Robinson encourages a wide variety of music, some of it raucous. He does, however, enjoy watching the passing parade of airport users. The workplace also can be "kind of noisy" as he bends his trained ear to the task, "but I just have to listen closer" as he adjusts the strings and keyboard actions. Because the terminals lack uniform humidity controls, the airport "is hard on pianos," he said. Ken Olson tunes all three of MSP's pianos, usually every three to four months.
One recalls noticing a shy child listening as he played Old 300, prompting him to switch to Sesame Street's "Rubber Ducky." He also remembers playing the movie theme from "Laura," not expecting much reaction, until a passerby quietly approached from behind and whispered "Laura" in his ear before walking away. Today's players at MSP choose their own programs, sometimes spontaneously. Few realize that their predecessors include concert-hall luminaries such as John Browning, Alicia de Laroccha, Garrick Ohlsson, Jeffrey Siegel and the Ferrante and Teicher duo. These days, the airport keeps a cover on Old 300 in the main concourse between performances and carefully schedules who gets to play it. Schmitt touched up the piano's aesthetics - "It looked like an old beater" - and the airport acquired the instrument, partly on the strength of its prestigious history. Ouska's wife, Nancy, worked in sales for Schmitt and heard that MSP's Airport Foundation was looking for a grand piano that could be played at the main terminal. But in 2006, when the orchestra retired one of its other pianos, it faced a decision about the 30-year-old 300: Keep it, or trade it in to Steinway's Minnesota dealer, Schmitt Music. After that overhaul, he recalled that one of the first subsequent soloists, Ivan Moravec, "said he loved the sound of it."ĭuring the late '80s, after Ouska installed a new action mechanism and hammers, specifying the use of German-made parts, Old 300 became the orchestra's house piano. "Part of my work was to make it playable," he said, including filing and hardening the hammers and regulating the keyboard action by reweighting the keys. The instrument's touch was dead, and it looked old and beaten up. Visiting piano artists, who get to choose among in-house pianos for their Orchestra Hall concerts, "wouldn't have anything to do with it," he said. The orchestra eventually decided to buy the instrument from Steinway, but not before it got rehabbed. The number helped identify it as part of Steinway's Concerts and Artist Department. He remembers that Old 300 was already at Orchestra Hall, along with two other concert grands, when he began working there in 1984. Jerry Ouska, who's retiring at 70 this year after 34 years as the Minnesota Orchestra's piano tuner, knows that pedigree intimately. Paul woman with the caveat that she still be allowed to play it, and it has become the airport's populist keyboard, while the Steinway upstairs carries a richer pedigree and a more select roster of performers. The foundation arranged to bring the pianos to Terminal 1. The idea is "to bring people together," she said. Music has included performances by singers, a jazz guitarist, Celtic harpist, even a balalaika player. The program oversees music programs, displays and art installations. The pianos are part of the Arts and Culture program of Airport Foundation MSP, directed by Robyne Robinson. "It almost sounds as though people are practicing. "I'm surprised at how complex some of the pieces are," Hylbak said.
The driver of an electric golf-cart shuttle gave the performer a thumbs-up signal and a smile. One volunteer took time between tunes recently to thank the piano player. Mar Hylbak, a volunteer at MSP, said the baggage-claim piano gets played a lot - often more than half the time during her twice-monthly four-hour shifts.ĭespite the bustling environment, airport employees and volunteers often seem to pay special attention to the music. Their repertoires ranged from a Bartok Romanian folk dance to sonatas by Beethoven and Mozart, from rags by Scott Joplin and ballads by the Gershwins to the more topical classic jazz tune "Come Fly With Me." On a recent afternoon, travelers and greeters near Terminal 1's baggage carousels could listen to live, unscheduled performances by several pianists. PLAY THE PIANO," with an arrow pointing to the nearby Kawai.Ī third grand, a 6-footer, is located in Terminal 2 (Humphrey). It's not far from a sign that says, "Keep calm. The second piano, a baby grand, is open to all comers in the sometimes-stressful downstairs baggage-claim area. That's the instrument once played by some of the world's most talented fingers on stage at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. But you likely will need security clearance and a background check to get to the 9-foot, Steinway concert grand - "Old 300" - in the shopping concourse of Terminal 1 (Lindbergh).