Steinway artist, Dan Knight, and his wife Julie.
Twenty-five years ago, before Dan and I were married, he told me he wanted to be a Steinway Artist.
“Why do you want to be a Steinway Artist?” I asked him. I really didn’t know what it meant.
“To be a Steinway Artist,” he said, “is to be acknowledged as one of the best pianists in the world.” No small achievement, I thought.
“So what does it take to be a Steinway Artist?” I asked.
“You have to prove you’re one of the best. You need recommendations from other Steinway Artists. Recordings. Reviews. The first thing the Steinway people ask you, though, is the serial number of your personal Steinway. They want you to make a lifetime investment in you, before you make a lifetime investment in them.”
“They don’t just give you a piano?” I asked, innocently enough. Dan shook his head, “No. We have to buy one.”
I shrugged my shoulders and said, “Yeah, sure,” then went on with the task of fixing our dinner. I let the spaghetti sauce cook down to the right consistency as I briefly thought about a Steinway for Dan. I really didn’t consider it for any longer than that.
It was just that simple. I had asked. He had answered. Of course he needed a piano. Sounded like he needed a Steinway.
As we sat at the table, enjoying our meal together, I got a little more curious.
“So. What does a Steinway cost, anyway?”
“Thousands,” he said, “tens of thousands of dollars.” It was more money than I could imagine. For a piano?
There’s a reason they call Steinway “the instrument of the Immortals”–most of the greatest pianists and composers of the past century were Steinway Artists. The Steinway Piano was their choice. They’re simply the best pianos in the world.
As I learned from Dan why it was so important for him to have a Steinway, it became my dream, too. Together we planned our budget, and started the search for the piano of his dreams. The day he found a particular, “special” Steinway Model O, was a day that changed our lives forever. I named her “Oline,” after my maternal grandmother. When Dan played her, it was obvious that this was “his” piano. Dan needed an instrument that would speak to him. “She” was the one.
With the purchase of “Oline,” and after his audition performance at Steinway Hall in New York City two months later, Dan became a Steinway Artist.
He said, “Steinway is the instrument of dreams.” It was a dream come true for both of us.
This grand old lady will be with us for the rest of our lives.
The voice of Steinway speaks to us, through “Oline” at home, and through the Steinway pianos which sing as Dan plays them in clubs, salons, festivals and concert halls around the world. The sound, his sound, reaches into the hearts of audiences wherever we go. Even when we’re at home and the audience is just me.
Ask me now about the value of owning a Steinway, and I’ll tell you. I can state it in one word.
The word?
“Priceless.”
Attend a performance Dan Knight– learn more by clicking here
