7 minute read
Catskill Mountain Foundation Piano Performance Museum
By Joan Oldknow
In the small resort Village of Hunter, New York is very special museum that draws visitors from far and wide. The Piano Performance Museum at the Doctorow Center for the Arts in Hunter, NY, which opened in 2007 with the help of Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation, takes visitors back in time to places inhabited by internationally acclaimed composers who actually wrote their works and played on specially crafted pianos in the company of like-minded friends and family. Wellreceived compositions were fine-tuned and played often in their salons, and then in music halls for yet larger audiences to appreciate. Piano manufacturers were sought after by the ever-increasing stable of European composers of the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods. Such is the ambience of Catskill Mountain Foundation’s Piano Performance Museum.
Museum visitors can come in for a tour, hear a piano recital or perhaps sit down to one of the playable pianos. The collection includes early and modern keyboard instruments, from 200-yearold European pianos to American pianos built in the 19th or 20th centuries. With a clavichord, harpsichord, fortepianos and modern pianos, a unique collection of miniature pianos and tuning tools and repair kits, the museum provides visual, audio and educational programs documenting the musical history and technical development of the piano.
Residencies and Workshops at the Museum
Pam Weisberg, Catskill Mountain Foundation’s Director of Performing Arts, was very supportive of the Piano Performance Museum from the beginning. She made connections with artists who were interested in playing these early pianos and authentic replicas, and invited esteemed musicians to start workshops for younger artists, that incorporate pianos from the collection.
One of the more established workshops is the Academy of Fortepiano Performance, which recently wrapped up its seventh year. Founded by fortepianists Audrey Axinn, Maria Rose, and Yiheng Yang, the Academy welcomes pianists who have an interest in playing early instruments, and also offers an intensive study opportunity for experienced students of period performance practice. The Academy now also has a Technical Workshop, led by piano technicians Maki Masayuki and Richard Hester, for those aspiring to restore and repair older instruments.
Other residencies offer practice on the more modern pianos in the collection. Manhattan in the Mountains was started by musicians and professors at Manhattan School of Music Dr. Joanne Polk and Dr. Jeffrey Langford for modern piano students. Drs. Polk and Langford recently started a new workshop called Pianists in the Mountains, which will return next summer after a brief hiatus. The Hunter International Music Festival, which focuses on solo and chamber music training, is one of the newer residencies. These residencies continue annually and provide classes, lectures and performance opportunities for advanced students and artists.
Historic Pianos in the Collection
General interest in fortepianos is somewhat more established in Europe as that was where most of them originated, but modern pianos are still more prevalent. In the United States, interest in fortepianos plateaued for a while, but there is steady growth now. It is more common for conservatory students to study fortepiano as a supplement to their main studies, and a few of them get hooked. In addition, U.S. audiences are getting used to professional pianists playing on fortepianos in concert halls such as Carnegie Hall. From the clavichord, harpsichord, early pianos through the modern piano, these musical instruments have changed over the years. Earlier smaller pianos have a lighter sound and later larger pianos have a stronger and heavier sound, with many variations in tone, touch and volume. These are the challenges and opportunities facing early musicians today.
The piano collection includes a Muzio Clementi piano forte, an 1831 Geib with a cabinet built by the famous American cabinet maker Duncan Phyfe, a Chickering (ca. 1851), an 1865 Steinway Civil war Square Grand and a Chopin–era John Broadwood. The collection also includes a Boardman and Gray (ca. 1915) manufactured in Albany, New York, which was owned by jazz pianist Sir Roland Hanna, on loan to the museum by his wife Mrs. Ramona Hanna. More recent acquisitions include the Erard fortepiano (ca. 1825) and an original 1826 Graf fortepiano.
Leo Tolkin, the new docent at the Piano Performance Museum, studied cello at California Institute of the Arts and then viola da gamba in the Historical Performance department at Guildhall. Much of Tolkin’s performing experience has been playing chamber music with early music ensembles. Having played the piano for the past 20 years ago, it continues to be a source of great joy. Tolkin sees the piano as “an entire orchestra at one’s fingertips.” He says that the most interesting part of working at the museum is the wonderful various people who come in to visit the museum. Some are great musicians, while others are just all around interesting people. He is working on reaching out to schools and other groups in hopes of facilitating larger groups to visit. Tolkin also wants to increase museum attendance through a larger social media presence, sharing all that the museum has to offer.
The Steven E. Greenstein Piano Collection
The Piano Performance Museum is home to the Steven E. Greenstein Piano Collection. Until the time of his death in November 2023, Greenstein was the museum’s curator. As a tuner and restorer of early pianos, he had a vast array of pianos in his home and workshop. His knowledge and love of these pianos extended far beyond the piano museum. As President of the New York Piano Technicians Guild and as curator of the CMF Piano Performance Museum, Steven worked with other technicians to restore the pianos in the collection for use in concerts and demonstrations by guest artists, students and the general public. The collection lives on in his name with the gratitude and respect of the Catskill Mountain Foundation for his visionary collecting, expertise in piano restoration and maintenance and dedication to the goals of the museum which he established.
Piano technician Ray Johnson remembered his friend and colleague Steven Greenstein recently. Johnson first met Greenstein in 1996 when Johnson apprenticed under Greenstein. They tuned pianos together for various clients and challenged each other with their different perspectives on things like the strength of the repetition spring on a grand piano or the thickness of the glue they were using. In the early 2000’s, Johnson was tuning Yamaha and Steinway pianos brought to the Hunter Inn for the Amati Festival. They were good pianos but terribly neglected. Even after hours of tuning, they could not hold a tune by the next day. Students practiced on those pianos daily and had nothing to show for it. In 2010, the Amati Festival moved to Catskill Mountain Foundation and brought Steinway pianos to the Mountain Top. In the same way, they were good pianos that had been neglected. Students had to wait for the pianos to be serviced before they could even begin to practice. Greenstein remedied the situation by locating well-refurbished Yamaha upright pianos that were purchased by the foundation and stored on the premises yearround. These pre-owned pianos have been remarkably stable from one year to the next, and they need very little to be done to them. Johnson said that Greenstein left a wonderful legacy and was an inspiration to him.
The Steven E. Greenstein Memorial Concert
The Catskill Mountain Foundation will celebrate the memory of Steven E. Greenstein at a concert on Saturday, September 7 at 2:00 pm in the Doctorow Center for the Arts. Faculty and students of the Academy of Fortepiano Performance, the pianist and musicologist duo of Joanne Polk and Jeffrey Langford, and jazz pianist Jamie Saft will perform on pianos from the collection. Tickets are available at catskillmtn.org.
More Information
The Piano Performance Museum is located in the Doctorow Center for the Arts, located at 7971 Main Street, Hunter, NY 12442. It is open Fridays and Saturdays from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. For more information, visit catskillmtn.org.
