The Story of the Steinway Model D Concert Grand Piano

Story and photos by Charles Chandler
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Odd isn’t it, how we feel better when we are in one of our happy places with friends and family nearby? For just a moment of time, the weight of the world lifts and we experience the joy of community and our better humanity.

The Dogwood Center for Performing Arts is one of my happy places. It is a cultural and community treasure and the beating heart for the performance arts in Newaygo County. You could write books about Dogwood. We can often recall our favorite performance we enjoyed there. Chapters could be written on the history of the building.  Or the performance bookings and operations that are professionally managed by the Executive Director, Marianne Boerigter, and competent staff. Or the Dogwood’s appeal because it draws the best from the community for supporting volunteers, board members and gracious donors. This is not a story about Dogwood proper but a recognition of the story within the Dogwood. A story that has been told or experienced by others but as we know all things old can become new again. For example, I can watch The Lawrence Welk Show or Gunsmoke on my Smart TV or Mobil phone. 

For sometimes now I have had this little niggly curiosity about something that resides in the Dogwood.  The light bulb came on Sunday, March 2 at 3:00 p.m. at the Dogwood Center’s Black Box! I was attending the Grand Valley Piano Chamber Series. This excellent series of classical piano chamber music is funded by the Fremont Area Community Foundation and is free to the public! Being in the Black Box I was able to sit up front and watch and listen to pianist Sookkyung Cho perform beautiful pieces by Franz Schubert, Antonin Dvorak, and Leos Janácek. An amazing and emotional performance. Once I thought I saw the Foundation’s CEO Shelly Kasprzycki quickly dab her eyes. On several occasions Ms. Sookkyung commented on how wonderful the Dogwood’s Piano was and how she enjoyed playing it. I also recalled having heard several other performers comment on the Dogwood Piano. 

Then I had that moment we all have experienced. The one where you have bumped around something or someone for a while and then for some reason saw it or them clearly for the first time. That usually results in “well I’ll be, look at that”, or “till death do us part” , or sometimes, “what did I ever see in him.” 

I was watching a talented pianist play a Steinway and Sons Model D Concert Grand Piano. Holy smokes, the holy grail of pianos. In our practical world we most often go straight to the value of something.  I knew that in terms of USA dollars you could buy a county in Arkansas, or that Piano I was listening to. 

The marketing literature proudly states that the “Steinway and Sons Model D Concert Grand Piano is a majestic musical instrument. It is said to be the pinnacle of concert grand pianos. The overwhelming choice of the world's greatest pianists and for anyone who demands the highest level of musical expression.’ 
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So here is the mystery. How did a Steinway and Sons Model D Concert Grand Piano make its way to this Newaygo County community? To here in this exemplary Performing Arts Center located within a stone’s throw of corn fields, fruit orchards and dairy barns. The nearest place you can buy a Steinway is at the factory in Astoria, NY. Being an invasive species here, I have learned over time that Newaygo County is a complex and wonderful place that has many treasures and mysteries.  

Fast forward and a month later. This time it was a stop at another one of my happy places, the NCCA-Artsplace on Mainstreet in Fremont. I was hoping for a chat about the Piano with the always extra busy Director, Marianne Boerigter. She was on her way to another meeting but as always had a few minutes to give. She quickly agreed that there was truly a great story about the piano and that maybe in the Dogwood archives there was something, a file or document that if found she would send to me. Perfect, a good mystery must have a search for lost documents. A couple of days later I received an email from Marianne with a one-page attachment. It was an interview with Ms. Becky Jansma that was published in the Dogwood News on 06/22/02. According to this brief article Ms. Jansma was tasked with finding a piano for the Dogwood. Her search team included Ms. Bernadine Johnson and Ms. Thea Hoekman both members of the Newaygo County Area Piano Teachers Association. (Who knew this?)

​The team located a Model D Concert Grand Piano at Reeder’s Piano in Lansing. It was built in 1955, and Readers had restored it to new specifications. Price $40,000.  The search team went down to Reeder’s and “auditioned” the piano. They found the piano worthy and were “amazed by its clear and clean sound.”  They could buy a like new Model D Concert Grand Piano for $40.000 that would last many years and complement the performances at the Dogwood. To complete their mission, they had to raise the money, purchase the piano and get it delivered to Fremont. To add to the challenge, they wanted to have the Piano in place for the Grand Opening on July 21, 2002. 

I would have loved to have been in that car on the return trip from Reeder’s in Lansing to Fremont. You certainly would have heard some serious campaign plans. This intrepid team soon organized and hosted a “Center’s Keys to the Grand fund raiser. The fund-raiser included singers, dancers, jugglers and of course all accompanied by piano. They raised $28,000 at that event. Bummer, well short of the list price. As a former board member of the Dogwood, you never underestimate the determination of the Dogwood supporters or the generosity of the folks in Newaygo County.   An anonymous donor stepped up and the Model D Concert Grand Piano came home to Fremont. 

For the Grand Opening of the Dogwood the Model D made its debut in the musical “Man of La Mancha.”   
The people of our community, musicians and all performance fans owe Ms. Jansma, Ms. Bernadine Johnson and Ms. Thea Hoekman a huge debt of gratitude for their good work.

I had a chance to chat with Mr. Peter Wagner, the Factory Direct Representative for Steinway and Sons, and it would cost about a quarter million in today’s dollars to replace our Model D Concert Grand Piano
 Thanks ladies, well done.
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To be continued, maybe. I love a good story and feel there is much more to this one.  Maybe we could find some of those good folks that were involved in the purchase of the Model D Concert Grand Piano and the Grand Opening of our beloved Dogwood Center for Performing Arts. I would love to hear their “you should have been there” side of the story