In 1995, Benjamin Treuhaft, a piano tuner, began Send a Piana To Havana. He wanted to bring attention to an aspect of Cuban life that we don't consider: the countless young pianists, many of them incredibly well-trained, often by Russian masters, playing on pathetic antique American pianos with strings long since rusted through, or bad Russian pianos half-eaten by termites. As few new pianos are imported to Cuba, and replacement parts are unavailable, Cuba's musical community suffers. In the States, good used pianos are plentiful and cheap. Treuhaft developed the plan to round up some of these and send them over.
Send A Piana To Havana Has sent 110 used upright and grand pianos and tons of related parts and supplies. The instruments are distributed to the wonderful broken-down music schools that dot the island, or awarded to outstanding individual students. The project has a workshop in a room at the Escuela Nacional de Arte in the beautiful ex-country club arts and music complex in the western outskirts of Havana. Each year, our International Tuners' Brigade descends upon this site for about 10 days. The Brigade consists primarily of technicians trained in piano tuning, repair, and rebuilding, but also includes volunteers of all kinds. We help fix up the donated pianos and prepare them for distribution.
Send A Piana To Havana wants to establish a permanent presence on the island: a year-round workshop/school where experts train Cubans in modern rebuilding techniques. While the focus of the project is to send badly needed pianos to Cuba, a workshop and school will ensure that the instruments will, last, that existing salvageable pianos will be saved, and that young Cubans will become tuners.
Donnie Byrd in the workshop (photograph © Maximiliana Henze)
