Jacobs School of Music makes 10 sound investments

The fingers of some of the finest piano students have new reason to tickle the ivories: The Jacobs School of Music has added 10 new Steinway & Sons pianos to its collection. Unlike years past, these pianos are not on loan but were purchased after the school's loan plan with Meridian Music fell through in July.\nStephen Shaver, the school's supervisor of piano technology, oversees the maintenance of nearly 500 pianos and works daily with Steinways and pianos from other manufacturers. When the school was looking into purchasing new pianos, however, Steinway was the brand Shaver felt most confident with.\n"It's a good investment because Steinways hold their value. These pianos will serve the school for the next 50 years," he said.\nPerhaps this helped justify the price tags of $54,200 per piano to School of Music administrators who ultimately made the decision to purchase the lot about a month before classes began. The school received a discount but still spent more than $400,000 for the lot. A budget surplus from the 2005-06 school year helped the piano fund but did not entirely cover the large expense. \nBecause the School of Music owns the pianos, access to them is limited to graduate and higher-level piano students. Second-year graduate student Timothy Kwok said he prefers the new Steinways to the Yamahas from Meridian Music, citing the "lighter keys."\n"The Yamahas were so annoying. The depth was different; you needed more energy," he said. The Steinways help with creative elements such as dynamics, he added.\nSome students, however, look past the famous brand and see the hassles of new pianos in general.\n"Maybe in three months it will sound better," said Lau Wing, a first-year graduate student studying piano. "Just like when you wake up, it's hard to speak. The pianos are still new."\nMany of the pianos are kept locked in practice rooms on the second floor of the Music Building Addition. Those who are lucky enough to have keys to the rooms must, like always, sign a contract saying they won't place things on the piano lids, have food or drink in the room, or let others who are not permitted use the pianos. What is new in this contract is the student's financial responsibility if the pianos are damaged: If one person is responsible, he or she can pay up to $5,000 for repair fees. However, if no suspect emerges everyone in the program splits the repair fee.\nShaver said the program does this in an effort to make students feel responsible for the pianos as if they were their own.\n"You'd be amazed how people who live their lives around pianos, how abusive they are to them," Shaver said.