Once again Larry Crabb pulled together a great performance of you Barbershop Chorus Last Tuesday night completed the 31st yearly performance–never missing a year!
I didn’t get this up in a timely fashion because we were busy packing up computers and cameras in order to fly home. But the lack of timeliness does not diminish our love of Larry and what he does to bring people together through music.
The Paris hotel is nicer looking than Bally’s. Here are a couple of shots as we prepare to leave.
The winner of the Golden Hammer Award is announced at the Opening Assembly. Then the winner is given a chance to address the group at the Banquet, after they have had a chance to collect their thoughts. Here are the comments that Ruth Phillips gave in accepting the award for herself and Webb.
My deepest thanks to Ron Berry and the Awards Committee, and to Keith Bowman, who made this gorgeous treasure.
I’ve been trying to think of what Webb would say if he were here. I know he would be as caught off-guard as I was. There are just so many people in PTG whom he admires, and I share that feeling.
Not a day goes by that someone doesn’t ask about him, so I’ll give you a little report on him. Parkinson’s has taken his ability to be physically active. He was at home with live-in help for a year, then he fell and fractured his pelvis. That meant moving to a care facility. It’s a wonderful place. He flirts with all the nurses and they love him and call him Webbie-Poo. He is always happy to hear people asking about him.
I will do my best to speak for both of us.
You all know the song line “up here, where the air is rarefied”. The Golden Hammer recipients are a gifted and generous group of people. It makes me feel like the actress at the Academy Awards who said she was honored just to be in the same category as Meryl Streep.
Webb created an award he called the “Behind the Scenes” award. He would buy an unfinished lyre, cut it down and finish it, and put a plaque on it. He would present it to people who were not in the public eye on a state or national level where they would be recognized, but they were people who were always there just as much. This included both chapter members and auxiliary members.
Incidentally, Keith’s work resembles those lyres and I thought of Webb as possibly being the recipient as soon as it was unveiled.
He wanted to build people’s self-confidence. He was very interested in developing leadership skills among chapter members, not just so that chapters could thrive, but to help the individuals learn through leadership roles just what they were made of and the goals they could set for themselves that they might not have considered.
His audience for that included me.
When I first met Webb, he was so different from the other tuners I had known, and I learned that he was controversial in many of their eyes. He has received many honors over the years, but one I have always especially loved is one that was made by David Patterson of Toronto. It includes a quote attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson that reads “The measure of a master is his ability to bring all men around to his opinion, twenty years later”.
Many of the things Webb felt were vital to piano service were somewhat foreign ideas in the beginning. Today, they are the norm. His background in running large factories gave him a different perspective, certainly vastly different from mine coming in as a music student. I’ve benefitted tremendously by learning from his experience.
As much as I’ve gained from my thirty years with Webb, PTG has been just as great a teacher. My work for my chapter, committees, Foundation, and board, have all been as part of a team. The most rewarding to me is when there is a question as to how to solve a problem, and we find a way that benefits all sides in some way.
I don’t believe there is another organization like PTG with such dedicated, giving and knowledgeable people, freely sharing their time and talents. Piano work seems to draw the most interesting body of types of people. There are talents in this room far beyond the norm for one profession. I have gained more from my work in PTG than I could express, and have been rewarded many times over in friendships and knowledge.
So from Webb, and from me, our heartfelt thanks.
Yamaha was celebrating their 50th anniversary of distributing pianos in North America. They hosted another wonderful reception. Trevor danced the night away.
The Exhibit Hall closed and the vendors began packing up. This ends another successful convention.
Jack Wyatt brought a some historical pianos and piano actions from the PTG Foundation Museum.
Kawai once again sponsored a concert on the Shigeru Kawai piano. This year’s artist was John Chen. He played a wonderfully sensitive concert.
Steingraeber and Sons have a new longer model with carbon fiber soundboard and their unusual bridge agraffes.
