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Piano Recital Notifications

  • 1.  Piano Recital Notifications

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 11-06-2018 10:49
    Hi all-

    I've been wanting to ask a question about how you all deal with not getting appropriate notifications for important piano events, like solo piano faculty recitals, or guest pianist concerts, etc... especially when they happen on a Sunday.  You would think after 30+ years we shouldn't still have to learn of such events from a poster in the hallway.  @#$!  Our large ensemble events are managed by the Music Orgs office and they finally have an efficient system with proper staff and advance work orders.  Faculty or guest artist events are managed by the faculty person who hosts the event.  Of course it's not intentional and they always apologize when this happens, but it happens over and over again.  I wish I knew an effective solution.  Suppose I had plans to be out of town that Sunday, or suppose the hall is already booked by the time I find out so I can't properly prep the event etc...  the answer is always "Just do what you can, and it will be ok".   

    If someone doesn't have this problem any more please let me know how you solved it. 

    thanks,

    Dennis.  

    --
    Dennis Johnson, R.P.T.
    Piano Technician
    Music Dept.
    St. Olaf College


  • 2.  RE: Piano Recital Notifications

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 11-06-2018 11:32
    I haven't had that problem for years, for the simple reason that I have access to the recital hall schedule, and I look at it, scouring for events including piano. If they aren't obvious, I ask. And since the schedule is on line, and I have editing rights, I schedule tuning times. (When it was paper, I went in the office and sat down with the hall manager ahead of each semester, and checked in from time to time - it's helpful having master keys). 

    IOW, I don't wait for someone to tell me, I take the responsibility. It's not perfect, and there are occasionally things that slip through, but that is pretty rare (usually use of a piano for large ensemble, using the larger hall not under department aegis - but then the tech people there let me know there was a request for piano, asking when I want to tune). I also keep an eye out for posters and other publicity, just out of habit, and ask questions.

    There was a time I was bugged by the lack of responsibility of those in charge, but it finally occurred to me that piano tuning is nowhere near the center of their universe, and is always likely to be thought of at the last minute. It's not intentional, it's just normal, since learning the music, rehearsing, doing publicity, etc. are actually so much more important. So I became proactive, and dropped the angst and resentment. 






  • 3.  RE: Piano Recital Notifications

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 11-06-2018 11:43
    Well said, Fred.  This has always been a sore spot for me too.  

    Chris

    Christopher D. Purdy R.P.T.
    Registered Piano Technician
    School of Music, Ohio University
    Rm. 311, Robt. Glidden Hall
    Athens, OH  45701
    Office (740) 593-4230
    Cell    (740) 590-3842
    fax      (740) 593-1429
    http://www.ohiou.edu/music





  • 4.  RE: Piano Recital Notifications

    Posted 11-06-2018 11:55
    For my 33 years here at BU I instituted before all scheduling was online a Mon. thru Fri. 8am-10 am reservation in the Concert Hall for  work on the 5 Concert grands backstage.  Occasionally the Scheduling Office will request some of this time auditions etc but its rare. All students and Faculty have to complete an Event Requisition form well in advance of their recital this  covers all logistics related to their recital., reh. time, graduate level of student which determines   what their choice of pianos are, is there any prepared piano etc . Every Wednesday at 3pm Production staff meet, Piano tech, stage manager, scheduling office manager, and the ensembles manager and we go through every event upcoming for the next week in detail, and look ahead to events 2 and 3 weeks ahead to see if all paperwork is complete and trouble shoot any potential issues.

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    Martin Snow
    Boston MA
    617-543-1030
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: Piano Recital Notifications

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 11-06-2018 12:13

    Yeah, thanks... and as I think about it I should clarify it's typically a few particular individuals.  I do have access to the hall schedule, but not editing rights. We have one one person who does that for everyone. She will often let me know if something comes up unexpectedly, but I can't rely on that and with multiple events daily it's pretty hard to catch everything.  I believe the Martin may have identified the problem.  Our ensemble events are well-organized, but faculty events are managed by those faculty who are performing or hosting guests.  I get that we are just one more detail among hundreds for event managers, but I have a hard time understanding why a pianist would neglect to inform their technician of their own event.   I admit that no matter what we have always figured it out and made things work.  Maybe that is part of the reason nothing changes. 


    --
    Dennis Johnson, R.P.T.
    Piano Technician
    Music Dept.
    St. Olaf College





  • 6.  RE: Piano Recital Notifications

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 11-06-2018 11:51
    Fred is mostly right, and real-world, but something Dennis said sticks out:
    Our large ensemble events are managed by the Music Orgs office and they finally have an efficient system with proper staff and advance work orders.
    I'd offer a couple of suggestions:
    - If you don't already, know ALL the people in this office who might be tasked with entering events
    - If they do, in fact, have an 'efficient system', then they probably have some sort of check list.  If piano is requested, that should automatically generate a tuning notification/reminder.  That would especially be true if it's an outside event that would be responsible for paying for tuning, or any other unusual (non-standard pitch) requests.  

    If you know the people and they know you, it's less likely that it will be overlooked.

