ORANGE COUNTY CHAPTER
February Meeting:
Date: Mon. 2/24/2025
Time: 6:30 pm-Food
7:00 pm-Program
Location: Kim’s Piano
10200
Beach Blvd.
Stanton, CA 90680
For our January meeting, we met at Kim's Piano in Stanton to hear Torben
Garlin, the concert technician from Bechstein, Germany. It was the usual joint
meeting all day with all southern California chapters invited.
Although I
have gone to concert piano prep classes many times, I still learn new techniques
that are applicable to all pianos. Torben was delightful and very clear with a
good sense of humor. I didn't know that Bechstein makes their own hammers. From
the pictures he had on the screen, they looked much closer to the original
Steinway (old grand piano) hammers with much smaller felt in the high treble.
Torben also demonstrated "up voicing" - needling up from the bottom of the
hammer to increase the brightness. I saw him a few days later at NAMM, and he
described his method to me again. If I was 30 years younger I would learn from
him at the technical classes that Bechstein offers. A truly wonderful day - not
only the program but to meet with many PTG friends.
In February we will
be at Kim's in Stanton again on the 24th. Don Mannino will give
a talk on, as he describes it, "An overview of tuning; and it will be adjusted
according to who comes. He will talk about the temperament he uses (even with
Cybertuner!), deciding on octave stretch, unison tuning, and stability."
For food and a quick business meeting, please come at 6:30 pm so we can start
the technical program at 7:00.