Centurion gets new life

For years the piano sat quietly in a corner of Bridge Hall at the Neighborhood Congregational Church, more adornment than instrument.

But last spring, composer and musician Steve Wood sat down before the old piano to practice before performing at a service that day in the sanctuary next door.

“I lifted the lid and saw the name Mason & Hamlin,” Wood said. “I was excited.” Wood had discovered “a battered diamond.”

The 103-year-old piano, a Mason & Hamlin Model A Grand, is considered to be the world’s best grand piano less than 6 feet. “It’s a really great American piano on a par with a Steinway,” Wood said.

The timing of Wood’s discovery was fortuitous as the church has been raising money to buy a new one. But once the veil of obscurity had been lifted, efforts have been redirected to instead restore the vintage Mason & Hamlin.

A concert to raise funds to restore the piano to its original glory will be at 8 p.m. Jan. 16 at 340 St. Anne’s Drive. Musicians Steve and Beth Wood and guitarist Eric Henderson will perform. There is a suggested donation of $15.

By spending the same amount of money it would cost to buy a new piano, the 1907 Mason & Hamlin can be refurbished, resulting in a far more valuable and superior instrument, according to Wood.

“For $16,000 you can find a decent 6-foot [piano] but it’s just what it is, dependable but not really great.”

In contrast, the century old Mason & Hamlin “was built by master craftsmen,” Wood said. “The variation in tone is much deeper. It can go from a whisper to a shout, not utilizing volume, but tone. A hundred years from now, a 100-year-old Yamaha is not going to elicit the same feeling as coming across a 100-year-old Mason & Hamlin. And how often do you stumble across something that’s 100 years old that can be as good as new?” Wood asked. “Everyone over 40 likes that.”

Just how the piano ended up at the church is a mystery. June Budd and her husband, Sonny, have been going to the Neighborhood Congregational Church for 51 years.

“It was given before we got there,” she said. “Who gave it and why it wasn’t recorded is beyond me. Anyone with knowledge is probably dead now.”

Budd, along with many others, is hopeful that someone in the community might know with whom the piano spent its first 50 years.

The Neighborhood Congregational Church’s piano committee has a team of experts poised to restore the centurion once the funds are raised.

First it will go to Emil Grakov, an Austrian who has been restoring pianos for 24 years. After replacing more than 5,000 parts involved in the instrument’s action, “It will have a new life,” said Grakov, who has rebuilt at least 12 grand pianos similar to the Mason & Hamlin.

Next it will be placed in the hands of piano technician and tuner Bob Anderson.

“Structurally we get the piano back in good shape and then it’s my turn to bring it out,” said Anderson, who has tuned pianos for the likes of Ray Charles, Paul McCartney, Frank Sinatra, Barbara Streisand and Stevie Wonder, before they went out on stage.

“It’s about the sound and touch and you listen to it, feel it,” Anderson said. “You can get an idea of what an instrument’s potential is, and I think the piano still has good heart and good life in it.”

Even without its pending face-lift, the piano is very playable, which Wood will demonstrate at the concert.

“I look forward to seeing Eric play any time,” Wood said. “It will be fun blending our types of music. He’s heavily classically trained.”

The Woods are members of the band Honk.

“Eric does a lot of interpretations of pop in a classical style and I doubt if he’ll be able to keep us from playing with him.”

Once the piano is restored, hopefully by Easter Sunday, members of the Neighborhood Congregational Church hope the instrument will help make high quality music events a cornerstone of the church’s offerings to the community for at least another century to come. For more information, call (949) 494-8061.