Recent Presentations

Notwithstanding my adoption of the moniker “lefty” for the past six weeks I have cheerfully fulfilled my previous agreements to make some presentations.

The first was to the DC Chapter of the Piano Technician’s Guild, a national organization whose purpose is to preserve and foster the skills necessary to maintain these almost impossibly complex artifacts.  A good piano is not only a thing of visual beauty, it is a thing of aural beauty for the listener and a thing of tactile beauty for the player.

This group wanted me to speak, not too surprisingly, about the HO Studley ensemble, a topic I never tire of.  The talk must have been a success as I have been invited to give the keynote presentation at The Guild’s national conference next summer.  It should be great fun.

photograph by Narayan Nayar

By the way, I did learn the function of these tools.  Others remain a mystery, but I hope to get new insights at the conference.  Stay tuned.

I also continued my longstanding practice of periodically speaking to the Washington Woodworker’s Guild.  I think my first talk to them was in 1986.  I recruited a volunteer from the audience to serve as my hands for the layout, cutting, and assembly of simple French parquetry.  As always, the time was too short so we are discussing a field trip of Guild members to The Barn.  Stay tuned about that, too.

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