Odessa and Permian high schools experienced the wonder of Steinway Spirio pianos delivered to them Friday.
Bryan Elmore, institutional director for Steinway, was on hand for the installation and demonstrations.
University of Texas Permian Basin received three Dec. 9.
Spirio captures performances that can be seen on video and played back and sound as if watching them in person, Elmore said in an Oct. 28 Odessa American article.
Permian High School Head Choir Director Ken Sieloff said they had received the piano less than 24 hours before and he had already taught three music lessons in each class about a composer, or that a piano is a percussion instrument.
The excitement around the Spirio has already reached a crescendo.
“… It’s like the musical version of Google and you can literally just, it feels like, search anything you want on there and pull up any information you want, but be able to play it for them right there. It’s incomparable to anything else we have in our arsenal of instruments when it comes to being able to teach them and show them right there on the spot what we’re doing and how to do it and who’s done it in the past. It’s just amazing,” Sieloff said.
Asked if he thought having the Spirio would spark student interest in learning the piano, he gave an emphatic yes.
With Steinway’s cast technology, Sieloff said you can be in one location with a piano and a different location with a different piano and be on video and communicate.
“Then the person that’s over there will play something and ask you to play it back, or ask you to sing with him while he plays. It’ll just be incredible,” Sieloff said.
Typically, Sieloff said he comes in to school about an hour and a half before anyone else and sits in his office with the lights off looking at the lights on the tree with the fireplace on a flat-screen TV.
“But this morning was special because I also had this music playing. And I sat in my office and I had a glass of coffee. And I literally just sat there and marveled at what I was listening to. It was incredible. …,” Sieloff said.
The Education Foundation of Odessa recently announced that they were the recipients of a $550,000 gift from the FMH Foundation that would go toward the purchase of four new Steinway Spirio pianos for the two comprehensive high schools.
Elmore said there are now four institutions with Steinway Spirios — Permian, OHS, Odessa College and UTPB. They will be able to talk to one another, share files and share master classes. People can also listen to the works of legendary composers.
“It’s for the vocal students. It’s the instrumentalists and I’m a vocalist so I personally think the connectivity and as he said the stimulus that okay not only can we see something on video, you can see something live from any corner of the globe …,” Elmore said.
Sieloff said you would expect colleges and universities to invest in something like a Steinway, but to have a public high school acquire one is unprecedented.
“… I’m not a fantastic piano player, or a piano player at all, but I’m just tickled pink because it makes me want to become a better piano player …,” Sieloff said.
Hannah Douglas, a 17-year-old junior vocalist who also plays the piano and percussion, said she is amazed by the Spirio. She added that the piano will impact her as a singer because it’s so in tune.
“… Sieloff was able to show us all of (the) other benefits that it does and how it’s able to record and bring people back from the past. I think that’s something that’s so cool. …,” Douglas said.
Jaden Rankin, a 17-year-old junior vocalist, said he was “amazed” by the Spirio.
“It not only changes the game, but it changes how you see pianos in general. You’re used to seeing them like kind of older and everything, but this is so new and fresh. It kind of … brings a new meaning to pianos in general. It changes everything. … I didn’t think pianos could ever become something like this. This not only changes the whole sound of the group … but it gives us a new kind of hope, I guess, almost. It’s definitely something I would have never expected pianos to be able to do and we’re really blessed to have it,” Rankin said.
OHS Head Choir Director Ginger Storey said the Spirios are a wonderful gift.
“We are blessed to be one of the only high schools in the nation to have them. We are so thankful to FMH and the Education Foundation for donating them to us. There will be so many educational and musical opportunities that these pianos can provide, not only for our students but also for our community,” Storey said.
“We are so very excited,” she added.