    ------------------------------
    David Skolnik [RPT]
    Hastings-on-Hudson NY
    914-231-7565
    ------------------------------



  • 7.  RE: Piano Recital Notifications

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 11-06-2018 12:57
    At the beginning of the year here, all faculty were informed at the first meeting that it is their responsibility to contact the piano technician as soon as they've scheduled a recital date to inform them (me) of the dates and any additional requirements (rehearsals, harpsichord or other historical instrument needed, etc). That has helped immensely, although I've found out that since we didn't explicitly state that the same expectations stood for student recitals, they of course didn't pass the message on to their students, and so I've had to scramble a bit in recent weeks to make sure pianos are tuned for student recitals (which I can find on the online scheduling system, but can't see if they require piano). Another email making sure faculty tell their students the rules was sent, so hopefully that cuts down on the scrambling on my part.

    I do wish there was a way to effectively discourage them from scheduling piano recitals on Sundays, though...

    ------------------------------
    Adam Schulte-Bukowinski, RPT
    Piano Technician
    Glenn Korff School of Music
    University of Nebraska at Lincoln
    ------------------------------



  • 8.  RE: Piano Recital Notifications

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 11-06-2018 13:26

    Saturday and Sunday recitals will always happen friend.  Knowing which one to tune is the twist, since we have 2 D's in our main recital hall.  Sometimes they tell me, and sometimes not. There is a favorite, so I always make that one true.  I come in almost every Saturday as my wife works all day and have boring time at home, so I come in, unless I wan't to pull weeds (NOT!).  If one of our D's needs to go next door to Koger (like Lied), we plan months in advance, thanks to the Dean and me. I love to country drive my SVT Focus, so it gives me a reason to go for a drive after I tune.  (Roads in NE are pretty boring, but we have nice twisty roads here!  OT!)

     

    We use the 25-Live scheduling app university wide which is very helpful to see what rooms are being used for events. There are always events that creep into the mix and I find out the day or two before something happens or not on 25-Live which pisses me off.  The ensemble/big  rooms are always booked out, so I can't always get to them. You know the drill.

     

    Most of the time, I have ample planning time, but not always. Some students just miss out on a perfect tuning.  There again, when 4-5 recitals happen in one day, I tune once either that morning or the day before. The rest of them get what they get. It has never been stated that I am to tune before every recital.  I won't do it anyway. As you know, Adam, in room 119 or Kimball, the pianos are tuned and cared for all the time, so I don't have a problem when I can't get to a junior/senior voice or saxophone recital on a Sunday.  If it is a doctoral piano recital, however, I do try to come in to tune. Usually  20-30 minute tidy is all I need for that. They're very stable.

     

     

    Best,

    Paul

     

     

     

     

     






  • 9.  RE: Piano Recital Notifications

    Posted 11-06-2018 15:21
    Fred is spot on. Oh, this group therapy sounds familiar! In my prior experience working under Alan Eder at CalArts, and now as “the buck stops here” piano technician at UCLA, we have the same problem.

    Some faculty and students are so conscientious! and some just “dump on you” at the last minute or don’t tell you at all! And the thing is, this is something college and university piano technicians really care about! We are conscientious people by and large.

    One thing which greatly reduced the “forgetting to let the piano technician know if pianos needed to be prepped for a performance” problem was, and I say, was:

    Our previous theater manager (UCLA hired a new one since—so now I’ll have to get him “trained”, Gently—) over our two main halls (Popper and Schoenberg)—

    —during the venue reservation process, this manager would ask the performer reserving the room, among other things, if they needed a piano—and if so, which one, etc.

    The reservation process would automatically spit out an email to me directly, if so. Not always that the information was complete, mind you, but the email at least gave me a headsup on that day and time!

    Then the old calendaring and scheduling software system—built on an old database—was abandoned. The emails stopped, and then, a new theater manager was hired. There is a slick calendaring system in place, sans the email notice to me about pianos being used.

    In reality, here at UCLA music, we have four performance venues at the school—which will soon expand to six!—a recording studio whose main recording room hosts small master classes, and an ensemble room where recitals are forever going on and on and on. The music school is desperate to add recital space because of recital calendar crowding, it is about to renovate and then add two additional venues, the large choir and orchestra ensemble rooms, for recital purposes.

    And I’ll be chasing it all down then still, to a large degree.

    One does one’s best! And until there is a train wreck of sorts, then—and only then—will it become an “important problem” to fix!

    Peace and patience

    Sean McLaughlin
    Lead Piano Technician
    UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music
    Los Angeles, CA.

