Category Archives: Piano News

Eastern Shore

Steinway dedication at Eastern Shore Chapel

Jordan Kitt’s was pleased to provide the new piano to Eastern Shore Chapel in Virginia Beach.

The recently acquired Steinway model B will be dedicated in the sanctuary of Eastern Shore Chapel Episcopal Church, Virginia Beach.

Hampton Virginia native, Donald Lee, III, will share his gifts and talents on Sunday, July 31. He will share a musical offering in our 10:30 a.m. worship service, and
he will present a 90-minute concert at 4:00 p.m. that afternoon.

Please save the date, and plan to spend your morning in worship followed by a
lovely afternoon concert in our beautiful worship space listening to classical and
sacred piano selections.

Mr. Lee currently serves as the pianist / conductor for the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
He is an alumnus of James Madison University and the University of Cincinnati
College-Conservatory of Music. He is also a proud alumnus of the school and
church music programs he experienced as a child and youth.

The dedication will take place at:

Eastern Shore Chapel Episcopal Church
2020 Laskin Road, Virginia Beach, Virginia
July 31, 2022, 4:00 PM

Jordan Kitt’s Music featured on WTTG Fox 5 on the importance of music in the home…

Jordan Kitt’s Music CEO Chris Syllaba was interviewed by reporter Holly Morris of WTTG Fox 5 in Washington, DC on the importance of music now that people are spending more time at home than ever before.

Jordan Kitt’s Music, representing Yamaha throughout Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC., is currently open for business in all four of its locations, and lessons are continuing through online interactions.

For more information on lessons, rentals or new & used piano sales, visit https://www.jordankitts.com

Jeff Goldblum piano

Music, Uh, Finds a Way… Jeff Goldblum entertains on a Yamaha piano.

Jeff Goldblum has an impromptu session on a Yamaha upright piano at St. Pancras station in London, to the apparent delight of London commuters.

Jeff attests that piano abilities were the result of his childhood lessons, which likely aided him in his quest for domination not only as an idiosyncratic leading icon, but also a master of Chaos Theory.

Your children can a head start in life also, with piano lessons from Jordan Kitt’s Music here

Pizza Guy Piano

Pizza Delivery Guy does Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata

The Varchetti family ordered a pepperoni pizza from Hungry Howie’s for dinner.

When the delivery guy came to their suburban Detroit home, he gave them the pizza, then peeked inside to their foyer and said: “That’s a beautiful piano. Can I take look at it?”

The Varchettis invited him in to see the baby grand, which they said generally goes unused. They asked if he played.

Bryce Dudal, 18, who had just graduated from high school, said he did play, and he’d love to give this one a spin.

So the pizza delivery guy sat down on the piano bench, and for the next minute and a half his fingers flew and jumped across the keys as he played the third movement of Beethoven’s “Moonlight” sonata.

The Varchettis were blown away.

“He was just beyond good,” Julie Varchetti said in an interview with The Washington Post.

Read the full store here

Towson University

Towson University Keyboard Day

On Friday, March 16th, Towson University is proud to present Keyboard Day from 8:30am – 5:00pm
The day will include events such as:
• A Piano Masterclass with Eva Mengelkoch, Christopher Dillon, and Yoon-Wha Roh
• Organ and harpsichord workshops with Profs. Marc Bellassai
• Introduction to extended piano techniques
and much more.

for more information and to register, visit here!

Piano Cake

A Piano Cake Recipe!

What better way to celebrate the purchase of a new piano than with a piano cake? Although we can’t personally vouch for the taste until we’ve made one ourselves, here are the basic ingredients and instructions from Tastemade. See the instructional video on their website here.

For the chocolate cake:

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2/3 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups butter, softened at room temperature

4 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup sour cream, room temperature

For the chocolate chip meringue:

6 large egg whites

2 cups superfine sugar

1 cup mini chocolate chips

For the chocolate buttercream:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened at room temperature

4 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 cups cocoa powder

2/3 cup whole milk

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 teaspoon salt

For the chocolate ganache:

2 cups dark chocolate chips

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons coconut oil

For the decoration:

16 white chocolate Kit Kats

10 milk chocolate Kit Kats

Instructions

Make the chocolate cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and line a 13 by 9 inch pan with baking spray and parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa. Using a hand mixer, blend the butter, eggs and vanilla into the dry mix. Fold in the sour cream. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes until fragrant and a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the cake. Set aside to cool.

Make the chocolate chip meringue: Turn the oven to 250 degrees, and line a quarter sheet pan with baking spray and parchment paper. In a large bowl, whip egg whites and sugar until stiff peaks form, approximately 10 minutes. Gently fold in mini chocolate chips and pour into prepared pan. Smooth out to create an even layer. Bake for 10 minutes, and then turn the oven down to 200 degrees and bake until stiff, approximately 4 hours. Turn the oven off and allow the meringue to set and cool completely in the oven.

