Now, Alex and I are moving to New York together for my new job I’ve found a completely different type of family out of my North Bennet experience. I got to work there for a couple of months and was recently hired as a full-time technician. The second internship I completed last summer was with Faust Harrison Pianos in White Plains, New York. I took it apart, put it back together, plugged it in, and it was totally fine! But Alex and I had just enough time to talk to each other and know that we wanted to spend the rest of our BUTI experience inseparably. It just had some broken particle board and stripped screws. It turns out the broken clavichord was actually a Clavinova, which is a digital instrument. So I got in the car with this complete stranger, and we drove to where the instrument was stored. I told him I could come look at it but couldn’t make any promises as I was not qualified. Now, a clavichord is an old historical instrument and is very delicate it’s not a piano. 45 minutes later, Alex knocked on the door and said, “We just moved a clavichord and it’s broken. Xiaodan introduced me to the stage manager, Alex, so he could give me access to the building where I would be tuning pianos. While at Tanglewood, I was helping set up pianos and getting tuning experience. (North Bennet has a strong connection with BU-one of our North Bennet graduates, Xiaodan Liu PT ’07, PA ’08, RPT, is head piano technician at BUTI and senior piano technician at Boston University School of Fine Arts.) They have pianos, so they’re in need of technicians. The first was with Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI) it is an institute for advanced high school musicians. Last summer, between Basic Piano Technology and Advanced Piano Technology, I completed two internships. But the one memory that I could never replace, in terms of the trajectory of my life, is meeting my partner because of this program, as well as finding my dream job. It’s so hard to pick one North Bennet experience because there have been so many that are amazing. Can you name one of your favorite experiences in the program? I decided that if I could, I wanted to go. I was lucky enough to tour in person, and I fell in love with the departments. I was part of one of the last tours offered in person in 2019, right before Covid hit. You should just go check it out, because if that’s your tribe, then it’s a special place.” They both said, “It’s a unique place with niche people. Senior year, because of my love for dealership work, two of them-my piano professor and my composition professor-said, “Have you ever heard of North Bennet Street School? Have you ever considered going there?” My composition professor knew a Salem State graduate who went to North Bennet and completed the Piano Technology programs, so there was also a connection there. I was blessed with some wonderful mentors and private instructors during my undergraduate degree. I thought, “That’s a really cool job.” How did you discover NBSS? Why did you choose to attend the School? But then someone helped me realize that there is a role of technician, the person who actually cares for the instruments and helps them realize their greatness. The instruments are gorgeous-they’re so well kept, new, starting off their life, and they’re going to be loved by the people who buy them.įor a long time, I thought the only window into a dealership was through sales, which I had some experience in and was what I was originally thinking of doing. I decided pretty quickly that if I could work anywhere in the world, I would want to work at one of them. They’re just the most magical places in the world to me. This became a big passion of mine, visiting piano dealerships. They were so gracious at all the locations I visited. I tried to get to know as many different brands and models as I could by playing them and bothering the salespeople. I started showing up at piano dealerships that sold these instruments new. I didn’t know a lot about pianos at the time, and they all sounded so different. There were several different types of pianos-Steinway, Yamaha, Bösendorfer, and Bechstein. I remember coming to this plugin that I fell in love with that was all pianos. The lens that I was composing through was a lot of digital audio workstations and playing with things like GarageBand and Pro Tools. When I was a sophomore, I started getting into composition. I received my undergraduate degree in music at Salem State University.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |