IN THE NEWS
Originally published February 09, 2010-The Frederick News-Post
PIANO TRAVELING FROM FREDERICK TO THE WHITE HOUSE
News-Post Staff
Even in snow, the show must go on, especially when the show is at the White House.
A piano from Downtown Piano Works, 74 S. Market St., was on its way Monday to the White House for a PBS concert celebrating Black History Month.
"As part of the Yamaha Concert and Artists Bank of Instruments, we provide pianos when needed," said Dan Shykind, who owns the shop with his wife, Theresa.
John Legend, one of the performers for the concert, set to be held Wednesday, is an official Yamaha artist. The Shykinds have provided pianos, through the Yamaha program, to performers at Wolf Trap and other venues, including the Weinberg Center for the Arts. It is the first time one of their pianos will be used in the White House.
Shykind said he was contacted two weeks ago by Yamaha and it was confirmed last Wednesday. "We knew they would be picking it up today," he said. A truck and three-person crew from Apollo Piano Moving from Pennsylvania parked across East All Saints Street. "The lift came down on the snow," Shykind said. "I only use Apollo, they are the only one I trust." The crew covered the Yamaha semi-concert grand piano and loaded the 1,000-pound instrument onto the truck. The Shykinds said while the Secret Service did not come to his store, the movers have to take the piano off-site and have it checked before it will be taken into the White House. The movers had to be checked ahead of time, with their Social Security numbers and other documents, Shykind said.
A Yamaha technician will be cleared as well, to make sure the piano is in tune and set up properly prior to the concert.
A crew from Apollo Piano Moving, Co. loads a 1,000 pound Yamaha semi-concert grand piano Monday from Downtown Piano Works. The piano is headed to the White House for a PBS concert Wednesday.
With more snow on the way Tuesday and Wednesday, Shykind said the piano might not be delivered back to the downtown store Thursday as planned. "Worst-case scenario, the movers will store it in their climate controlled facility, and redeliver to us at a later date," Shykind said.
The concert is scheduled to air at 8 p.m. Thursday on PBS stations nationwide.
The theme of the concert is music from the Civil Rights Movement. Besides Legend, other performers will include Yolanda Adams, Joan Baez, Natalie Cole, Bob Dylan, Jennifer Hudson, John Mellencamp, Smokey Robinson, Seal, the Blind Boys of Alabama, the Howard University Choir and The Freedom Singers, Rutha Harris, Charles Neblett and Toshi Reagon.
Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Queen Latifah and Joanne Woodward will be guest speakers.
Orginally Published in Music Trades, February 2010
Originally Published in Find It Frederick, Winter 2010
Originally published December 28, 2009-The Frederick News-Post
TOP FIVE BUSINESSES
News-Post Staff
Last week I called for people to nominate their favorite business for a Top Five. Here they are, just in time for the new year:
Demonstrating that you don't have to eat at just Volt to get some high culture inside you, Erika Schulze nominated Downtown Piano Works as her choice for something more than a high-end piano store.
The South Market Street store has "a free monthly concert series that attracts musicians I have seen at both the Kennedy Center and Strathmore," Schulze wrote. "It is unbelievable to me that I can see world-class classical musicians, locally, in an intimate setting in downtown Frederick ."
Many of the acts come to the store to warm up before premiering in Washington, New York or elsewhere, she said.
For example, Schulze recently saw the Goldstein-Peled-Fiterstein trio perform in Frederick -- a concert repeated Dec. 19 in New York and reviewed by The New York Times.
For those unfamiliar with classy music, such as myself -- I had to read the review to find out who they were -- Alon Goldstein is the pianist, Amit Peled the cellist and Alexander Fiterstein the clarinetist.
Additionally, Schulze wrote, the store has pushed development farther south along Market Street "in a grand way. (No pun intended.)" ...
originally published December 2009 Frederick Magazine
Originally published April 23, 2009-The Frederick News Post
Youth Alliance, Piano Business Team Up To Build Musical Memories At A Young Age
News-Post Staff
Smell is widely regarded as the most evocative of the senses, but Dan Shykind begs to differ. Shykind, who co-owns Downtown Piano Works with his wife, Theresa, weighs in enthusiastically on the side of sound.