Make the chocolate buttercream: In a large bowl, whip softened butter and powdered sugar together with a hand mixer. Add in cocoa powder and milk and mix until smooth. Add in vanilla and salt and set aside.

Make the chocolate ganache: Set chocolate chips in a medium-sized bowl, and heat the cream to a near boil. Pour cream over chocolate and whisk to combine. Add coconut oil, and divide ganache into two bowls. Refrigerate one to set and leave the other at room temperature.

Assemble the cake: Cut baked chocolate cake in half. Place one of the cakes on a large platter. Cover with one cup of chocolate buttercream and top with the meringue layer. Top with another cup of buttercream and finish with the remaining cake layer. Cover the entire cake with the remaining buttercream and set in the refrigerator to chill for approximately 30 minutes. Remove from fridge and pour the room temperature ganache over the top of the cake. Carefully drip ganache down every side of the cake for a dramatic effect. Place the chilled ganache in a piping bag and create a border around the bottom of the cake. Place the white chocolate Kit Kats across the middle of the cake, keeping them together in fours. Break up the milk chocolate Kit Kats and place them on top of the white Kit Kats, mimicking piano keys. Serve immediately. Cake will keep up to 4 days covered.

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Firefighter piano

Firefighter calms with piano after emergency call

A firefighter from Monroe, Washington helped calm residents after a stressful night of emergency calls – with a serenade on their vintage piano.

Greg and Meagan Bennett were home when one of their carbon monoxide alarms went off. They checked the batteries and the alarm stopped. But two hours later, the other alarm sounded, so the couple called for help.

An emergency crew arrived, but found conflicting readings from the alarms and decided to call for backup. Meagan says a second crew responded to their home, and all of the excitement proved too much for the couple’s dogs. She took them outside while 5 firefighters and EMTs kept working inside her home.

As the emergency call was finally wrapping up, firefighter Bryan Kerr inquired about the couple’s piano, which was a family heirloom from 1920. He asked if he could try playing it, then surprised everyone with a snippet from Coldplay’s “Clocks.” Greg recorded video so he could show Meagan when she returned with the dogs.

She tells KING 5: “It started out as a super stressful, annoying situation and this just really made our night. It was awesome!”
read more here…

Aric harding piano

Pastor plays the piano in a flooded home…

A man whose story and video went viral after he was captured playing a piano in his flooded Texas home has a new piano.

Aric Harding of Friendswood, Texas, returned to the waist-deep floodwaters in his family’s home after Hurricane Harvey in August to get some of his children’s belongings. His home was one of 350,000 destroyed by the rising waters.

He said he stopped at the piano, which belonged to one of his sons, and had a friend record him as he played it.
The Harding family’s home was flooded by Hurricane Harvey in August.

“For us, it’s a piece of music being this universal language for everyone. It’s always been a big part of my life. My family’s always been very musical,” he told ABC Houston station KTRK-TV. “From the moment we get up in the morning to the moment we go to sleep, we’ve got music going on in our house.”

At that moment, Harding said, he hoped the video would lift his children’s spirits and show his son his beloved instrument was still working.

“It was kind of the first time for me that I had sat down and been still, you know since the storm. And so it was, it was an unintentional special moment,” Harding said.

He then posted the video online with a Bible verse about having hope. The video circulated on social media, eventually reaching Grammy-nominated singer Vanessa Carlton, who then asked how she could get the family a new piano.

Harding said the family had to get rid of the old piano — with its rusty strings and broken bass board — after it was destroyed in the floodwaters.

“She [Carlton] literally just calls me one morning like, ‘Hey, this is Vanessa,'” Harding told KTRK. “To have that kind of generosity, you know, to come about, that’s just one piece of the generosity that has happened not only for us but for other people in this area.”
PHOTO: Aric Harding poses with his family. Harding said that playing the piano and music in general was a big part of his life and his familys.Aric Harding
Aric Harding poses with his family. Harding said that playing the piano and music in general was a big part of his life and his family’s.

Harding, a father of seven, received the new piano Saturday. Having a piano back in the house was a big deal, especially for his son Rylor, who is back practicing, Harding said.

“Just being blessed to even have the chance to own one of these is amazing,” Rylor said.

Others have also donated pianos to the family, so Harding and his father plan to get them to residents who lost theirs in the area, as well as piano students.

