Twin City Family Donates Grand Piano to St. Mary’s

A family from Minnetonka has graciously donated their mother’s grand piano to St. Mary’s and the piano will be moved to St. Mary’s on Tuesday, April 16th. St. Mary’s has fortunately had the use of Liz Nupien’s outstanding 9′ grand piano for a number of years and is incredibly grateful to Liz for allowing our musicians to use it.  However, Liz continues to actively market the piano for sale to outside buyers.  As a result, we simply could not turn down the unexpected and gracious offer for this donated piano once we learned about the history of the piano and had an opportunity to play and assess its overall condition,  Taking this piano does not necessarily preclude us from also purchasing Liz’s piano eventually if she cannot sell her piano to an outside buyer, and we remain in contact with Liz on an ongoing basis regarding that possibility. 

 

The Minnetonka family donating the piano to St. Mary’s was referred to us by Bjorn Gustafson, our former organist and music minister.  The piano is a 6’7″ Baldwin grand piano.  It was purchased new in 1941 by the family.  The mother in the family is an accomplished musician who taught piano lessons on this piano for 55 years, up until about 2 years ago.  The piano was tuned and repaired on an ongoing basis until recently by a respected piano professional from the University of Minnesota.   The piano has literally remained in the family home of the mother and father since the 1960’s.  The home is now being sold by the family given the death of their father and the need for their mother to move given her declining health.  

 

The family provided us with a written history of the mother’s music work and purchase of the piano, and they also gave us copies of the statement of work completed in 2001 when the piano was fully restored.  We will need to assume the costs of moving the piano, purchasing a dolly to place it on, a piano bench, humidifier and cover.  These services are being provided by Laursen’s Piano Service in Eden Prairie, which has serviced the piano most recently and is familiar with the instrument. 

 

We are very grateful to this family for their incredible gift to St. Mary’s and will be identifying a special way to thank them in the very near future!  Please feel free to contact Rex Holzemer with any questions.  

 

Rex H.