening. Tanglewood can be better appreciated by pictures than by verbal descriptions, so here is a LINK for seeing how beautiful a place it is.   People often would bring candelabras and […]

Arthur Fiedler was 80 years old when we performed with him in 1974 at Christmas at Pops with Arthur Fiedler. He lived only 5 years longer. Conducting three performances in two days would be a major feat for a much younger person. Here is a LINK to information about him. Also, here is a LINK […]

Chapter ten told the story of the bus ride to the Boston Common for a concert of American music during the summer of 1976. We had all met at Symphony Hall, the home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO). Symphony Hall was widely considered to be acoustically one the three best concert halls in the […]