Austin Chapter PTG
Newsletter
March 2011

Next meeting - Monday, March 7th, 7:30 P.M., UT School of Music, Room M3.113 (mezzanine level 3M)

Steve Walthall will give a presentation on tuning checks, specially geared for folks who are preparing to take the RPT exam.

Upcoming meetings

March 1st:

April 2nd: We will make our annual pilgrimage to Bernard Mollberg's shop.  (Here's hoping for a great wildflower display!)  We'll plan to arrive at 10:30 a.m.  Topics are yet to be announced, but it's sure to be great, because it's Bernard.  If there's anyone out there who is not familiar with Bernard and his work, just go to www.mollbergpiano.com .

Bernard Mollberg will host our next chapter meeting on Saturday, April 2nd at 10:30 am. Refreshments and a light lunch following the meeting will be provided. The technical focus of the meeting will be some unusual work Mollberg Piano Restoration is doing to modify and rescale a Vose & Sons 5'4" grand. The piano is owned by Kerry Symes, RPT who works in Tyler and Dallas. Kerry developed a new stringing scale he wanted to implement. This involved modifying the profile of the long bridge. A new long bridge root was designed and laminated to match the new scale. Several other modifications were carried out on the plate, the new soundboard, and a custom pulsator has been installed. Also on view will be a square grand (YIKES... first one for Mollberg Piano Restoration in over 12 years!) that is having pinblock material inlaid, and a new partial bridge cap of horizontally laminated maple. Other shop projects will be reviewed, and of course, questions and (perhaps) answers. Bernard's Blanco County shop is a pleasant drive of no more than an hour from most parts of Austin and San Antonio. See the driving directions attached. We hope you can make this annual Spring meeting in the Hill Country.

May 21st: An all-day workshop with Richard Davenport. Cost of the workshop will be $75.00 and will include lunch.  For more on his work, go to http://www.rcdavenport.com/about.htm

June Meeting: Bill Cory has offered to host the June meeting at his home, 711 Landon Lane. The technical portion of the program will be given by Keith Wormer. Further information concerning Keith's presentation, date, and time will be included in a future newsletter.

Final Notes

And finally, this is a reminder that it's almost time to elect chapter officers. We will be accomplishing that at either the March or April meeting, so be giving it some thought. Nominations are now open.

See you Monday night,

Steve Walthall, RPT
President
cell phone 512-680-3366

Tom Seay, RPT
Vice-President
454-1452

Joe Dunn
Secretary/Treasurer
268-5000

Austin Chapter Website
http://austinptg.org

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