Lincoln's new Grand Piano an important tool for music students

A Kawai grand piano purchased by Blackfoot Pathways: Sculpture in the Wild and intended for the use of the community and the park has taken up residence at the Methodist church.

BPSW President Becky Garland said the park decided to put rental costs to good use by purchasing a fine instrument that could be used by Lincoln School students as well as by the sculpture park and the community at large.

Garland said pianist Phil Aaberg, who was a featured artist in several of this year's BPSW concerts, encouraged the park board to make the purchase.

"The offer to house a community piano was given to us...during the concerts and café night fundraiser we met the goal," she said. "We just wrote the check."

Gilbert said she currently teaches about 20 piano students, all of whom stand to gain from exposure to such a quality instrument.

"It is a high-quality instrument. It changes their idea of how to play piano, how to layer sounds," said Lincoln Schools music teacher Melissa Gilbert, whose students stand to benefit. "One of my private students, I brought him down here just to play it. He goes 'this is so different.' It's like it's hard and easy to play at the same time.' What I think he was trying to explain is that you can layer your sound. I can bring out a topline or a baseline...quite easily, but the key can feel a little heavy. It can feel harder to play, but that little bit of extra weight helps in the overall sound."

Gilbert said the piano will help her music students fine tune their ears to a totally different level.

"The choir seemed to feel better supported when they were singing, they felt like they actually heard more sound," Gilbert said of students' reaction to the piano. "It wasn't an overbearing sound...this seems to just fill the sound much more evenly, which is better for performers."

It also lets them see how the instrument works.

"When I explain to my piano students how the insides of pianos work, it's very hard to look at that on an upright without taking the whole thing apart," she said. "Now they can become much more a part of the whole experience. They can see everything lifting inside, the lengths of strings."

"To the average listener, I think you're going to notice a difference," Gilbert said. "To a more advanced listener, they're going to be able to nit-pick it apart and hear so many different layers. Maybe it means more people will come to our high school concerts as well."

The piano made its debut during the BPSW 2018 artist residency and was utilized during the concert series honoring both the sculpture park's 5th anniversary and the Lincoln Community Hall centennial.

Garland said she imagines the Methodist church, where the piano is housed, will establish a set of user fees and rules, and come to an agreement with the school for student use.

"They'll do their piano recitals on it and they were so incredibly excited to know, 'we actually get to play on the [grand piano], its not just for professional musicians? We get to do it?' I'm like absolutely,'" Gilbert said of her students. "That's how you're going to understand what a good quality sound is. High school, we'll use it for their concerts, as well.'"

Kawai was founded in 1927 and has grown to become one the largest and best known musical instrument companies in the world.