    Sent from my iPhone




  • 10.  RE: Piano Recital Notifications

    Posted 11-06-2018 16:41
    So very early on in my now 33 years at BU I block booked in the  master schedule 8am  thru 10am Monday thru Friday for tuning and maintenance of the  5 concert grands   and h'schord backstage   Concert Hall, of course we don't always use all this time but its ours in the book. Once in a great while Scheduling Office will ask to use a portion of that time maybe for auditions or the like  but its rare. Every student or faculty member giving a recital  must fill out  an Event Requisition Form which has many pertinent questions about their recital, reh. time, keyboard needs, any prepared piano etc etc. We have 2 of the newer Steinway 9' pianos 2007 and 2011 which are reserved for Doctoral piano performance  students , Doctoral collaborative pianists and faculty, and special events Concerto
    competition etc Undergrads and Masters students have the choice of two older 9' Steinways one US one Hamburg, the 9' Baldwin  still is selected but not as often and we use it for lower priority events.
    In addition each of the 7 large  classrooms has a weekly reserved tuning slot in the schedule, as does a smaller performance venue.
    Every Wednesday at 3pm we have a production meeting  with piano tech., stage manager, scheduling office manager and ensemble manager where we go over in detail every event  in the upcoming week then look ahead to 2 and 3 weeks ahead to make sure all information has been received from those giving recitals and troubleshooting any issues.

    ------------------------------
    Martin Snow
    Boston MA
    617-543-1030
    ------------------------------



  • 11.  RE: Piano Recital Notifications

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 11-07-2018 06:16
    WHen I first started out at CalArts, 35 years ago, we had weekly
    production meetings, and I had to sign out time in the concert venues
    on a paper schedule felt in a notebook in the music office. Those
    practices were cumbersome and an imposition the time of all involved.

    Now most all of the production communication is by email and we use
    Google Docs for our calendar. Our concert venues are used for classes
    and rehearsals, but most of the time that is not regularly scheduled
    for those activities is "held" for piano servicing. (If someone else
    needs my time in one of the venues on a one-off basis, I almost always
    am able to accommodate their needs.)

    When people sign up for a concert time, they fill out an event check
    list. This provides vital information for the production crew, public
    affairs and yours truly. If the artist is using a piano (or pianos) or
    harpsichord, if they need a lid removed, or if they are planning to
    use extended techniques, they include that on the form, and I am
    notified. I still come in on weekends for concert work, but am looking
    to change that to only coming in to check pianos that are used more
    than once between Friday night and Sunday night. (Up 'til now, I have
    given the love to every instrument used in performance in the hours
    prior to their use.)

    In the few instances in which the production manager (who controls the
    use of our concert venues) has dropped the communication ball, I make
    sure that he and other key payers know about it. This applies equally
    to situations where a piano was requested, but not used (a waste of my
    precious time, and therefore an affront to all of the pianos that
    could have benefitted from a little love they consequently did not
    get); one was requested, but another was used (and therefore not
    serviced for the occasion), or; one was not requested (and therefore
    not serviced for the occasion), but used regardless.

    Alan

    On 11/6/18, Martin Snow via Piano Technicians Guild




  • 12.  RE: Piano Recital Notifications

    Posted 11-07-2018 08:40
    Fortunately, I am a contract tech and not salaried. I charge extra for last minute and Sunday tunings. Admin pays more attention to expenses than scheduling considerations. As someone mentioned before, I ask them to schedule a tuning when they hire the musicians. Poor planning on their part does not constitute an emergency on my part. It's only fair that I be compensated for being disregarded.

    ------------------------------
    Regards,

    Jon Page
    ------------------------------



  • 13.  RE: Piano Recital Notifications

    Posted 11-07-2018 09:12
    The quote by Jon  ''...Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency  for my schedule...'' has also been my mantra  for a long time.
    To  answer the complaint? of ''wishing that recitals were not scheduled on Sunday..'' is not a battle youre going to win, If we didn't  allow recitals on Sunday in prime student recital season in March and April  thru mid May  which typically in those months start at 12:00PM  and are scheduled at 2 hourly intervals until 8 or 10 pm the students would be here after Commencement. The students are only recital ready in this time period  after passing juries and memorizing repertoire.
    The Concert Hall is too prized a venue  to be sitting empty on Sundays.

    ------------------------------
    Martin Snow
    Boston MA
    617-543-1030
    ------------------------------



  • 14.  RE: Piano Recital Notifications

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 11-07-2018 10:55
    Like Fred, I used to go over the actual (physical) calendar and pencil myself in.  Now I can look at the Concert Office calendar on line and I have "permission" to schedule myself in there, so towards the beginning of each semester I do just that, all the way to the end of the semester.  Of course, things get added later in the semester, but since I'm on the schedule already, they have to check with me before taking my spot.  Usually we're able to work out another time.  

    For recitals I assume they'll need a piano, and there are ensembles that typically use a piano (jazz band).  Other ensembles need to tell me (orchestra, wind ensemble, etc.) because I don't automatically assume they'll use a piano.  Vocal groups need to tell me.  Out-of-the-ordinary requests need to be made explicitly (two pianos, harpsichord, weird tunings, prepared piano stuff) and this kind of thing more often than not slips the director's mind.  But gradually I'm impressing on certain people that they need to tell me.

    In the last year we've been having weekly or biweekly (every other week) meetings with department staff - myself, the audio technician, the concert office, and the department chair.  At first I thought this would be a waste of time, but it has been great for helping us all understand each others perspective and making the department run more smoothly.


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    Zeno Wood
    Brooklyn, NY
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