Odessa College has acquired a Steinway that can replicate performances by immortal artists Bryan Elmore, director of institutional sales and educational services at Steinway Hall in Dallas, said.
Spirio captures performances that can be seen on video and played back and sound as if watching them in person, Elmore said.
Steinway & Sons website details it was founded in 1853 by German immigrant Henry Engelhard Steinway in a Manhattan loft on Varick Street.
“Over the next 30 years, Henry and his sons developed the modern piano. They built their instruments one at a time, applying skills that have been handed down from master to apprentice, generation after generation, ever since. The Steinway became the choice for ninety-eight percent of concertizing artists, none of whom are compensated to endorse the instrument.”
“The Steinway earned a reputation as an investment for the owner in the legacy of future generations,” the site details.
The company is now owned by hedge fund owner and billionaire John Paulson.
Elmore started in the piano business 50 years ago.
Elmore said the Spirios create the warmth and joy of a live performance.
“… When you’re listening to an artist who records on it, you can’t tell the difference between live and playback. …,” Elmore said.
He said they have thousands of artists, such as Olga Kern, Billy Joel and Lang Lang, recorded on the Spirio.
“Every corner of the globe hears the real thing. They hear exactly reproduced what their artistry is. That was goal number one, replicate and preserve artistry on a Steinway,” Elmore said.
“Goal number two was to allow a student or a teacher or performer, an artist, to record and playback and then to be able to broadcast this at any corner of the globe. As example by, if you play right now in New York at Carnegie Hall, and you press a note down, it makes this play at the exact same time with the exact same expression. If it’s in Paris, if it’s in Beijing, if it’s in Berlin, at the exact same time your Steinway plays when another Steinway plays. … We are in an era if you go to Carnegie Hall right now, attendance is dwindling. They still get paid when that Spirio plays here, because you’re paying a subscription fee to them. … Somebody can be in their living room here in Odessa and hear a live concert at Carnegie Hall on their Steinway,” he said.
Eric Baker, chair of visual and performing arts at OC, said the college wants to increase access to music education in the surrounding area.
“Odessa College has, I think, the largest geographical service area in the state of Texas. We have a lot of rural areas that are underserved and a lot of students and adults alike that would love to take piano lessons, but there’s not a qualified piano teacher in the area. This will give us the ability and potential to deploy one of these Spirio pianos in those remote areas and link them here with our teachers, or our students on this campus,” Baker said.
For example, he said, a student in Fort Davis may be able to go to a space, login to their Spirio piano and when that student plays on their piano for their teacher, the teacher doesn’t have to hear that through Zoom, or even through good quality speakers.
“They can actually hear the instrument itself here reproducing that sound. So you get the highest fidelity possible when you’re trying to teach piano. But it goes beyond that, of course. You can use things like Zoom, or Spirio cast, the technology that’s built in, to teach all kinds of lessons. We could teach voice lessons. Vocal coaches have to use the piano all the time. You … could teach violin, or trumpet, or clarinet through that to a video system and using this piano and that real-time technology,” Baker added.
He said they want to provide access for our current students to meet and audition for and then transfer to that next four-year university they want to go to.
“We have Spirio technology in other institutions here in the state of Texas. And for example, we have a good partnership with West Texas A&M University. They have a Spirio, so potentially, their faculty could give a master class here,” Baker said.
Other universities and colleges have Spirios as well.
It would also be possible to bring down the projector screen and see that faculty member from WT on the screen.
“When they play their Spirio in Canyon, this one starts to play. We would like to bring our own former graduates back,” to perform for students in Odessa with all the nuance of a live performance.
“And it’s not hearing it through speakers, which is I think what we’re so used to …,” Baker said.
He added that people can use the Steinway as their speaker.
“Providing access and remote instruction, and then connecting our students with that next step, that next four-year university. The last example I’m very excited about is right here in Odessa. We have a shortage of people who are trained and have the ability to go and accompany our local school choirs. So Junior High choirs and high school choirs, they need a pianist at just about every rehearsal to try to help their students hear those pitches and learn those things. And there’s just very few of those people,” Baker said.
He added that OC has deployed a few of its faculty to be accompanists. But they can only go once or twice a week for one period at a time.
“The recording capabilities here mean that someone could go in and record those piano parts for the choirs. And if that person wasn’t able to go, the choir director on, let’s say the Permian campus, could pull up the iPad, access that recording done on their Spirio, connect it to his Spirio and be able to play that for the students. So you have a virtual accompanist at any given time of the day, or night,” Baker said.
OC students need to perform with an accompanist with their own instruments or voices. But access can be limited, so one of the piano instructors could record a piece on piano and students could rehearse it any time.
“And if I needed to speed up the tempo a little bit or slow a part down, you can edit those recordings such that they can become malleable and then, again, allow for that high fidelity, artistic, you know, re-creation. The highest level of artistry and reproducing that artistry is available not only to pianists, but to anybody …,” Baker said.
You have to plug the piano in and connect it to a wireless connection or Ethernet cable. The electronics are hidden inside.
“You can also use the video technology by just using an HDMI cable into either a projector, or the large television screen to be able to show people those historic videos. You can watch a video of George Gershwin playing and then hear the piano actually play those exact notes, which is magical to see,” Baker said.
Baker said the Spirio will be employed at the President’s Reception Nov. 12.
“We’ll have a demonstration live with students, as well, which is always the best way to see it,” Baker added.
Elmore said Steinway builds about 3,000 pianos a year for the world population.
Steinways take anywhere from eight months to a year to build and a Spirio takes about three months longer.
Planning stages for the Spirio started about five years ago and they went into full production about five years ago, Elmore said.
Odessa College is the first in the Permian Basin to have one. There are Spirios at UTEP, Wayland Baptist, West Texas A&M and other schools such as Baylor, Texas A&M Commerce and Weatherford College, which has four.
Several independent school districts have them and they hope to add ECISD as part of that network, Elmore said.
The pianos vary in price according to size. The one that OC purchased is about $150,000. Baker said it was bought with CARES funds because it will assist with remote instruction.
Elmore said a classic Steinway costs $80,000 to $100,000 for smaller models and the larger one costs $160,000.
Baker said UTPB is looking at getting two and OC is planning to get eight.
Future plans are to “buy a fleet of these” that can serve outlying markets such as OC’s extension sites in Monahans, Pecos and Andrews and then offer the opportunity to churches and community groups for private lessons, Baker said.
“… Hopefully, it doesn’t have to stop at eight pianos. Maybe there are 10 or 12 and maybe we can revolutionize what it means to be a music teacher, or a music student because that’s what the 21st century has taught us,” Baker said.
