- April 26, 2024
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The instrument was donated by an Ormond resident.
When the Friends of the Performing Arts Center asked Marc Schwartz, PAC supervisor, what the facility really needed, he told them a concert grand piano. It would make it possible for the facility to attract quality, symphonic orchestras, but a new one would cost $50,000.
Alan Burton, a member of Friends, said the PAC has a piano, but it’s not a concert piano, and that makes a big difference.
The Friends of the PAC is a group of volunteers that raises money for the facility. They have acquired microphones, sound boards, lights, etc., but nothing as significant as a piano.
Until now.
Lori Tolland, a member of the group, was visiting a friend recently, who was downsizing to a smaller house in Ormond Beach.
The friend, Janet Dannehower, said she did not have room for the six-foot, grand Yamaha that she bought 12 years ago for her daughter to play. It was a 1977 model, manufactured in Japan.
She told Tolland that she was thinking of donating it, and Tolland told her she knew the perfect nonprofit organization that needed it.
“It’s all about being in the right place at the right time,” Tolland said. “She has a generous heart.”
Dannehower said, “The opportunities it makes for the PAC makes me happy.”
Burton said he has already talked to his contacts at Stetson University, and there are singers and pianists now interested in performing at the PAC.
“Aspiring professionals and people on the high end of their music career won’t mind playing on this piano,” he said. “It will be used for all kinds of performances for umpteen years.”
He said it will be available for any performance at the PAC.
“It gives you a chance to do different things,” he said. “This gives a lot of flexibility for performing arts in Ormond Beach.
He said they’ve designated funds to have all of the hammers refinished so the piano will be “just like new.”
Burton said grand pianos can be rented for a performance but it’s a “really big deal.”
It’s a big job to move a piano, and after moving, they have to be tuned.