“Hopefully, we can keep passing this forward a little bit,” he said.

read more here at abc news…

Nationals Organ

Jordan Kitt’s provides the new organ for National’s Park

For Matthew Van Hoose, the Washington Nationals’ playoff run will start on a low note. In the way that only a music professor can be, Van Hoose is psyched about the ultra-deep, bleacher-shaking registers of the team’s brand-new stadium organ.

“This thing has a ton of extra bass,” said Van Hoose, the Nats’ official organist, as he twiddled a few foghorn notes from the bright red, W-emblazoned, three-keyboard instrument that was installed last week at Nationals Park. “It’s good to have a little time to get used to it before the playoffs.”

Van Hoose was running the Viscount Sonus 60 through some test riffs during the Nats’ low-stakes final game of the regular season Sunday. This was basic baseball organ-izing: a little of Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” to goose a placid crowd during a visit to the mound.

But come Friday, he knows the mood will shift from the carnival calliope of regular games to the “Phantom of the Opera” drama of a post­season sell­out against the defending World Series champion Chicago Cubs. When 41,000 fans stand to shout “Charge!” at that classic stadium prompt, Van Hoose will be playing an organ of 41,000 pipes.

And just in time, the front office has equipped him with an instrument boasting considerably more musical muscle than the Hammond keyboard he was tickling before. This is an organ a guy can be proud of.

The Viscount was made to order in Mondaino, Italy; shipped to New York; tuned up in Harrisburg, Pa.; and, during the Nats’ final road trip, fitted in a former radio booth on the second floor of the press box high above home plate. Above the three tiers of keys are rows of tonal couplers (“tremolo,” “piccolo,” “vox humana,” etc.). Below are crescendo and swell pedals and, just off the floor, a fan of skinny pedal boards spreading out from Van Hoose’s busy feet. It is an instrument fit for an octopus.
Van Hoose musically responds to the action at Nationals Park on the new organ. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)
He uses his eyes, hands and feet when he plays. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

“I’m thrilled,” said Van Hoose, 46, who was dinking away at a kiddie keyboard when he got into baseball at age 3 in Norfolk. “It’s kind of like going from a plastic bat to a wooden bat.”

[Waiters, students and veterans belt out the national anthem for the home team]

The upgrade included a room of his own. Before, his portable keyboard was tucked into a corner of the control room with the crew that pumps sound effects and recorded music through the stadium speakers.

Now Van Hoose sits alone, following the prompts of DJ Daniel Zacharias through a video monitor and a headset. They take turns mixing sounds into the action, a sample of “The Price Is Right” uh-oh music when the Pirates’ first baseman drops a foul ball, a little polka ditty by Van Hoose for the crowd to clap to as Anthony Rendon steps out of the batter’s box.

“Rendon steps out a lot,” Van Hoose said, looking down at the field, his hands on the keys. “He gives you a lot of opportunities for prompts.”

Van Hoose’s bench is within leaning distance of the open window at his shoulder. If he were to start rockin’ it Ray Charles-style, you could imagine him pitching himself down to the club seats.

“I really feel like I’m in the park now,” he said as fan noise and fall air wafted in.

The team wouldn’t say what the instrument cost, only that the desire for a true stadium organ came from “the highest levels of the organization” and that they acquired it through a partnership with keyboard dealer Jordan Kitt’s Music, now “the official provider of pianos and organs for the Washington Nationals.” The same model is advertised for about $20,000 on European websites.

Nats owner Mark Lerner said his family has long wanted to pump up the pipes as part of the game-day soundtrack.

“My family has always valued the role of music in the overall experience of attending a baseball game,” Lerner said. “We have always wanted to upgrade our organ, and we are all so thrilled about this amazing instrument and how it will contribute to our fan experience.”

Organist Matthew Van Hoose plays the new instrument high above the crowd at Nationals Park. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

Lerner’s 91-year-old father, principle owner Ted Lerner, was a Washington Senators fan back when Merv Conn played his electric accordion over the loudspeakers between innings.

“Ted is old enough to remember when they had marching bands at ball­parks,” said Phil Wood, a Washington baseball historian and commentator who has a picture of Conn on his office wall. “This is an ownership that cares about the traditions of the game.”

It can be hard to gauge whether younger fans, raised on walk-up music and video clips, feel the same thrill of an instrument so redolent of Cracker Jack and 50-cent beer. A brief survey of ticket holders Sunday suggests that many assume those quick organ takes on the “Mexican Hat Dance” and “Zorba the Greek” are just buttons on a synthesizer.

“I had no idea it was a real organ,” said Sadie Cohen, a fan from Fairfax at the game with her brother. “They should show him on the scoreboard.”

Wood said he settled a bet recently when a couple stopped him in the stadium. She thought the organ music was live; he thought it was canned.

Read more here