We can look forward to a great show for BlizzAid-Holiday Edition on Nov. 30.  Lots of people have a dozen things to do that day, but they are setting aside some time to entertain an audience and help raise funds for the American Red Cross.

Curtis Bauer will be there in the first hour.  You’ll remember him as “The Phantom” closing out our first show on Nov. 16.  Many of us only get to hear a snippet of his playing when he finishes tuning our pianos.  He’s been working on some new improvisations on old tunes, so get ready to settle back and enjoy yourself.

Ruby Evans, Rhye Leonard and Karen Waltman will return and we’ll be adding more seasonal tunes. Emily and Christine Delzer will be able to join us this time.  Several members of Piano Pals plan to show off their duet skills.  I need to get some practice in myself so I’ll be ready to fill in.

If you are interested in playing please call me at 342-3328 or e-mail at marietesch@rap.midco.net.  I’ll be happy to set you up with a specific time and/or answer questions.  You can also just SHOW UP and we’ll put you into the lineup.

Remember - Sunday, Nov. 30, 3 to 6 p.m. at the Rushmore Mall.  We’ll be in the courtyard in front of Herberger’s.  There will be chairs for the audience to enjoy the free concert.  Staff members from the Black Hills Chapter of the American Red Cross will be registering piano players and collecting donations from the audience. 

How often do you get to play a brand-new Yamaha Grand Piano with a nice holiday audience?  AND, it helps to make the world a better place.

Thanks for stopping by.  mlt

 

Yes, we are doing another BlizzAid.  We were just bowled over at the success of our little concert  put together in 5 days.  Now we are planning on BlizzAid - Holiday Edition at the Rushmore Mall on Sunday, Nov. 30.

My first job is to recruit more piano players.  If you’ve been practicing and you  have a holiday tune ready to go, please join us.  We will begin at 3 p.m. and play until the mall closes at 6 that Sunday.

There will be jars set out for the audience to contribute cash and checks for the American Red Cross.  Last Sunday we raised $1,110.  I think we could double that number with BlizzAid-  Holiday Edition.

Remember, the purpose is to raise funds to help the Red Cross for future emergencies - like the blizzard we just lived through.  Of course, the fact that we have fun playing and performing is just the frosting on the cake.

If you are interested, just click on the comment box below and send me a direct message right away.  Or, you may send e-mail to marietesch@rap.midco.net.

Thanks for stopping by.  mlt

 

 

All that practice truly “paid off” this time.  In just 90 minutes, local piano players showed off their talents and raised $1,110.06 for BlizzAid.  My personal goal was $500; we raised $550.03. Then an audience member (who asks to remain anonymous) said, “I’ll double it”.  THANKS!

Readers of this blog know the idea started just four days ago when I called Connie and Tony Thomas to ask if we could perform at Tuscany Hall. That’s the new recital area that they provide (free of charge) for local piano teachers.  Then I asked other teachers to bring their students and encouraged my students to attend.  It was a lucky thing that Cora Fried and Mina DeWitt had music from Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” polished and ready to go. THANKS!

By Friday I was at the American Red Cross office working out details with Betsey Mergenthal and Anna Stuard. They showed up to run the registration tables Sunday - along with spouses and children.  So did their boss Richard Smith.  His children Hannah, 6,  and Zachary, 8, also skipped up to play the piano.  THANKS!

My student Cleone Mayclin not only performed at the keyboard, she also tallied the votes of each round and kept a cool head with the numbers and dollars. Her duet partner, Karen Waltman, pitched in to hang the Red Cross flags before we started.  All of my students who performed were wonderfully calm and collected while I flew around trying to run the show, do two television interviews, talk to the reporter and photographer from the RC Journal and even play piano a bit.  THANKS!

Players were Rhye Leonard, Moriah Larson, Margaret Norton, Caroline Zakhari, Ruby Evans, Karen Waltman, Cleone Mayclin, Lander Solon, Sarah Jundt.  I am so proud of each and every one.  THANKS!

We had eight teams playing “Heart & Soul”.  OK, so it wasn’t the record-breaker I was hoping for, but it was a whole lotta’ sound going on and a BUNCH of fun.  Piano tuner Curtis Bauer was a good sport to rush over from his choir rehearsal, don a rented phantom costume and dash in to finish out the evening.  THANKS!

Starbucks provided coffee for the evening and a lovely gift bag for our door prize.  The audience filled the room, overflowed into the hall and were just terrific.  They clapped, they cheered, they stood up and stomped. THANKS!

There’s more, but I gotta catch my breath.  mlt

Thanks to Starbucks on Mount Rushmore road BlizzAid will even smell good.  Manager Melissa Shoop will be bringing the freshly-brewed caffeine for all to enjoy during the concert. PLUS, Starbucks is donating a gift basket which we will award to some lucky donor.

We will put all the donor numbers into a basket and pull out the winning number at the end of the show.  Be there at 6 p.m. to win the prize.

…and Melissa said she is hoping to be part of the Marathon Heart & Soul performance.

Keep those ideas rolling!  See you Sunday 4:30 to 6 p.m. at Black Hills Piano Gallery.  mlt

 

My husband just contributed his pocket change to sponsor the first team of Heart & Soul.  It’s just over $30.  He’s been collecting his change and putting it into coin rolls for some time now (waiting for that rainy day).

