When I was a little girl, I wanted to play the piano more than anything. At around 7 or 8 years old, I often walked into our neighborhood piano teacher’s house and sat on her hallway bench to listen to her play. I signed myself up for lessons one day, and my parents were horrified. We did not own a piano, nor did we have money for lessons, so my playing was out of the question. But I always dreamed of a home filled with music.

When Sydney and Sophia were young, they took lessons for a few years. They both enjoyed the piano but did not play with passion. I realized they were playing because I had asked them to, not because they wanted to. So we stopped the lessons, and our beautiful piano sat relatively unplayed for about six years.

Fast-forward to 2018. Sydney wanted to do a project in the house, so she took on the management of restoring our beautiful c1904 Steinway. Some ivory keytops were unattached, the piano needed to be moved to a better location in the house, the wood veneer lacked polish, and the motherboard and interior pads needed to be tuned and restored. It was more than I had time to organize, so I was grateful Sydney was up for the job.

She arranged everything and worked closely with our tuner and favorite piano guy, Larry Brown from Luca Music. After the restoration and the piano’s move and tuning, it became alive again for us. We hired the best piano teacher in town, Sunny Lee Stanley, to come to the house weekly, and Sydney even took voice lessons. Once again, music filled our home, and this time, it was by choice!

In the beginning, Oliver was reluctant. Sunny, who is practically part of the family now, told young Oliver that playing the piano would strengthen his hands for pitching in baseball, so the pragmatist signed right up. He is still tickling the ivories, making our investment worth its weight in gold. He plays our old Steinway in Newport, and at the Tower condo, we have a new Yamaha digital keyboard with the most consistent and beautiful sound. Since the girls moved away from home and their piano life, Oliver still practices daily and has never wavered in his commitment to his preferred instrument.

Even during the COVID year(s), Sunny gave weekly piano lessons. We set up a computer on a high stool next to the piano, and she kept the lessons going via Zoom. Incredibly, the kids learned to play notes by ear this way: Sunny would play a note on her piano, and Sophia and Oliver would have to identify it by playing the matching key on our piano. We were impressed that it worked, although nothing compares to the in-person, 1:1 lesson.

Oliver has played daily for almost five years now and is a patient musician. He does not just ‘play’ piano; he feels the music, composes arrangements, adjusts and accommodates new rhythms, and challenges himself as a pianist.

Oliver does not seem to be interested in pursuing a career in music, so he is not planning to play formally at Williams. Although, how does he go from playing daily, to playing potentially very little while in college? This will be a challenge, and I am confident he will find a solution. Possibly, there are pianos around campus for students to play. Oliver will have to find ways to keep music in his life; he will hopefully find those pianos and sit down and play whenever the mood strikes. Even better, maybe he will find a way to continue lessons there.

Tony and I will always be grateful to Sydney for masterminding the restoration of our family piano and renewing our family’s love of music. This project has brought years of joy and musicality into our home, exactly as I had dreamt of many years ago.

I hope Oliver will find his path to continue playing piano in college and beyond, filling that musical part of him that we love so much.

©2024 Lynne Rey
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