"Music has the ability to take us back to a moment in time with pinpoint accuracy," Shykind said recently from his office inside the family's new store on the corner of All Saints and South Market. "Certain notes and songs bring back memories with astounding power and clarity."
"When I think about my earliest musical memory," said Theresa Shykind, "I think about sitting out of sight at the top of the stairs, listening to my sister's music lessons. I was only 3 or 4, but I remember a feeling of magic and enchantment. Shortly after that, my parents realized that I could play by ear, and it was the beginning of my lifelong love of music, especially the piano."
Downtown Piano Works instructor Joellyn Jarvis works on a keyboard with children from Frederick Alliance for Youth's club explore. From left are Sha'cora Goines, Valentine Rojas, Eric Gyamfi, Jada Dorsey and Alexis Cook.
Thanks to the Shykinds and a musical program by Yamaha called Keyboard Encounters Kids, students from the Frederick Alliance for Youth's Club Explore program are starting to build their musical memories at a young age. "I was delighted when Dan and Theresa called to offer Keyboard Encounters to a group of our kids," said Frederick Alliance for Youth Executive Director Scott Alexander. "Our goal is to provide state-of-the-art programming based on children's developmental needs, and something like this is right on target. And the fact that Downtown Piano Works was willing to extend this opportunity to our kids at their cost made it all possible."
Eric Gyamfi and Jada Kirby practice their skills during the weekly lesson.
We're really proud to say we own a business in downtown Frederick ," Theresa said. "And we think that with that pride comes a responsibility to give back to the community. Any business can think about what they have to offer, and then find a way to partner with a worthwhile community organization to help amplify that group's programs and services. It's extremely satisfying to think you may be affecting a person's life, just by offering them your passion ... everybody wins."
The Frederick Alliance for Youth is a nonprofit organization founded in 2008 to promote and support positive change in the Hillcrest and Waverley communities. Eventually, the organization plans to build a youth center that will house accessible, affordable, fun youth programs that promote healthy development from childhood to adulthood. Plans for the center include a gym, stage, ten classrooms, a music room, a multi-sports/fitness room and a computer lab.
Accompanied by a program aide, the six young musicians arrive by bus shortly before 5 p.m. each Tuesday for a 45-minute of group lesson featuring solo and ensemble playing, music reading and singing. The students have the use of their own Clavinova, a digital piano with special features that make learning the basic songs of Level I interesting and fun for the class.
Downtown Piano Works instructor Joellyn Jarvis plays note recognition games with the students.
"Fifty percent of would-be pianists stop their lessons within the first year," Dan said. "That's why it's important to offer a program that holds the students' interest into the second year and beyond. When students make it into the second year, the attrition rate goes down to 10 percent. Keyboard Encounters does a lot to encourage young players to hang in there."
"A Clavinova is a wonderful first piano for young students," Theresa said, "because, while it maintains the traditional acoustic piano touch and tone, it has all kinds of cool accompaniments and instrument voices that make playing together a lot of fun for beginners."
Downtown Piano Works has begun a program to help a group through Frederick Alliance for Youth. Here, a child practices playing piano.
On a recent afternoon, instructor Joellyn Jarvis welcomed the six Club Explore students, all between the ages of 7 and 10. As they settled in at their instruments, they turned their practice books to songs like Monkey Business, Two by Two and Our Jazz Band. As they played each song, individually and as a group, their teacher walked among them, tweaking a hand position here, adjusting a student's posture there. In between songs, students practiced reading notes from the blackboard and clapped out rhythms and rests. Outside, a Frederick rush hour, complete with fire trucks from the station across the street, was in full force, but the students' attention barely wandered.
Alexis, Sha'Cora and Jada agree that there's something special about Tuesdays. "We can't wait to get here after school," Alexis said, speaking for the group. "It's fun, and we think we sound pretty good already." "I've wanted to do this ever since I was a little girl," 8-year-old Janaya said. "I'm so lucky that I get to do this. I'm going to practice my whole life so I get a music scholarship." Valentina, a third grader from Hillcrest Elementary, said she hopes the piano will be the first of many instruments she learns in her life. "I practice all the time, except when I'm in school or in church." Nine-year-old Eric, who said he doesn't mind being the only boy in the class right now, wants to play in a band someday.
