Submitted — A local church is celebrating an early Christmas present — a new grand piano that will enhance the concert capabilities of the venue.
After a number of years of fundraising, as well as searching for a suitable instrument, a new grand piano has been delivered, unpacked and set up at St. Saviour’s Anglican Pro-Cathedral.
Five years ago when Tobias Jenny became organist and music director at St Saviour’s, he introduced the church as a concert venue to many local musicians. The superior acoustics as well as the architectural beauty of this heritage church impressed these musicians, along with their audiences.
While the existing grand piano had a beautiful sound and worked well as a service instrument, it was not up to the demands of concert use. As this would restrict expansion of the venue for concert usage, Tobias, together with local pianist, Robert Hargreaves, spearheaded a fundraising effort to purchase a suitable replacement.
Since that time, four fundraising concerts were organized with all the concert revenue donated to the ‘Piano Fund.’ Many generous donations from individuals and groups were also received.
These efforts culminated this fall when the ideal grand piano, a 20-year-old Kawai was located in Edmonton. After confirmation of its mint condition, inside and out, by local piano technician Terry Halleran, it was decided that this opportunity could not be passed up despite the ‘Piano Fund’ being $4,000 short of the purchase price.
The old piano, a loaner, has since been generously donated with all sale proceeds to go towards the shortfall. In this regard, it is hoped that its eventual sale will raise $2,500.
It has been an impressive community effort to get to this point. All look forward to the new piano enhancing many future Nelson musical performances.