Many hands to make music

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Tags: summer-2012

Dr Anna Grinberg and Dr Liam Viney, UQ's Ensemble-in-Residence, will use the new Steinway piano for research and teaching roles in piano and chamber music

With his hands positioned carefully over the perfectly tuned keys, Dr Liam Viney, Piano Performance Fellow, begins to practise with the University’s newest and most important addition to the School of Music – it’s a nine-foot Concert Grand Steinway piano. Dr Viney, a researcher of music performance, has been waiting for the piano to arrive for more than two years.

“The Steinway is the epitome of musical instrument craftsmanship,” Dr Viney said.

“Having achieved a near-perfect design in the 1880s, it’s hardly been altered throughout the last 130 years of technological development.”

The addition is equally exciting for Professor Margaret Barrett, Head of the School of Music. An advocate for exceptional music instruments, she led the campaign for the piano’s purchase.

“The School of Music is grateful for the support of donors. The piano constitutes a central component of our performance, teaching and research activities, and will provide a world-class platform for musical engagement between our students, performance staff and the broader community,” Professor Barrett said.

In 2010, Professor Barrett began working with the University, looking for the financial support needed to purchase a new piano. The result was a decision to pool more general donations, mostly under $400, which came from a diverse group of UQ supporters scattered around the state, country and the world. From that point on, gifts were pooled until $320,000 was raised, allowing for the purchase of the Steinway directly from Hamburg, Germany and establishment of a maintenance fund.

Now, UQ is one of the very few places in Queensland with two Steinways (the School was already in possession of a 1970s Steinway, fully renovated in 2010).

“UQ’s cultural capital has been significantly enhanced, as the world-class instrument will help us as academics and encourage students in artistic investigation and creative work,” Dr Viney said.

“Students have already begun practising with the piano for workshops and master classes and will be using it for performance exams.”

In October, the Steinway piano suitably made its first public debut as the feature of a Global Leadership Series event The Tools of Musical Collaboration, where Dr Viney and other staff and students performed for an audience of  donors, alumni and community members.

For more information on this initiative please contact giving@uq.edu.au

Papua New Guinea Booked

Bialla English Elementary School students with their new books

The University of Queensland’s Gatton Past Students Association (UQGPSA) is demonstrating its dedication to learning through a new program that recently saw three pallets of donated books delivered to schools in Papua New Guinea (PNG).

Graham King, who was awarded a Diploma of Applied Science in 1979 and Bachelor of Applied Science in 1980, is the General Manager of Hargy Oil Palms, a company that employs more than 4000 Papua New Guineans and 3500 oil suppliers in the remote West New Britain region of PNG.

In January 2012, Graham contacted the UQGPSA requesting support for a company project to provide library books to all the schools in the region, comprising one high school and 15 primary schools.

“Living in a remote region there are many challenges, and making sure children are able to go to school, and that schools have reading materials for the students is one of them,” Mr King said.

The UQGPSA put the call out to South- East Queensland alumni and, by July, a shipping container was PNG-bound with its literary cargo of secondhand textbooks, class readers, encyclopedias and paperbacks.
In August, the books were distributed to fifteen schools across the region, ranging from elementary through to secondary level.

“The lack of materials and teaching resources is a major problem for all schools in PNG and donations of this kind go a long way in supporting and improving education,” Mr King said.

“The schools were really surprised and grateful for the unexpected windfall, and heartfelt in their thanks to their Queensland benefactors.”

UQGPSA has has more than 1100 members spread all around the world. For more information, please contact advancementnews@uq.edu.au

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