Music Trade Review

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Committee Named to Formulate Plans
for Piano Workshop in Greater New York
An informal luncheon meeting of sev-
eral retail piano dealers in the Greater
New York area was held on September
6th at the Hotel Roosevelt to discuss the
possibility of holding a piano workshop
within the near future similar to those
which have been conducted by the Amer-
ican Music Conference in other areas.
posed to limit the attendance of these
workshops to 200. witli 100 in each
class. Mr. Mills stated that any number
satisfaction of those who were present,
with the result that it was unanimously
agreed that the workshop to be held
here in New York would prove of great
benefit to the entire retail piano indus-
try.
Mr. Mills pointed to the success of
the piano workshop which has been held
in Chicago, and in many other cities,
and also stated that through the efforts
of the American Music Conference there
had been approximately 1500 teachers
created who can now teach group piano
I'KANK I I . CONNOR
above this would not be so easy to
handle and it would be much better to
hold a second session rather than to
swell the attendance over and above the
200 mark.
Headquarters of NPMA Now
At 1900 Arch St., Phila., Pa.
(XARENCK M. PETTIT
William A. Mills, secretary of the
American Music Conference, explained
in detail how the piano workshops are
conducted and what expense if any
wiould be entailed. The workshops are
conducted by local teachers' groups, and
in this area would be under the guidance
of Mrs. Fay Templeton Frisch, who has
conducted several others in various areas
and has made a great success of the
class piano teaching in the New Ro-
chelle schools.
,
The meeting held on the 6th was just
a preliminary one in which the opera-
tion of the workshop could be explained
and a committee consisting of Clarence
M. Pettit, manager of William Knabe
& Co., chairman; Frank Connor, Carl
Fischer, Inc.; and Harry J. Sohmer, pres-
ident of Sohmer & Co., was appointed.
This committee in turn will advise
other retail music merchants in New
York regarding the operating of this
piano workshop, and Mr. Mills will meet
with the committee again on Sep-
tember 25th when the trustees of the
American Music Conference are to have
a meeting in New York during that week.
There was considerable discussion re-
garding the operating of the workshop
and many questions were asked of Mr.
Mills, who answered them to the full
HARRY J. SOHMKR
lessons in the schools. He also pointed
out that private teachers, a great many
of them, have become vitally interested
in the idea of group piano instruction.
He used as an illustration the story re-
garding the success of the piano work-
shop in Aberdeen, North Dakota, a small
town of 12,000 people, showing con-
clusively how well this plan can work
in the small local areas. The story of
this workshop appears on Page 5 of
this issue.
Among those who attended the meet-
ing were Frank Connor, Carl Fischer.
Inc.; Harry J. Sohmer and Farl Fore-
man. Sohmer & Co.; Eugene A. Schmitt
and Carl Sanchez, Hardman, Peck &
Co.; Henry Z. Steinway and R. W.
Freimuth, Steinway & Sons; Willard
Foster. Aeolian Co.; Frank Appel, Ru-
dolph Wurlitzer Co.; C. Albert Jadobs.
Mathusek Piano Co.; John A. Furlong.
Winter & Co.; Clarence M. Pettit, Wil-
liam Knabe & Co.; A. L. Zeisler, Kra-
kauer Bros.; Carleton Chace, Music
Trade Review, and others. It is pro-
The address of the executive secretary
of the National Piano Manufacturers
Association of America is now 1900
Arch St., Philadelphia 3, Pa. The new
phone number is Locust 4-3484. The ad-
visory secretary is George A. Fernley;
the executive secretary, H. R. Rinehardt;
and the secretary, Robert C. Fernley.
Mr. Rinehardt states that for the past
41 years their organization has been lo-
cated at 505 Arch St. but the city, state
and federal governments have under way
a project which will involve the demol-
ishing of the three city blocks in front
of Independence Hall in Philadelphia,
where his office was located.
"Although the actual construction of
so-cal[ed Independence Hall." he said,
"will not be undertaken for some time,
it was believed advisable to purchase a
building much larger and more adapt-
able than the present one. The new loca-
tion has been completely modernized."
Wurlitzer Piano for West Point
United States Military Academy at
West Point recently purchased a Wur-
litzer Piano, Model 901 Studio Upright,
from the Wurlitzer Retail Store in New
York City. This particular Wurlitzer
Piano is rapidly becoming one of the
nation's most popular pianos for school,
studios and churches.
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, SEPTEMBER, T950