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By Elizabeth Walker
 The
piano is the original home entertainment unit. A grand piece
of furniture, it could displace more decorating space than
an overstuffed sofa. The piano in the parlor remained the
family focal point after Sunday dinner and before the advent
of television. Few children avoided the daily solo known
as piano practice-dubbed by sandlot ball players "30-minutes
penance."
Times changed. Lean public school budgets got mean and cut music education programs.
Extended day care at school and year-round sports participation helped erode
children's free time at home, and the instant gratification of computer and video
games gobbled up dollars formerly earmarked for music lessons. Consequently,
the American family tradition of weekly piano lessons and the eventual investment
in
an upright was on the wane.
It seems that the piano has come home again-much to the delight of four Holy
Cross alumni for whom, to varying degrees, the piano represents a trinity of
passion, product and livelihood.
Second-generation alumnus Jerome F. Murphy '72 took the same path up the Hill
that his father, Paul Murphy '35, and
uncle, Jerome Murphy '32, had taken. He is also a third-generation Murphy in
a family of piano merchants. Murphy and his brother own and run M. Steinert & Sons
on Boylston Street in Boston. The building is the nation's oldest retail music
location. Murphy's daughter, who recently applied to Holy Cross, may carry the
family's academic tradition into a third generation and subsequently make a place
for herself as a fourth generation Murphy in an industry distinguished by a tradition
of family ownership.
Jerome Murphy's grandfather went to work as
an office clerk for M. Steinert & Sons in 1897, a year after it opened in
the brick building on Boston Common. It was in that venerable building that Jerome
found room for his well-honed accounting skills in the family workplace. Three
generations of Murphys have replaced three generations of Steinerts who cycled
through the family business founded in 1860.
"I wasn't interested in going into the family
business," Murphy said. "My brother was already there. After I graduated, I went
on to Rutgers for an M.B.A. I worked for the Arthur Andersen accounting firm
for five years, then started looking around for other opportunities. My dad told
me there was room for two (sons) in the business, so I moved from a modern glass
building downtown to this century-old brick building.
I've never regretted it. My brother and I work well together because we have
complementary skills."
Murphy contributed more than his financial acumen to the partnership; he also
brought the hands-on product knowledge that he gained in the family shop rebuilding
pianos while he was still
in school.
"The basic piano is a 19th-century invention," Murphy said. "It's unlike any
other product because it has a soul. It's still the instrument of choice for
anyone who wants to compose. It can
play the entire range of a symphony orchestra."
In addition to selling and restoring Steinways, along with other piano brands,
the Murphys sell digital keyboards, digital piano enhancements, and piano products
and services with dealerships in
Natick and Worcester. M. Steinert & Sons also provides piano labs for colleges
and universities. The integrated systems allow one teacher to instruct a dozen
students, all at different levels of proficiency.
"We're working with MIT on a lab right now," Murphy said. "If you're a music
major, but not a pianist, you must show proficiency at the piano to compose.
The students are very motivated to
learn."
Learning to play the piano was not on William
J. McCormick Jr.'s agenda. Even though he loves music, McCormick said he
couldn't find "high C" when he graduated with a degree in English literature
in 1959. Yet his lack of musical training did not prevent him from becoming chairman
and sole owner (since 1983) of Jordan Kitt's Music in College
Park, Md.
Founded in 1912, Jordan Kitt's is the largest piano, organ and keyboard dealer
on the East Coast. The company also provides Steinway concert pianos for 95 percent
of the artists who perform at the White House, including Elton John, who played
during British Prime Minister
Tony Blair's recent visit. Though the Steinways seem identical to the untrained
eye and ear, each has its own touch and tone. Celebrity pianists try out several
to select "the right one." McCormick likened the process to Goldilocks' search
for the bed in the three bears' abode that was "just right."
McCormick, father of William J. McCormick
III '95, said his entrance into the musical instrument business was serendipitous.
