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See video of students
playing the Disklavier at
kuendowment.org/kugiving.
Soojin Kim, Bloomington, Ind., graduate student, listens as the Disklavier replays her rendition of Robert
Schumann’s Fantasie. “I love it and I hate it at the same time,” she said. “I hear all my mistakes.”
A tune heard ’round the world
Two grand pianos stand in Scott McBride Smith’s
office in Murphy Hall, a scuffed old Steinway and
a brand-new Yamaha Disklavier. Smith, Division
Director of Piano, is more excited these days about
the Yamaha: “This is the greatest new piano teaching
tool in 150 years.”
You could call it a cyberpiano. Each key has a
laser sensor and a microchip. An electronic controller
can record every detail of a performance and play
it all back at any tempo. The piano can communicate
through a standard Internet connection with other
Disklaviers worldwide. They can play each other’s
performances, live or recorded. It even has a remote.
During playback, the keys and pedals move. Students
and teachers can slow down rapid passages to
reveal details of technique that are difficult to perceive
in real time.
The School of Music is attracting increasing
numbers of international applicants who can’t always
afford to travel here to audition. “With this, someone
in Singapore can play, and we can hear it in real time,”
Smith said. “It is essentially a live audition.”
The piano allows KU musicians to give lessons
or teach master classes to students around the world.
“This enables
YOU CAN HELP
To support the Piano Division, please
contact Mike Arp, 785-832-7410 or
marp@kuendowment.org, or visit
kuendowment.org/pianodiv.
us to reach out
to the world of
piano playing,
which is an international
art now,”
Smith said. “We can let the world know what we’re
doing here in Kansas.”
The school bought the piano using unrestricted
funds from the Templeton Fund in Music.
— Charles Higginson
Earl Richardson
18 KU GIVING | SUMMER 2012