Piano Life Saver System

News of the Piano Life Saver System has just reached me and may interest those of you who have valuable acoustic pianos needing to be humidified. My Steinway has had a basin filled with water on the floor under the piano for years, that being the only method I knew to try to keep the soundboard humidified! I will now invest in one of these systems that have had an unrivalled reputation since the 1950's! The suppliers have fitted them to pianos all over South Africa with consistently excellent results. There has been a dramatic improvement in the tone and tuning stability of these pianos, from small uprights to new Model D concert grand Steinways. Contact me for more information. Phone 028 514 2904 or 082 855 0534. You may also email me at sylbenat@futurejhb.co.za

HOW TO REACH THE 80s IN GOOD HEALTH

I've learnt over the years that the adage "You are what you eat" is absolutely true! Here I am, at the age of 87+, moving into a further career as a concert solo and accompanying pianist with recitals becoming more and more frequent, teaching piano, secretary of the Bahá'í Assembly of Swellendam, treasurer of the Swellendam Heritage Association, bookkeeping for a chiropractic clinic and generally enjoying life in a beautiful part of the world. I thought I would just put this information out in case there are those who would like to know how to achieve such a state of health and well-being in what is called "old age"! If you are one of those people, follow my blog and write to me in the comment section. If there are quite a few requests I will post another message to this blog.

Updating!

I've been rather backward in keeping the blog up to date and I notice that 6 months has flown past since my last posting. It's been quite hectic for me - various concerts, rehearsals, organising fund raising for the purchase of a new Kawai grand piano for the Swellendam High School, various Bahá'í activities, bookkeeping jobs, teaching etc. etc. In the last few months it has been necessary to get down to some heavy practising for a solo recital at the new concert venue, Wahnfried, in McGregor on 2nd December. I have resuscitated my old programme called "Sylvia Schulman Plays Piano Music for You (from W.A. Mozart to Billy Mayerl)" which I have not played for several years. It consists of 15 pieces with a fair amount of talking in between, sometimes linking different pieces by a common denominator, but generally giving some interesting information about them and/or the composers. Then I decided to present the programme as one of the Country Classics series in Swellendam, this time at my house, a week beforehand. For singing and flute the acoustics here are not good because the room has wall-to-wall carpeting; so we have used other venues for the Country Classics concerts which have been with Marcelle Volckaert, soprano, Brad Liebl, baritone and Chris Nicholls, flute. However, the acoustic is satisfactory for piano so it is very convenient for me to do the solo recital on my own piano! On 9th December Brad Liebl and I will be giving a recital in Barrydale - that lovely drive from Swellendam through the beautiful Tradouws Pass - which includes a Christmas Fantasia on a Theme of Debussy, arranged by Brad Liebl. Going forward into next year, Brad and I will be performing at Wahnfried on 10th February, the programme for which will include songs by Wagner and Verdi as 2013 is the 200th Anniversary of their birth. Later in the year, as near winter as possible, we will do a recital in Barrydale to include some of Die Winterreise of Schubert at the request of our hosts, Tim Teale and Clive Strawbridge. Marcelle Volckaert and I will also be performing in Barrydale with  Turina and Berlioz song cycles. No doubt these recitals will also be presented in Swellendam.

KAWAI The Future of the Piano

The sole distributors (in the Cape, South Africa with agents in Natal) of the wonderful Kawai range of pianos have appointed me as one of their agents. I am very happy as this make of piano is superb - I say this because I own a Steinway grand myself  but have given several concerts on a Kawai, so I have experienced its capabilities. Kawai is rated as one of the top 3 piano manufacturers in the word, along with Steinway and Yamaha. In the last 3 decades Kawai has taken a leading position in mechanism design,  tone character and digital piano development. The range in acoustic pianos is from several models of uprights to baby grands to concert grands. The digital range suits all purposes from  purely home machines to stage pianos. There are several innovations which make for improved tone quality, action and longevity in acoustic and digital.

As well as this agency I am able to take orders for sheet music. Swellendam has no music outlet and those wanting music have to order from Cape Town or Stellenbosch. Now they can order from me which is much more direct.

For more information (if you are in the Cape although not Cape Town itself and as far as say Sir Lowry's Pass) please email me at sylbenat@futurejhb.co.za