"We don't want people to be intimidated by these instruments," Dan said. "It's true: they are beautiful. But they are meant to be played. They exist to be enjoyed, and we love it that the store is almost always filled with the sound of students of all levels, practicing and having fun."
For information about the Frederick Alliance for Youth or Club Explore, visit www.frederickallianceforyouth.com, or call 301-696-0911. To learn about programs and events at Downtown Piano Works, visit www.downtownpianoworks.com.
originally published January 2009, Frederick Magazine
|in the studio |
Balancing the Scales
Piano Store Mixes High-Tech,
Tradecraft to Go Beyond Middle C
By James Eppard |Photography by Erick Gibson
Remember piano lessons? You wanted to play like, say, Billy Joel.So Mom got all excited, pushed the laundry off the old piano,
signed you up for lessons and blocked out your calendar through
adolescence. Then in the time it took you to master scales and passably
render Beethoven’s “Für Elise,” the Piano Man released two more albums
and married a supermodel. So you quit, just like half of all first-year
students do.
Well, forget all that. The husband-and-wife proprietors of a new
piano store in downtown Frederick are hoping to re-introduce the piano
to anyone who ever wanted to just sit and play, including all those
wayward souls who gave it up. Scales have their place, of course, but
Theresa Shykind’s less conventional approach at Downtown Piano Worksis aimed squarely at getting students to play right out of the
gate. Rather than advancing through regimens of rote
suffering, students learn to understand the music they are
playing and to break it down to its essential elements. Then
the really fun part comes when they record a track of their
work-in-progress on the Clavinova digital pianos, and then
orchestrate—again, on the keyboards—full-blown multiinstrument
arrangements to accompany their pieces. “I’m all about teaching people
not to need a book and not to need me,” says Theresa, who with her husband Dan
opened their store/studio/recital hall on South Market Street
in downtown Frederick in early October. “Most people just
want to play music, to just sit down and play.”
HEART AND SOUL
Theresa, 39, has a long and esteemed track record of
teaching, most notably as head of the music program at
Baltimore City College High School, a competitive collegeprep
magnet school that boasts its share of Nobel and
Pulitzer prize winners. Her own education includes a
master’s degree in musical composition and years of yeoman
work in New York City studios. She met Dan, 40, at Jordan
Kitts Music, a large piano retailer, about six years ago and
the two salespeople hit it off. Dan, whose resume includes
very successful stints at a Fortune 500 company and a
national retailer, loves the craftsmanship of fine pianos,
whereas Theresa is all about the music.
“I like acoustics and construction,” says Dan, who could
be talking about the 40 Yamaha showroom pianos displayed
like pieces of art, or the 14-foot tray ceilings and pleasingly
thick 140-plus-year-old walls of their nearly 3,000-squarefoot
space. “Theresa,” Dan says, “is on the warmer end, the
emotional end.”
It was Theresa’s playing that caught the attention of Eric
Delente, a father of two who poked his head in the store
during a random stroll. “I was very impressed,” he recalls.
They struck up a conversation that included his own
admission that practicing piano is always a struggle, for him
and for his kids who regard it as a chore.
Sold on what he called Theresa’s “more contemporary
approach to pedagogy,” which also follows Yamaha’s own
Keyboard Encounters program, Delente enrolled his son
Christoph, 12, and daughter Nicole, 10, in classes.
“She’s managed to get them interested in it, and now they
look forward to piano lessons,” he said. “She has a real knack
for relating to the kids.”
IMAGINE
Dan and Theresa agree that incorporating technology into
lessons goes a long way toward keeping students interested.
