Students and faculty in the UK College of Fine Arts School of Music are now tickling the ivories of 18 new Yamaha pianos. And these aren’t just any old instruments. Their names alone sound more like an instrument used on a spaceship than in a concert hall.
Included in the piano acquisition are two AvantGrand N3 hybrid pianos, two T118 47” acoustic upright studio pianos, three T 121 48” acoustic upright studio pianos and 11 DC2E3 5’8” Disklavier conservatory grand pianos. With the arrival of these instruments, the School of Music has become the largest, single user of Disklavier performance reproducing pianos in academia anywhere in the world.
The Disklavier is a special acoustic piano fitted with a sophisticated system of sensors that records every aspect of a performance, including pitch, dynamics, phrasing and pedaling. The performance information can be stored on a hard drive and recalled for a later performance. The latest model of Disklaviers can be connected to one another via the Internet. Once connected, the performance information can be transmitted from one instrument to the others – and be immediately reproduced with perfect precision, even on the other side of the globe.
These are some high tech pianos! To read more about this new fleet of grand instruments, click here.
And, if this gets you in the mood to enjoy some good music, don’t forget that UK Opera Theatre is holding the 20th anniversary “It’s a Grand Night for Singing” from June 8-10 and 15-17 at Singletary Center for the Arts. Who knows, one of these new pianos may make a cameo!
*Compiled from material written by UK PR and Marketing.
George Litterst, of Yamaha, demonstrated how the Yamaha Disklavier could record to a thumbdrive and then play back on its own. Everett McCorvey, director of UK Opera Theatre, watched the piano as it recorded Litterst’s performance.
