CMU & Yamaha Join Forces
BUENA PARK, CA (December 30, 2005) — Since 1892, Central Michigan University has become ranked among the best universities in the Midwest. Its School of Music boasts 564 undergraduate and graduate majors, and over 40 faculty members. Four different degree tracks and one interdisciplinary major attract students with diverse career goals, and nine instrumental ensembles, five choral/opera ensembles and chamber music groups provide a multitude of performance opportunities, many of which are broadcast on local public radio stations.
A Yamaha CFIIIS concert grand piano is used for performances in the 500-seat Staples Family Concert Hall, and a Yamaha 7-foot grand piano is onstage at CMU’s 100-seat chamber music venue, Chamichian Hall. A Disklavier®, two C5 conservatory grand pianos and 31 P22 uprights are used in classrooms, practice rooms and rehearsal spaces.
“We look upon our relationship with Yamaha very favorably for many reasons,” says Randi L’Hommedieu, director of the School of Music. “The pianos are absolutely reliable, consistent and high quality. Yamaha is so involved in higher education and K-12, we feel like real partners. It’s about more than buying and selling instruments; it’s about strengthening music education in schools. We became very close with Yamaha when instrumental division corporate offices were in Grand Rapids,” he continues. “Yamaha’s top technicians have worked with staff and offered clinics in our concert halls; the pianos were in spectacular shape when they left, and the local piano technicians had a great opportunity to look over their shoulders while they were working.”
CMU students and ensembles perform widely, including with regional symphony orchestras, in Europe, Asia, and Central and South America, at Carnegie Hall, at the Detroit/Montreux Jazz Festival, at the Notre Dame Jazz Festival, and at major festivals and competitions. Talented music students compete to perform at CMU’s annual spring “Opus,” a community-embracing endowment fundraiser for music scholarships, equipment and travel. Since 1997, the black-tie event has become “one of the top events in the Mount Pleasant area,” says L’Hommedieu. “There’s a collage concert by students, cocktail reception, sit-down dinner for 300, and dancing. It’s thrilling to hear what the students have accomplished.”
Yamaha instruments are a mainstay of CMU’s popular e-Band and its Percussion Ensemble, as well as two camps for high school students: Summer Music Camp for keyboard, string, woodwind, brass, percussion and vocal students and Sounds of Summer Marching Percussion Camp. Pianists who have presented concerts and master classes at CMU in recent years include Ruth Laredo, Jeongwon Ham, Antonia Pampa-Baldi, John O’Conor, George Fee, Pascal Roge, Wu Han, Caio Pagano, and Maria Jose Carrasquieras.
For more information, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Piano Division, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622; telephone (714) 522-9011; or e-mail infostation@yamaha.com.
A student at the School of Music performs on a Yamaha piano. |
“We look upon our relationship with Yamaha very favorably for many reasons,” says Randi L’Hommedieu, director of the School of Music. “The pianos are absolutely reliable, consistent and high quality. Yamaha is so involved in higher education and K-12, we feel like real partners. It’s about more than buying and selling instruments; it’s about strengthening music education in schools. We became very close with Yamaha when instrumental division corporate offices were in Grand Rapids,” he continues. “Yamaha’s top technicians have worked with staff and offered clinics in our concert halls; the pianos were in spectacular shape when they left, and the local piano technicians had a great opportunity to look over their shoulders while they were working.”
CMU students and ensembles perform widely, including with regional symphony orchestras, in Europe, Asia, and Central and South America, at Carnegie Hall, at the Detroit/Montreux Jazz Festival, at the Notre Dame Jazz Festival, and at major festivals and competitions. Talented music students compete to perform at CMU’s annual spring “Opus,” a community-embracing endowment fundraiser for music scholarships, equipment and travel. Since 1997, the black-tie event has become “one of the top events in the Mount Pleasant area,” says L’Hommedieu. “There’s a collage concert by students, cocktail reception, sit-down dinner for 300, and dancing. It’s thrilling to hear what the students have accomplished.”
Yamaha instruments are a mainstay of CMU’s popular e-Band and its Percussion Ensemble, as well as two camps for high school students: Summer Music Camp for keyboard, string, woodwind, brass, percussion and vocal students and Sounds of Summer Marching Percussion Camp. Pianists who have presented concerts and master classes at CMU in recent years include Ruth Laredo, Jeongwon Ham, Antonia Pampa-Baldi, John O’Conor, George Fee, Pascal Roge, Wu Han, Caio Pagano, and Maria Jose Carrasquieras.
For more information, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Piano Division, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622; telephone (714) 522-9011; or e-mail infostation@yamaha.com.
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