Ever Seen a Green Piano?

[kirbytradition7]

Hi all!

I moved up here to Calgary to start my postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Calgary in September 2012 (after finishing my PhD in craniofacial embryology at UC San Francisco).

When I moved into my downtown high-rise apartment block here, I started looking for a good used upright piano (I am a lifelong classical pianist). No keyboard or digital piano would do the trick--I grew up playing the real thing from my early childhood (a miracle, considering I have no ears).

My supervising professor at the medical school connected me with a friend of his who is a professional piano restorer and refinisher. This guy and I located a 1962 vintage Heintzmann upright (conservatory size model, or upright grand) piano that had once been in the Calgary school system. This piano, despite its school history, was in very good shape inside and out, and played beautifully.

I mentioned to him my dream of having a green (!) piano, so he set to work over the next 9 months taking it apart and working out how to get it to stain green beautifully. He used my green violin as inspiration for Since it was made of walnut (a dark wood), it would be impossible to stain green to properly show up green. So he had to replace some parts with maple (a lighter wood), and veneer the large panels in bird's-eye maple. He had to figure it all out as he went along. He finally got the right shade of translucent green stain that allowed the bird's-eye maple to "pop" visually through the green stain. He had a friend of his, an airbrush artist, paint a beautiful portrait of my green violin on the front of the piano. It was all finished in a high gloss finish.

The finished product was delivered Saturday morning. Beautiful!

Here are some photos (which, IMHO, don't do justice to it): (Taken with my Fuji Finepix S1800)

 

[kirbytradition7]

2nd photo of green piano

There is a typo in the original post; I meant to say that he used my green violin for inspiration for the stain on the piano.

I actually do own a green violin.

2nd photo of green piano:

 

[petek]

Nice job. I'd guess that every kindergarten classroom let alone school in Canada had a Heintzman piano or two or three in it back in my day. Mine did as did the school my mom taught at.
Have you been to the Canto's Music Museum on 11th Ave yet.. or Irene Besse's store

One thing I always enjoyed was the free lunchtime organ recitals at the Jack Singer Hall during the summer. When they organ competitions were being held they some of the most renown organists in the world playing

 

[kirbytradition7]

Irene Besse Keyboards store in Calgary closed now

Petek,

Shortly after I moved to Calgary, I found Irene Besse's store. I visited several times and enjoyed playing the grand pianos (especially the Faziolis and Steinways) in the showroom. At that time, the store was clearing out its inventory as it was closing.

I saw a few odd-looking grand pianos there too: One looked like a flying saucer, another resembled a red speedboat, and a third resembled a space shuttle (with wings, tail, and landing gear).

The store closed not too long afterwards; I heard Irene Besse retired.

But I have not yet visited the Canto music store. I plan to though!

kirbytradition7

 

[petek]

Irene Besse closed... what a shame but then there really isn't the market for home piano and even less organs anymore. The last remaining piano/organ store here in Sarnia is set to close in a couple of months as well. When we lived in Calgary the first time I went to Irene Besse I got talking to her and there was something about her that seemed familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it where I'd seen her before. I mentioned something about harpsichords and how I'd seen them for sale at the old Bon Marche downtown Seattle. Turns out she used to be a saleslady at that store. Odd too that those Sabathil harpsichords they were selling were made in Vancouver BC by Sabathil & Son on Hamilton Street in an old building that overlooked where I worked, never would have known about them. They're gone now as well.

My first apartment in Calgary before we bought our house was at Hull Estates on the corner of 6th & 12 Ave SW.. you anywhere near there.

 

[sebo_fan]

Not really sure what to make of that, but then Im still on the fence where blue clarinets are concerned too.

 

[kirbytradition7]

I live in downtown Calgary

Petek,

My high-rise apartment building is on 4th Ave. SW downtown, between 7th and 8th Streets SW.

Speaking of harpsichords, I had the opportunity to play several of them at a store in central London, England, that sold reproduction harpsichords, Renaissance recorders, and other instruments from that period. (I lived in London as a student at King's College London, 2004-2007.)

Sebo_fan,

Besides this green piano, I own a green violin that I bought in London in 2005 (and taught myself to play). I have seen other green pianos, multiple other colours of pianos, multiple colours of violins, green trumpets and other brass instruments, and even green saxophones. There are even plastic coloured trombones called pBones. Musical instruments come in ALL colours now.

However, it is strangely difficult to find a decent quality green acoustic guitar--most of the ones I've seen are cheapo Chinese green guitars on eBay. However Gretsch had a series of coloured jumbo acoustic Rancher guitars called the Sweet 16 Ranchers. I had the two-tone anniversary green model in that series for a while. Regrettably I sold it to make ends meet (as a San Francisco PhD-level graduate student, I was broke). I miss that one--it is VERY RARE.

kirbytradition7

 

[nycwriter]

That piano ...

... is fabulous!

 

[motojoejo]

I've been in the piano business for 12 years and never seen one like that but its pretty sweet! Baldwin came out with some wild art case uprights before they went belly up. you should check those out.

 

[petek]

How are you doing with all the flooding there in Calgary?

 

[kirbytradition7]

Flooding in Calgary

I live in downtown Calgary, where a lot of the flooding occurred around the Bow River.

I evacuated my downtown high-rise apartment building on Friday morning and stayed with my supervising professor's parents until yesterday, when downtown was finally starting to open up. (I am a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Calgary medical centre.) Since I use CPAP (due to sleep apnea because of my craniofacial anomalies), I was advised to stay somewhere outside of downtown in case power went out. Downtown was mostly closed to traffic due to damage, road closures, and reconstruction/cleanup.

I returned home yesterday. My building was fine (no damage), and I was happy to get back to my 11th-floor apartment (and happy to see my green piano again).

kirbytradition7