ARTFUL BLOGGER: On July 25, you, too, can hear the 1777 piano that was once ‘fit for a queen’
Artful Musing

ARTFUL BLOGGER: On July 25, you, too, can hear the 1777 piano that was once ‘fit for a queen’
BY Paul Gessell
POSTED July 21, 2011 10:52 am

By Paul Gessell

John Hall, curator of the Canadian Piano Museum in Napanee, with the fortepiano. Photo by James Park.

Marie (“Let them eat cake”) had one. So did Russia’s Catherine the Great and England’s Queen Charlotte.

And now, thanks to Carleton University, Chamberfest fans can hear one – a 1777 Frederick Beck Square Fortepiano, that is.

The event takes place this Monday, July 25, and will begin with a 20-minute lecture-demonstration by Frédéric Lacroix, who studied with the renowned fortepianist Malcolm Bilson at Columbia University. That will be followed by a talk about early chamber music by Ruth Bell, a longtime Chamberfest supporter who received an honourary doctorate from Carleton in 1984 for her work in improving the status of women in Canada and beyond. (more…)