Go thou and check your piggie banks.  Let me know if you want to make a pre-donation for BlizzAid.  marietesch@rap.midco.net

See you on Sunday.  mlt

We took it up another notch.  Cora Fried and Mina DeWitt will be playing music from Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” during the BlizzAid  this Sunday, November 16, 2008.

I just visited with Tony and Connie Thomas, owners of the Black Hills Piano Gallery, this afternoon.  They have everything set up in Tuscany Hall -  a lovely space in the new store created especially for piano performance.

 At about 4:30 we will start with the first group of players- students of Deanna Ziarko.  Audience members can participate by voting for their favorite player with pledge dollars.  The top “vote getters” will move to the second round beginning about 5 p.m. - those will be my students (mostly).  We will have the same round of voting for top players and then prepare for a final round.

At 5:15 we’ll have the opportunity to hear the marvelous sounds of Gershwin by two polished performers.  We hope folks will stuff the donation jars in appreciation.

Just after 5:30 we will try to get as many teams of players at the keyboards for a marathon playing of “Heart & Soul”.  It will all be great fun, but the most important point is that we are using our talents to raise funds to help victims of the blizzard.  That’s where the Red Cross comes in - representatives will be there to help out and take the donations directly to the Black Hills Area Red Cross.

I am working on a few mystery guests and - oh yes - I am still looking for big, clear jars (like restaurant pickle jars) for the donations.  If you can help please drop me a line at this blog, or call 342-3328.  If you can distribute flyers let me know, I’ll send it right out.

If you would like to be a player, just show up between 4:30 and 6.  We will put you on the program.   Yes, I will be prepared to play if silence threatens.

Remember - this Sunday, Nov. 16, from 4 until 6:30 p.m.   Black Hills Piano Gallery at 333 Omaha Street (where Dan’s Supermarket used to be).  There is PLENTY OF FREE PARKING. 

Hope you can make it.

Thanks for stopping by. mlt

If you take the “r” out of blizzard and change it to an “i” you will get BlizzAid! That’s what we piano teachers are putting together for this coming Sunday, November 16.

We are bringing our piano students to the new Tuscany Hall at the Black Hills Piano Gallery, 333 Omaha Street, Rapid City.  Owners Tony and Connie Thomas are providing the space with marvelous pianos so that we can have a fundraising concert.  The teachers are bringing the talent and fun.

Proceeds will benefit the victims of the recent blizzard.  We will be gathering cash and checks for the American Red Cross. 

If you would like to participate, you can send a comment on this blog or call me at 342-3328.   Check back daily to find out about our progress!

Gotta’ scurry…lots of things to do! mlt

 

Please indulge me, dear reader, in flights of fancy and romanticism.

Today’s picture is from “The Phantom of the Opera House ” fundraiser at the Homestake Opera House in Lead, South Dakota.  The particular pose of the piano player on the staircase brought back a flood of memories dating back to the 1980s.

When Dorinda Daniel, from the South Dakota Historical Society in Pierre, invited me to play piano for the gala, she had no idea what a history I have with the Northern Hills.  My husband and I had a bit of a chuckle when we read the lengthy descriptions of the other performers in the program.  Mine simply said I was “a piano teacher from Rapid City”.

Although we were early, a small crowd had already gathered.  We scurried upstairs to find the piano.  At the top of the stairs we were greeted by my husband’s boyhood pal. Throughout the evening he had many similar experiences and I only caught occasional glimpses of him in the crowd.

I settled down to a nice, old, upright grand in the upper galleries and commenced to play.  (Frankly, I suspected it was a test to see if I could really play well before they let me perform down in the main staging area.) Soon old friends drifted by - those who remembered me as “M.L.” the society editor who had a column in the Lead newspaper called “Caught by the Muse”.  There were others who had known me as the piano player from The Franklin Hotel Dining Room in Deadwood.  There were even some who remembered my days of working with various arts activities before coming to the Black Hills - including theatre and public radio.  

Recent acquaintances (who only know me as an occasional painter)  were quite surprised to see me playing piano.  Well, the truth is I am getting older now and the past trails me like the train on my gown.  One gets to the point of not explaining, just exchanging a knowing glance with someone across the room.

One does get a distinct feeling of “past lives” in that building.  I’ve only known about the Opera House for about 25 years.  My husband remembers back 40 years when he swam in the pool, went to the movies and learned how to bowl there. 

Early this week I heard great stories about the balcony “activities” in the 50s from a lively couple who are grandparents of my piano students.  She was an usherette at the movie theatre who was kept busy when teenage boys put their feet up on the seats.  He claims he only did that to get the attention of the good-looking usherette.

I finished the evening chatting with the Morcoms, who just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary - and a lifetime in the old mining town.  Lead was a  heck of a place,  once upon a time.  Many of us hope it can be that again.

For all those dear friends in the Northern Hills - thank you.  I am glad to be a “part of the past” now.

I did resist telling the other performers that I was playing piano in Lead before they were born. Or, as my husband put it, “When did I get to be the old guy?”

Oh, yes.  I almost forgot to tell you.  There was a lovely corsage of white roses waiting for me in the Opera House. The card simply said, “Thinking of You.”

 They weren’t from the Art Council, or the Historic Society.  No, they weren’t from my husband. 

 We have our suspicions, but for now we are assuming they were from

 The Phantom.

(Tah.  Tah,tah,tah,tah, ta-a-a-a-H.   Tah, tah,tah,tah, t-a-a-a-h.)

I am not making this up.  mlt