Frederic Chiu to play the world's first "hybrid" piano for Light in Winter performance
November 22nd, 2009 by max
On Saturday, January 23rd, in Cornell University’s Statler Auditorium, famed pianist Frederic Chiu will perform “Of Sound Mind”, a performance concentrating on Chiu’s lifelong interest in the relationship between art and science that has led him to develop a holistic understanding of the art of piano playing, from the perspective of the body-mind-heart connections within an individual. In the performance, Chiu will be displaying his unique approach to piano playing on a very unique new instrument: Yamaha’s AvantGrand. The AvantGrand is the world’s first “hybrid” piano that not only effectively simulates the sound of a concert grand, The AvantGrand also actualizes the physical connection pianists have with their instrument — previously only possible on an acoustic grand. Light in Winter spoke to Makia Matsumura, the Production Coordinator for Yamaha Artists Services, Inc. who told us a bit about the AvantGrand, and how the arrangement with Frederic Chiu came about.
Makia Matsumura: “Frederic Chiu, who is a long-time Yamaha Artist, came to our offices and showroom on 5th Avenue in New York City in order to select a regular stringed piano – one which just happened to be sitting next to an AvantGrand. As soon as Frederic sampled the AvantGrand N3 he knew it was spectacularly suited to his needs as a player. He produced some remarkable sounds on it. Since then he has been looking for creative uses for the piano — particularly in situations where space was a consideration or even a total lack of decent piano (at performance level). Yamaha is happy to provide Mr. Chiu with an AvantGrand for the performance “Of Sound Mind”, and is excited to hear the results of his presentation on a holistic understanding of the art of piano playing.”
“Why reproduce in digital form something that’s worked perfectly fine for hundreds of years as an analog device? That’s the question I had for Yamaha about their new AvantGrand piano,” wrote Popular Science reporter Sean Captain in his review, Everything Old Is New Again {Hyperlink} http://www.popsci.com/gear-amp-gadgets/article/2009-02/yamahas-digital-grand-piano. “The answer: So you can save five feet, 1,100 pounds, and $80,000.” In its posting, Yamaha AvantGrand Digital Piano Vibrates in All the Right Places , the edgy gadget blog Gizmodo called the instrument “an ingenious digital piano that uses strategically-placed resonators to pound the pianist with sound and vibrations, just like the real thing! In fact, the Yamaha CFIIIS concert grand was used to create the digital samples for this piano, and that is the real thing.”
Don’t miss this exciting meeting of high technology in the science of the AvantGrand with art of the holistic approach in Frederic Chiu’s piano playing! For tickets go here.
For more information on Yamaha’s AvantGrand, go to the official site.
