A meeting of the Long Island Nassau Chapter, PTG was held on September 14, 2010, at Frank and Camille’s Keyboard Center located on Route 110 in Melville, NY. Five chapter members attended.

The meeting was called to order at 7:10 PM by Vice-President Paul Eccardt. President Michael Slavin was not present at the meeting.

Minutes for the May 4, 2010 meeting were accepted as read. There weren’t any minutes for the June meeting.

The treasurer didn’t have anything new to report.

Vice-President Eccardt reported that Webb Phillips passed away on August 12, 2010. The chapter secretary was asked to send a sympathy card to Ruth Phillips on behalf of the chapter.

Paul Keogler of the program committee reported that a representative from Pianotek Supply Company is scheduled to be our guest speaker for the November meeting. For the April 2011 meeting, a representative from Wessell, Nickel, & Gross is scheduled to give a presentation on their new action parts.

The business meeting ended at 7:24 PM.

Paul Keogler was the speaker for the evening. The subject of the presentation was the evolution of player and reproducing pianos. The presentation started with the mention of the traditional player piano on which performances were recorded on paper rolls. This type player piano is not being manufactured any longer since there isn’t any market for it. Now, instead of paper rolls, information needed to reproduce a performance is stored on a computer disk.

The evolution of player pianos continued with the development of electronically controlled systems for storing and reproducing music on acoustic pianos. In the late 1970’s, Marantz introduced the Pianocorder. Later a MIDI-controller was developed for use with the Pianocorder. In the 1980’s, various companies began developing newer technologies to store and reproduce piano performances. QRS introduced Pianomation, Yamaha introduced the Disklavier, and the Burgett brothers introduced PianoDisc in 1989. Baldwin, in a joint venture with QRS, introduced the ConcertMaster system for controlling playback on acoustic pianos. Systems developed by these companies were (and still are) available as retrofit kits or were factory-installed. Brief mention was made of the MIDI-controlled pneumatic system for piano, patented by H & K Automated Musical Creations Co. (Norman Heischober and Paul Keogler) in February, 1991.

The pros and cons of the various player systems were mentioned. Some systems became obsolete while other reproducing systems continued to evolve with improvements being made to keep up with advancements in technology and computers. Today, player pianos can be operated with a wireless remote control, can interface with the Internet, and interface with other electronic devices such as a laptop computer, an Apple iPod, or a DVD player.

The meeting ended at 8:15 PM

Respectfully submitted,
Allan N. Schumacker, RPT