St. John's College
April 2007
The St John's College Music Department recently acquired Boston Model GP-215 Grand Piano from Pianoforte.
Our motivation for purchasing the Boston was twofold: Firstly we have over two hundred boys taking piano lessons at St John’s College from Grade 0 to Matriculation, and hopefully many of them will become accomplished pianists in their own right. At this stage the senior pupils are enjoying lessons on the instrument, and of course it is used regularly for concerts at the Preparatory school and College. The second reason why we decided on this instrument is simply that it is a superb choice to provide accompaniment for all the other instrumentalists – strings, brass, woodwind and of course singers. The accompanists achieve excellent balance between their own part and that of the soloists, and yet the piano is ideal for allowing solo passages to come to their own right too. The Boston is designed by Steinway and Sons, and what an amazing instrument it is!
We spent several hours in the Pianoforte showroom playing on different instruments, and yet we never felt there was any pressure to “close a deal”. As far as delivery is concerned, Ian Burgess-Simpson, Pianoforte's contracted Steinway trained technician did an outstanding job, voicing and tuning the instrument with great care. Needless to say, he was interrupted by several interested parties coming to witness the delivery process, speaking to various people and sharing his passion for the instrument and the brand.
The Boston Model GP-215 is now standing in our Clarke Auditorium, with regulated temperature and humidity. Even the “other” grand piano has already benefited from this controlled climate, and it seems that the instruments will need far less tuning than in the otherwise deprived humidity of the Highveld.
I would like to thank all the members of the Steinway and Sons family involved in the process of acquiring the instrument; for their friendliness and professionalism. We hope that St John’s College will soon be able to acquire more pianos from you, especially the superb “Essex” uprights which we will need for our teaching purposes.
Dr. Ben Oosthuizen
Director of Music
St John’s College
Johannesburg