After nearly eight years of fundraising, the Palo Alto High School Music Department purchased a $239,000 Steinway Model D on May 7, bringing what choir director Brittney Kerby called a transformative addition to the school’s performing arts program.
Funded through a combination of private donations — which covered roughly 70% of the cost — and school support, Kerby said the concert grand piano marks a major investment in elevating Paly’s music program.
Kerby said the new piano will be instrumental in making Paly’s music program more prominent.
“The Steinway is a world-class instrument, so I see it as an asset that makes us stand out,” Kerby said. “It really is the principal instrument you will encounter in the collegiate and professional world.”
Michael Najar, the other co-director of Paly Choirs, said the piano will be housed in a cage at the back of the Performing Arts Center when not in use. However, he said he hopes the piano will be accessible to all students.
“As long as it’s supervised, it will be available to everyone in the music program,” Najar said.
Kerby said she hopes the piano will stay well-maintained for years to come.
“If you take proper care of a Steinway, it should last 100 years,” Kerby said. “We want to protect it so that when we are long gone from this place, that instrument will still be here and still be valuable to Paly students.”
Todd Billingsley, choir’s resident pianist for 18 years, said the upgrade was long overdue.
“For the first 10 or so years that I was here, we had to do our concerts off campus at Saint Mark’s or different churches in the area because they had nicer pianos than what was in the Haymarket theater,” Billingsley said. “The piano is really the crowning jewel of any performance space.”
Billingsley said the difference between the Steinway and the previous Kawai baby grand piano is immediately noticeable.
“It’s an order of magnitude greater than the last couple pianos we’ve had,” Billingsley said. “It can express any dynamic. It can sound like any instrument in the orchestra, from deep basses and cellos to a flute or a horn section.”
And Billingsley said the cost of the piano is justified by the long term benefits it provides for students.
“Two hundred and forty thousand dollars is an awful lot of money to pay for an instrument,” Billingsley said. “But it enriches students’ lives, and that’s really all we need. This is one of the finest choral programs in California. I think it deserves that piano.”
Ultimately, Kerby said the Steinway is essential to the expansion and success of the music program in the future.
“When you choose to inspire high-level musicality, part of that is through high-level instruments,” Kerby said. “People rise to the occasion. This instrument, we hope, will inspire our instrumental and choral students.”