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| Tony Magee, pianist, performer, music educator, piano tuner and retailer at a Yamaha C6 piano at DW Music, Fyshwick ACT |
by Philip O’Brien
Canberrans have always had a special relationship with the piano. In fact there’s long been a feeling that there are more pianos sold in this city than anywhere else in Australia. Yet it wasn’t until recently that this was confirmed.
The Yamaha Music Australia annual national conference , held in Melbourne in July, concluded with the announcement of the national dealer sales awards for 2009-2010.
Canberra retailer Davis Wheeler Music [Ed: now DW Music] won awards for the highest piano sales in Australia, for both acoustic (upright and grand) as well as digital pianos.
Considering the size of Canberra’s population, relative to other capital cities, it’s a remarkable achievement.
And it can be explained by reasons relating to Canberra’s history and development: an interest from its earliest days, in culture and the arts; higher average incomes than other cities; excellent standards of musical education in Canberra’s schools; and the fact that a proportion of the city’s population turns over each year. As a related phenomenon, there’s also the emergence of Canberra as a focal point for heritage keyboard instruments, research and performance. But more of that later.
Davis Wheeler Music’s Tony Magee says, “For Canberra to have embraced the piano with such continued enthusiasm, outselling large cities such as Sydney or Melbourne, is a reflection of how culturally aware people are here.”
Magee, also an event producer, agent and pianist, has accompanied performers including Toni Lamond, Gery Scott, Stephen Pike, Ian Croker, Bronwyn Sullivan and Geraldine Turner as well as being engaged as supporting artist to Shirley MacLaine and Dionne Warwick. “As a pianist myself, it gratifies me that traditional artistic values - such as the place of the piano in the life of the city - rate so high in Canberra.”
Davis Wheeler, one of a number of piano retailers in Canberra, has been established for ten years and principally sells Yamaha pianos as well as a range of other instruments. Magee says that new upright pianos cost between $4500 and $18,000 while new grands range from $13,000 to $350,000. “Even for the cheapest instrument, that’s a big investment and it represents a serious commitment to music.”
But why are more pianos sold in Canberra than in any other Australian city? One reason may be the significant role of music in the development of Canberra. “Right from the late 1920s, music was an important way of helping Canberrans settle in this city and enjoy themselves,” Magee says. “From dances at the Albert Hall to classical concerts and live jazz, music has been a civilising influence and the piano has been a key part of that.”
Allied with a strong interest in the arts and music is the fact that Canberra enjoys the highest average income per capita in Australia. “Canberra is a well-educated city with a cultural and intellectual life that sets it apart from any other city in Australia,” Dr Geoffrey Lancaster, of the ANU School of Music’s Keyboard Institute, says. “It’s also a city with more income to spend on concert going and music.”
And that also means piano purchases.
Another reason is that Canberra has a shifting population, with each year bringing new arrivals and potential customers of music and culture. One interesting pointer to this is the number of pianos moved in and out of the city each year.
Peter and Mataina Rowzoski, of local piano firm Beethoven Piano Removals, estimate that they shift some 1500 pianos annually, ranging from upright pianos weighing 110 to 150kg to grand pianos weighing 180 to 400kg. Their busiest time is Christmas and the New Year with many of these deliveries being new and second-hand pianos purchased by Canberra families and schools.
In fact, the role of Canberra’s education system also explains the importance of the piano in this city, Magee says, who was previously also a high school music teacher and now sells and tunes pianos in local schools. “So many Canberra schools have flourishing music departments. There’s an enormous enthusiasm for music education here. Some schools also have private piano tuition as part of their curriculum. And parents are supporting that with private piano purchases.”
There’s also a large number of private piano teachers in Canberra.
Christine Faron, a performer and recording artist with national and international experience, teaches from her studio in Aranda. “Half of my students are adults who are learning for their own enjoyment.” she says, “Whether professionals with stressful jobs who want something for relaxation of retirees who have always wanted to take up the piano but never had the opportunity until now.”
One of her students is Robin Bedding, 70, semi-retired from a career with CSIRO entomology. He has had an interest in music all his life and, when he left full-time work, purchased a grand piano and came to Faron for lessons. “There might be physical activities I can’t do any more. but the piano keeps me mentally agile,” he says. “It’s an opportunity for me to do something better than I’ve ever done. Apart from family, the piano is the most important thing in my life.”
The role of the Canberra School of Music in fostering the development of piano scholarship and performance in this city is also crucial, including the influence of teachers such as Lancaster, Wilfrid Holland and Larry Sitsky. What’s interesting is that Canberra has also become a focal point for historical keyboard instruments.
This follows the establishment of the ANU Keyboard Institute in 2004 at the School of Music, providing an Australian Centre for research into historical keyboard performance and Australian composition for piano.
Lancaster - teacher, performer and early music specialist - says that the Keyboard Institute collection is Australia’s largest working resource of historical keyboard instruments. “Already, we have 32 historical pianos, including the first piano to come out to Australia on the flagship Sirius, with a further 900 historic keyboard instruments offered to us from all over Australia.”
Many of these historic instruments have come to Lancaster from private enthusiasts, such as a piano restorer, Andrew Nolan. Recently relocated to Canberra, Nolan is, by day, a medical practitioner with Directions ACT, a drug, alcohol, support and counselling service. His piano restoring takes a lot of his spare time. “I’m interested in pianos mostly from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, hand-made from before the Industrial Revolution.” he says. “I think it’s important these instruments are kept together, preserved and used for further education, rather than dispersed as home decor pieces.”
His work involves replacing perishable parts, such as cloth and worm eaten timber, as well as making new parts for the workings of an instrument. “It’s interesting that the pianos I repair were regarded, 200 years ago, in the same matter-of-fact way as the upright pianos in family homes today.”
But those family uprights still require regular tuning. Despite the large number of piano sales in Canberra, there are only a handful of piano tuners to match. And it’s a national shortage, according to local craftsman Geoff Pogson, whose family has been tuning pianos for four generations.
“Most piano tuners are older and not being replaced by a new generation.” he says. “Canberra has five fewer tuners than a decade ago but many more pianos to service. Our guild for NSW and the ACT has 70 members of whom only 10 are under the age of 40.”
Pogson, whose grandfather Les also played piano in dance bands at the Albert Hall in the 1930s and 40s, says that the main problem is the absence of training facilities. “There’s nowhere to study piano tuning. The Sydney Conservatorium dropped its course last year.” And it’s been made worse he says, by the Federal Government reducing the number of occupations - including piano tuners - given assisted entry into Australia via the skilled migration program.
Despite this, the healthy sales of pianos in Canberra continue. “A lot of our acoustic piano sales are to families with children wanting to learn.” Magee says. “And it often happens that, when the piano gets into the household, the parents want to learn as well. So the piano becomes a very family focussed thing, something that everyone can enjoy.”
First published in The Canberra Times Panorama section, October 30, 2010
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