We started our day with a 40-minute bus ride to the Cunningham Piano Factory in Germantown where we were greeted by Rich Galassani, one of the co-owners of the Cunningham Piano Company. He gave us a private tour of the whole restoration and manufacturing facility. As we made our way through the first floor and saw the insides of many pianos, we met an incredible blind piano tuner named Maurice who was more than happy to talk to us and answer our questions. Maurice is so good at what he does that he’s often requested by name to tune the pianos of their celebrity clients like Patti LaBelle and Alicia Keys. After meeting Maurice, we were led to a large room filled with lots of pianos that were being restored or ready to be shipped out to their owners. Daniyal got to play a special Bosendorfer piano that has 96 keys instead of 88. Next we climbed some very steep and narrow stairs to the second floor. Once there, we got to see a few people actually working on the instruments. We watched them stain the wood, set up the dampers, take out the keys, and more. As we learned about the restoration process, our guide told us some fun facts about some of the famous people who have ordered pianos from them such as John Legend and Bobby McFerrin. Before we left, some students who played piano got to practice on the ones they had available there.
We then walked just down the block to a local pizza place where we stayed at for the remaining time. Some of us even ordered Crumbl cookies to be dropped off. Overall everyone really enjoyed learning about pianos, and we cannot wait for tomorrow to close off this great week!