An 1893 Piano Is Music to School's Ears

 by Carl Glassman

Her shoulders gently rising and falling to the music, her fingers skipping lovingly over the ivories, Lisa Ecklund-Flores finished off a Bach suite on the 111-year-old Steinway grand.

Music students, from left, Rhiannon Hall, Callie Aboaf, Havanna Liu, Alexandra Kunzle, and Anna Rubinfein feel the resonating quality of the piano's strings. Photo: Carl Glassman

"Mmmmmm" she murmured in blissful delight as her hands slowly lifted from the keys. "Isn't that great?"

It had been two weeks since the piano arrived at its new home, the Church Street School for Music and Art, where Ecklund-Flores is the director. The instrument's sweet upper range and resonant bass, its beautiful warm tones and springy keys still provided near ecstatic pleasure to her and others who played it last month.


"It's just the perfect thing for this growing little school," Ecklund-Flores said.

Perfect in all ways but one. The piano cost $25,000-below its assessed value but money the school didn't have.
The instrument was paid for out of Church Street's operating budget to replace a recital piano that literally was falling apart. Now donors are being sought to make up for the shortfall.

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That will not be an easy task for the 14-year-old school at 74 Warren St. In March, when the piano became available, the school was beginning a capital campaign to pay for a $500,000 expansion. "This was no time to be talking about a Steinway," Ecklund-Flores said.

The seller agreed to give the school right of first refusal and in October another buyer stepped forward. That same week part of the school's recital piano fell off. Ecklund-Flores went to her board of directors, piano piece in hand, and asked permission to buy the Steinway.

"They said okay, with the idea that we would do aggressive fundraising to cover the piano," she recalled. "So the beautiful instrument is in the house."

Though fundraising will be a challenge, Ecklund-Flores sees the reconditioned Steinway as the chance of a lifetime. Prized not only for its sound, the piano also comes with a pedigree.
Lisa Ecklund-Flores at the new Steinway grand. Photo: Carl Glassman
The previous owner was Igor Buketoff, a well-regarded conductor whose arrangement of Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture," with cannons, chorus and church bells, is the popular version played today. He also orchestrated on this very piano-the arrangement of Rachmaninoff's unfinished opera, "Monna Vanna."

"When Lisa came to see the piano she played it with such tenderness her eyes welled up and I knew she would give it the care and love it deserved," said Barbara Mouk, Buketoff's daughter, who sold the piano to help pay for the care of her infirm mother.

Ecklund-Flores is planning a faculty recital to showcase the piano and raise funds to reimburse the school. (Call the school at 212-571-7290 for information.) Meanwhile, musicians of all ages are experiencing the instrument's delights.

"It's nice to have it when I get to the school," said Sarah Kay, 16, a longtime Church Street piano student who has turned to composing. "Now I can hear how my music really sounds."