The general meeting for this month will be held on Tuesday, May 4, 2010. Please note that this is the first Tuesday of the month, and not our usual meeting date of the second Tuesday.

We are invited to attend a special presentation by Don Mannino of Kawai on the evolution of the Kawai RX grand piano. This is a new technical program for 2010, which discusses the origins of the RX line in the earlier KG, in the Artisan Select grands, and in the Kawai R&D laboratory. Don will familiarize the audience with the technical features and improvements that have taken place in the years since these grands were first introduced, and will include some of our R&D laboratory films and other data to illustrate some of these changes over the years. He will touch on the Millennium-III action developments, and finally discuss the latest RX 'BLAK' series innovations. In addition to the general RX grand information, guidelines for action regulation and voicing of the RX series grand pianos will also be included with the program and regulation specifications will be supplied.

About Don Mannino:
Don began an apprenticeship with a piano rebuilder while completing his studies at San Diego State University as a piano performance major in 1979. After working as an independent piano technician in the San Diego area, he held the position of National Service Manager for Young Chang Pianos, then Manager of Technical Support for Kawai Pianos in the US and Canada, and now serves as the Director of Technical Training for Kawai and Shigeru Kawai Pianos. Don and his wife Patty are the editors of the Southern California Combined PTG newsletter. In addition to teaching at regional technician seminars, PTG Annual conventions, and at PTG chapter meetings, he also has designed technicians tools and has had articles on a variety of technical topics published in the Piano Technicians Journal, including Action Center service, a series on grand action regulation, and the use of plastics in piano actions. He recently was certified in Japan as a Kawai "Master Piano Artisan" (or MPA), the highest level of technician for the Kawai company. Don resides in Cypress, CA with his wife Patty, and their daughter Sarah is studying Aerospace Engineering at UCSD.