Efforts to save a locally significant piano from being sent out of the city have come to an end.
It’s a far different tune coming from the Stratford and Region Committee for the Performing Arts, a local arts group which formed only recently after learning a local church had sold the piano to a private buyer in Owen Sound.

The 1913 Steinway & Sons piano was believed to have been played in the city by the likes of Glenn Gould and Oscar Peterson, as well as local citizens in music festivals and through private lessons. The piano was owned by the Rotary Club of Stratford before it was sold in 1969 to St. John’s United Church, where it sat until being sold earlier this year.

When news of its sale first became public, a campaign was struck to try to buy back the piano. Money to buy and rebuild the piano was promised by donors, as long as the group determined it would suit the community’s needs in the future.

In a statement released earlier this week, the group indicated it based its decision on extensive discussions with professional evaluators and piano experts, including those at Steinway & Sons of New York.

Actor Bruce Dow, who led the initial efforts to keep the piano in Stratford, told the Gazette money was not an issue, noting he received “tons of response – emails, letters ... people would stop me in the grocery store and tell me their stories and experiences with the piano.”
He added,  however, the committee had to consider the whole picture.

“If you want the piano to do anything other than sit in a museum, it would have to be rebuilt, not just repaired.   If you repair it at all, let alone rebuild it, it loses all of  its value as a historical item,” he noted.

“Even if you rebuild it,  visiting artists would not want to play on a rebuilt piano.”

 In its statement, the committee also noted there was no guarantee the piano, if rebuilt, would have a sound or playability suitable to the needs of the community.

The full statement regarding the piano from the Stratford and Region Committee for the Performing Arts can be found on page 18 of this week’s paper.