East High Fine Arts Department receives gift of a pianoEast High Fine Arts Department receives gift of a piano

The Fine Arts Department of East Aurora High School has a new piano.

The piano comes to the high school courtesy of the Piano Technicians Guild (PTG), who touts their organization as the world’s premier source of expertise in piano service and technology.

The Guild made the gift of a reconditioned piano to East High this April, through their Chicago chapter. The chapter has a unique program that allows both their new and seasoned PTG members to work together. As a part of the program, an associate member works on a donated piano with a more experienced Registered Piano Technician (RPT).

Since January of 2019, Jim Reilly, RPT and Mike Pavlis, Associate Member, worked on a 5’2” Young Chang piano that was donated to the chapter. The piano has been tuned and the action regulated for optimal playing condition.

The new piano will have a permanent home in the choir room at East High, where it replaces a Wurlitzer grand piano purchased in the 1960’s, when the previous choir room was built. That piano was in need of thousands of dollars’ worth of repairs, much more than the piano was worth.

For now, the new piano will also be used for concerts, until the auditorium piano undergoes significant refurbishing.

“The new piano is a more appropriate size for the choir room and will hold its tuning much better, helping students to more accurately hear their parts,” said James Stellmacher, choir director at East High.

“The action and tone of the piano are outstanding, much better than the piano we were using previously, and a major upgrade in just about every way,” said Stellmacher.

Stellmacher believes that when students see a beautiful piano that fits in the high school’s appealing new choir classroom, it will help reaffirm for them the program’s commitment to students and their musical education.

The Piano Technicians Guild was happy to donate the piano to East High.

“It is with great pride and pleasure that the PTG passes the finished piano along to the school, its final home,” said Debbie De Iorio, a Registered Piano Technician (RPT) and president of the Chicago Chapter of the Piano Technicians Guild.

“We hope it will provide many years of enjoyment and teaching opportunities at East Aurora High School.”