Astoria Waltz

Rob and I moved into our new place in Astoria a little over a week ago. Last week, we walked along Ditmars to Astoria Park and came across a really charming cafe/bar named Waltz-Astoria. There was an open mic night going on. This quaint space was packed with local Astorian singer-songwriters. I have never been part of an open mic night, so last night I decided to bring my toy pianos and play a couple of pieces.
I realized I had never written a waltz before, so two days ago I wrote “Astoria Waltz” and performed it fresh at the open mic. It was such a great time. Everyone was so friendly and it’s always so fun to bring the toy piano out unexpectedly. To my surprise, the owner of Waltz-Astoria was once a piano major at Indiana University! We just happen to miss each other in our years in Bloomington.

Every one else was a singer/songwriter with their guitar. I’m sure the toy piano really stuck out. Stay tuned. Listen to Astoria Waltz on the link below. It is written for two toy pianos, one hand playing on each one.

Astoria Waltz

An Interesting Show at the Stone

Rob and I had our first house guest in our empty apartment in Astoria. Tatsuya Nakatani, a free-improv percussionist from Pennsylvania, needed a place to stay the night before his concert at the Stone on Sunday. He performed with Kaoru Watanabe (western and eastern flutes)
/>and Adam Rudolph (hand percussion.) Rob and I have heard Tatsuya several times before in both solo and trio settings. I remember several years ago we were in Santa Fe and saw a listing of his performance that night. What a coincidence, right? Actually, this guy performs more frequently than anyone I know….driving everywhere with his gear and always giving it his all. What a road-warrior.

Tatsuya’s set included drums, a variety of symbols( some that had big ripped holes in them), ash trays, tibetan bowls and a variety of sticks. My usual skeptical feelings about free-improv were dismissed pretty quickly in the evening.The color palette was pretty unbelievable. While listening to them, I thought about my own experience recently performing a free-improv piece with the percussionist Lukas Ligeti. I was pretty freaked out by the whole experience–maybe that gave me a deeper appreciation of the performance last night. It was great to see these guys so comfortable in the field.

Starfish

Here is a piece that I created this week called “Starfish.” The piece is made entirely from wind-chime samples…another tinkly-sounding instrument that I like to use in my sets. Rob used to have a really beautiful set of chimes on his front porch.

I remember watching starfish at the aquarium and being amazed by how slow they moved. They could be in one spot and position for hours. You might need headphones (or speakers) to hear all the lower frequencies. To listen click below:

Starfish

Toy piano mover-a harder job than it sounds (part 2)

At my concerts, people often joke about how “cute” the toy piano is and how lucky I am to have a “portable” piano. Now thinking about it, showing up to a venue with a piano already there is definitely much easier than lugging around toy pianos. Stairs are the worst: lugging these odd-shaped bags piece by piece. It’s not so much about weight, but their unique shape that make them difficult to carry in one trip. The more shows I do, the more little props I add to my toy piano performances such as cooking bowls, mallets, music boxes,chime toys, and other noisy gadgets…now I’ve also added video gear, projectors, and electronic equipment. Often times it feels like a big pain to carry so many small things, but at some point, I realized that my performances were starting to evolve and become something more like theatre. Sometimes it looks like a junkyard full of trinkets, but they all play a part in the performance! So now, when I see the toy piano, it no longer appears as cute and dainty any more. It’s just one of many things to carry if you are the “toy piano mover.”

Toy piano movers–a harder job than it sounds (part 1)

The first toy piano I got was a two and a half octave baby grand Schoenhut. It came with a small bench that was about 10 inches tall. All together, the toy piano was only about 28 pounds. The legs screw off of the bottom of the toy piano, so everything fit nicely into a black garbage bag. I found it quite funny to transport a toy piano ‘incognito’ in a black trash bag. As I became more serious about the toy piano, I acquired a three octave concert grand Schoenhut. This piano is different because it has a lid that opens, four legs instead of three, and is made of mahogany wood instead of plywood (this makes the sound brighter). Getting a few extra notes on the toy piano has come at a really troublesome cost for me. The instrument is almost 40 pounds, which doesn’t sound like much, but ended up being a royal pain when brought on subways or walked down the street.

First thing, it takes two hands to carry the body of the toy piano because of the shape. Everything else could fit in a backpack, but not as easy as the black trash bag technique. Second, as my toy piano shows have grown, I use more than one toy piano for performances, sometimes up to three. Using both hands to carry one toy piano ends up being a pretty big hassle. My fiancée, Rob, has mused over different ways of transporting them. Because the instrument is about 24 inches by 24 inches, we needed to find a box-like suitcase with wheels—not as easy as it might sound. We ended up with a computer suitcase from Ebay that weighed 50 pounds! All together, we were lugging 90 pounds for a three-octave toy piano, just so it could have a case around it and wheels (that didn’t actually work so well.) I have numerous photos of Rob and I lugging toy pianos in New York, Chicago, Bloomington, Amsterdam. Since there is no protective cover for the instruments, I have ended up taking a lot of taxis to haul them place to place, performing countless toy piano tunes in cabs to entertain my driver. This ended up being a costly solution, so I contacted the Colorado Case Company to have a custom-made case for this particular piano. I now have a soft case that is the shape of the toy piano (without the legs) that fits nicely into a hard case with wheels. The hard case is still being built at the moment, but it should put an end to this saga.

The Guts of the Instrument

After concerts, people often ask me if they can look under the lid of the toy piano to see how it works. I explain to them that they are made of metal rods instead of strings, which is surprising to most people because it appears in the shape of a piano. The shorter the rods, the higher pitched the sound is. A few weeks ago, I was meeting with composer and fellow ICicle, Nathan Davis. I had asked him to write a piece for me using toy piano and electronics, so our first meeting was a brainstorming/workshop session to play around with these toys. To my surprise, on top of the toy piano sat a piece of metal with long metal rods attached to it. It looked exactly like the guts of the toy piano, but the rods were much longer (almost 12 inches). I asked him where he got it, and he said it use to be the insides of a grandfather clock! The metal slab with rods attached to it sat on top of the wooden upright toy piano. The box-like shape of the instrument acted like a resonating chamber for the grandfather clock rods…this seem to be a really ripe idea for us to experiment with that morning. We played them gently with some yarn mallets. There was also something quite intimate about getting up close to hear the vibration of the metal rods. You can hear so many lower frequencies when you get up close. It was strangely satisfying to discover the bass toy piano as a grandfather clock. I’m curious to see how the piece turns out…

Welcome!

Thanks for checking into my toy piano blog– a site for little piano enthusiasts! I am a professional toy pianist in New York City. I have played “real” piano for over 25 years. Strangely enough, I found the toy piano as an adult and the real piano as a child. This past year I hosted the first UnCaged Toy Piano Competition, a composition competition for toy piano music. I am pleased to announce the winners:

1st Georg Hajdu (Germany)

2nd Angelica Negron (Puerto Rico/USA)

3rd Jeff Morris (USA)

I will be performing these pieces in September at the Christopher Henry Gallery in New York. Please check back for more details!