November 2023 New World Newsletter
| New World NEWSLETTER | November 2023Volume XXXIX |
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| Hello Everyone, How are you? Autumn 2023 is flying by. The holidays are coming ~ sparkly trees and bright menorahs are coming, and we are all so busy, busy, busy. I hope you’re taking Sundays off and finding times of rest and meditation as the world swirls around. We face great challenges as humans and as a planet these days. Perhaps these challenges are now defining features of our times. Let’s all be part of solutions in whatever way we can and find joy in being with each other. I have been preoccupied with Stretto Piano Concerts activities and couldn’t play an 80th birthday concert dedicated to the music of the iconic Joni Mitchell on November 7th (her actual birthday). We’ll celebrate Joni’s music with a show at The Bitter End on DECEMBER 20th. Please scroll down for more details! Our wonderful team continues to move ahead with fundraising for Stretto Piano Concerts events and the ultimate goal to create a great piano-centric venue in downtown NYC that offers pianists a choice of key size and other piano innovations. We will not give up on this and will share much more.Our network is growing globally! HUGE THANK YOU toThe Stanley and Joy Ho Charitable Trust&Howard Riverwho have promised $25Kin tax-deductible donations Please help us match this amount~ come on this journey with us. This will give us $50K or more by December 31, 2023! DONATE HERE or at the button below |
| Happy 80th Birthday, Joni Mitchell !Join us at The Bitter End on December 20th Many of my friends know that I sang a lot of Joni’s music when my dad was dying from dementia. I was an exhausted caregiver, very sad and lonely. Her music is an anti-depressant for performers and audiences alike, proven by many unofficial studies done by real people like me! The album, Blue, was my panacea, and we played all the songs from it at The Bitter End where she played in the 1960s. That was in 2012 and the still photos here were taken around then or 2013, memorabilia that I now treasure, having amassed over 40 songs in our repertoire of her hits and lesser-known songs. Now we have played Joni’s music as a team for more than 11 years for dozens of shows in four US states and I’m planning one in Los Angeles – stay tuned for more news about this! It’s always a thrill and an unforgettable party to have eight people on stage performing songs from her amazing albums, Court and Spark and Miles of Aisles, among many others. Our all-star line-up for December 20th at 7.30 pm: Hannah, lead vocals, piano & dulcimerMichele Temple, guitarsMicah Burgess, electric guitarsScott Chasolen, keys and pianoMike Visceglia, bass guitarDoug Yowell, drumsRebecca Haviland, backing vocalsAudrey Martells, backing vocals We’ll also share a new surprise song…Please come out to hear us live and in person after all these years of remote performances! Grab your tickets now — December will be even more busy!Mark your calendar for live streaming 7.30 pm EST if you’re not in NYC. Write to me, let me know how you’re doing, and share your news with me. Yours with love,HannahBUY TICKETS   |
| STRETTO PIANO CONCERTS NEWS * KLAVINS PIANO is now makingUna Corda Stretto in collaboration with Stretto Piano Concerts and yours trulyFrom The Klavins Website: The Una Corda Stretto is the latest model of our Una Corda family. Inspired by pianist and entrepreneur Hannah Reimann we decided to honor the widespread need for pianos with narrower keys, for artists with smaller hands and millions of children who would appreciate this too. The Una Corda Stretto comes with a 5.8 inch (147 mm) octave width, versus the traditional pianos’ 6.5 inch octave span. (Picture shows the Una Corda 64 EL, the Stretto version essentially looks the same). Let’s celebrate! Hooray for Klavins and true piano innovation! If you would like to place an Una Corda piano order, please email david@klavins-pianos.com by including the promo code STRETTOCONCERTS in your email to him. David was so kind to offer a discount of 2% on the price of his pianos, for friends and supporters of our community.We could not be more delighted about the introduction of this groundbreaking new instrument which has the potential to change the lives — and piano playing — of scores of musicians worldwide within a few short years as we begin spreading the word now. |
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 | RECORDINGS on The 7’4″ NYC Steinway Stretto Piano. The piano is now located in Bedford Studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and we’re booking numerous pianists to make professional recordings there, especially for artists to record pieces that are not easy or possible to play on conventional piano keys. Reach out if you wish to record there! An online concert series entitled, “Rachmaninoff, His Friends & Contemporaries” will take place in February 2024 as our first non-festival happening. We will be inviting artists this month and quickly alerting the public to this premiere Stretto Piano Concerts event. See more about Sergei Rachmaninoff below. The Fourth Annual International Stretto Piano Festival takes place May 25 – June 2, 2024. We are encouraging our colleagues all over the world to create live, in-person events during this period, for any, some, or all of the days. We will do our best to create a sensational and unprecedented event in NYC and will keep you informed. LAST AND NOT BY ANY MEANS LEAST – Klavins Una Corda Stretto as described above. A BRAND NEW PIANO DESIGN WITH NARROW KEYS made by the most innovative piano company in the world! Sergei Rachmaninoff(photo above left) According to some scholarship, both Rachmaninoff and Lizst could reach at least 12 and sometimes 13 keys on a grand piano — that’s from a C to two As above the C, nearly two octaves! This article from 2021 reports ten facts about the virtuoso and composer. Rachmaninoff was 6’6″. Many people, even those with large hands, consider his music inconvenient and uncomfortable to play on conventionally sized keys. He was comfortable on 6.5-inch octave keys. Many people prefer to play piano pieces such as his and Liszt’s on alternatives such as 6.0-inch octave keys or 5.5-inch octave keys including his friend, Josef Hoffman, and all our Stretto Artists. |
 David Klavins at his VCG (Vertical Concert Grand) with 14-foot strings, the largest grand piano in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records. See more photos on the Klavins website | Klavins PianoSIAwas established by David Klavins in September 2020. The main activity of the company is building acoustic pianos of special design, invented by David Klavins, as well as building special design-pianos commissioned by third parties. David Klavins accomplished his degree of a master piano builder in January 1980, in Stuttgart, Germany, after having founded his first piano company in 1976 in Bonn, Germany. While initially specializing on the rebuilding of old pianos, in the course of his work he was studying the factors that mainly determine the acoustic characteristics of a piano. Klavins Website |
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