A regular meeting of the Long Island Nassau Chapter, PTG was held on January 13, 2015, at Faust Harrison Pianos, 277 Walt Whitman Road (Route 110), Huntington Station, N.Y. Five members and one guest were in attendance.

The guest speaker for the evening was Alex Appel of the New York City Chapter, PTG, concert technician for Yamaha Artist Services and technician for the Metropolitan Opera. Alex’s topic was “Concert Work vs. Field Work.”

The meeting was called to order at 6:15 p.m. Alex began his presentation with a brief history of his employment in the piano industry, from factories in Europe to his work for the major piano retailers in New York, to his current status as concert technician. He amused the gathering with numerous stories and anecdotes about challenging concert situations he has encountered, many involving multiple pitch-corrections, tuning 2 or more pianos to each other as well as to other instruments, as well as the odd requests from demanding artists.

The discussion continued with a comparison of the freedom, flexibility, and personal discretion of serving a private clientele with the long-term in mind, as opposed to fulfilling the directives and instructions from manufacturers, pianists, and performance venues, often with tremendous time constraints, and the need to reverse any changes to the instruments for future use by other artists. Great emphasis was placed on trying to understand and interpret each player’s words and feelings, and the need for the technician himself to relate to the touch and response of a piano action.

Alex then presented an in-depth discussion and demonstration of the importance of key bedding, and its relationship to key dip and aftertouch. He explained how these factors can also affect the damper system and upstop rail adjustment. He continued with further analysis of action regulation, action weight, jack positioning, blow distance, and especially drop, in order to accommodate a musician’s style of playing and demand for response or power. The proper removal of a grand piano action was also addressed, so as to avoid damage to the leading edge of the keybed.

Alex concluded his discussion by demonstrating some clever and useful tools that he has discovered and keeps in his tool kit, and by always cleaning the piano with polish and a microfiber cloth to gain the customer’s appreciation.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 p.m.