He earned an M.B.A. at the Harvard Business School in 1961, then went to work
for an international consulting and business firm. After a decade of officer-level
positions as a management consultant in several consumer products companies,
McCormick joined Jordan Kitt's Music in 1971.
"It's a small industry dominated by families," he said. "I think it's unusual
to have four of the companies in this small industry headed by Holy Cross graduates.
I'm on the board of directors for the National Association of Music Merchants
and Paul Murphy (M. Steinert & Sons) will be the next association president."
It's a curious industry because it features a product that has not changed technologically
in 100 years, McCormick
said. It's also a growth industry, though fewer than 100,000 acoustic pianos
are sold each year; that's one per thousand households or $800 million in retail
sales annually. Twenty to 30,000 grand pianos have been sold in the past five-to-ten
years.
"Our competition today is computers-the other
keyboard," he said. "Parents who ordinarily would invest in music education for
their children are using that money to buy computers instead. A quarter of a
century ago, parents were buying pianos for their children. Today the market
is much more adult-oriented."
Adults are buying pianos for themselves in greater numbers
thanks to the digital capabilities that are either built in or available to install
in many pianos,
according to McCormick. Reproducers offer consumers a 20th-century technology
which allows them to enjoy live music at home without the work of learning to
play. These digital enhancements play the acoustic piano from a compact disc,
reminiscent of the old roll or player pianos. It is also possible to play music
downloaded from the
Internet onto a floppy disk.
Schools and universities are significant Jordan Kitt customers. Holy Cross has
benefitted greatly from McCormick's generosity and support over the years. Students
and faculty in the music department can enjoy two Yamaha grand pianos, several
other pianos, and synthesizer and sound mixing equipment that he donated in support
of the new Brooks
Concert Hall.
In the same spirit, Dennis Hansen '76 and his wife, Sharon, whom he describes
as "unfortunately a Boston College
grad," marked the 150th anniversary of Holy Cross by presenting the College with
a Steinway grand piano. At his graduation back in 1976, Hansen never imagined
his future as chief financial officer and general counsel at Steinway Musical
Instruments in Waltham.
"After graduation, I was recruited by one
of the then-Big Eight accounting firms," Hansen said. "From there I went to work
for a computer software company and earned my law degree at Suffolk University.
When the software company was taken over by Prime, my wife and I started our
own law and accounting firm. Steinway became a client."
Hansen joined the company in 1988. In addition to its
world-renown concert pianos, Steinway also offers fine band instruments, including
Ludwig Drums, the drums
of choice for both former Beatle Ringo
Starr, and the band Guns and Roses.
"I like working for a company with such a
strong product recognition factor," Hansen said. "Steinway pianos are recognized
as number one in the world on the concert stage."
That world is expanding and the competition is increasing for piano manufacturers
as new companies and countries enter the international marketplace, according
to James F. Hamilton '74, owner
of Piano Mill.
Japanese and Korean piano manufacturers entered the market in the late 1960s
and 1970s. Today pianos are being built in
new places-including Russia, Estonia, Poland, China and Czechoslovakia. The prices
are lower, but the quality is not the same, he added.
Hamilton says he had no music background when he got
into the piano business in 1993. His involvement was largely the result of a
business opportunity. After
he graduated with a degree in sociology, he earned an M.B.A. at Babson College
and did management consulting. Today, his company is the anchor tenant in a restored
mill building in Newton Upper Falls, Mass. In addition to selling pianos, Piano
Mill rebuilds,
restores and stores them for manufacturers and individuals.
"The piano business is much smaller than the companies I consulted with, but
all the same business principles apply
at the end of the day," he said. "What makes the piano unique is that you
don't face product obsolescence. It can be repaired and restored to like new
condition."
Residential market demand is likely to increase for such a piano. With a continued
strong economy, and recent studies that correlate piano playing with enhanced
spatial reasoning skills in children,
there's no doubt that a new generation of young people - and their parents - will
do their daily "30-minutes penance" under the stern flash of the
metronome.
Elizabeth Walker is a
freelance journalist from Holden, Mass.
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