The ability to sample, compose and arrange music on a
digital keyboard—then save your work on a thumb drive—
beats 30 minutes of scales for all but the most hardened
traditionalists. In the store’s first week, 24 people signed up
for classes, more than half of them adults. The classes alone
are payingthe bills, Dan says, pleasantly acknowledging one of
the few surprises in a very detailed business plan that included
swapping out light bulbs and building a Web site themselves to
save money. “I knew we’d sell pianos, but I didn’t know how people
would take to the lessons,” Dan said. “All our overhead is
paid by lessons.” Already they are interviewing to hire help.
The goal, of course, is to sell pianos, something Dan
and Theresa know all about. For years they fantasized
about opening a shop where they eventually did—a corner
store that looks out onto a busy intersection where Abe
Lincoln once spoke. Until last June it was still just a fantasy—
Dan was an operations executive and Theresa was home raising
their 2-year-old daughter Zoe. Then the Shykinds were offered
a chance to sell Yamaha’s full line of pianos—grands, verticals,
players and digitals—and they didn’t hesitate. Prices aren’t
marked, but they vary from about $1,500 to more than
$40,000 for the tricked-out Disklavier Mark IV.
Friends have questioned their sanity, opening a store full of
pricey merchandise during a recession. Dan says motivated
buyers across the economic strata will still make what amounts
to a once-in-a-lifetime purchase. And musicians, Theresa jokes,
typically “have no money anyway, so what’s the difference?”
In addition to showrooms, offices and a classroom, the
store at 74 S. Market includes a 50-seat recital hall where
performances will be held on the first Saturday of every
month.
In early December, local artist Susan Dale
christened the hall with a performance on a limited-edition
piano, signed by Elton John, that is touring the country.
The event may bring in more people like Lea Allen, 53,
of Frederick, who took lessons in high school but soon after
fell off the wagon. “It was always the same,” she said. “I was
over the recital thing. And I didn’t particularly like my
piano teacher.” She’s taking private lessons with Theresa now,
making more sense of the music. “There’s more logic to it,” she
says. “It’s not just reading the music. It’s understanding it. Feeling it.”
And clearly she likes her teacher now. Her lessons are
supposed to be for 30 minutes, she says, “but usually it runs
over because we gab.”
Originally published October 07, 2008- The Frederick News Post
NEW PIANO SHOP OFFERS INSTRUMENTS, LESSONS
News-Post Staff
A new shop in downtown Frederick offers
pianos, music classes and a recital hall that
holds up to 50 people. Dan and Theresa Shykind
have opened Downtown Piano Works at 74 S. Market St.
"I've been in music all my life," Theresa Shykind said.
She holds a bachelor's degree in music with a focus on teaching, and a master's of arts degree in studio engineering, and recording and composition.
She worked in New York City for a music business and later a recording studio, and came to Baltimore 10 years ago as a piano teacher and head of the International Baccalaureate Music Department at Baltimore City College High School. The specialty department is designed for children of diplomats to provide continuity in music instruction worldwide, she said.
She and Dan Shykind met at Jordan Kitts, one of the nation's largest piano retailers. They were managing different stores for the company.
Dan advanced to vice president of the company, but left for two years to work in other businesses before returning to the music field.
"We are an authorized Yamaha dealer for pianos, player pianos, digital pianos and repairs," he said.
Theresa said one of the most impressive aspects of the nearly 3,000-square-foot shop is a recital hall that can hold up to 50 people.
"It can provide a place for music teachers for recitals," she said.
The shop will offer group and private lessons.
OFFICIALS VISIT NEW PIANO STORE
Frederick County, Maryland Office Of Economic Development / News and Events
Photo Caption: Dan & Theresa Shykind, 4 and 5 from left, of Downtown Piano Works receive a certificate of appreciation from (left to right – Veronica Mozzano of the Frederick County Business Development Advisory Committee, City of Frederick Alderman Paul Smith, Frederick County Commissioner Jan Gardner and Frederick County Office of Economic Development Executive Director Laurie Boyer.
On November 3, 2008 Frederick County Commissioner’s President Jan Gardner, Alderman Paul Smith and a number of local business support professionals visited Downtown Piano Works to tour the facility and learn about the company. The visit was organized by the Frederick County Office of Economic Development
Downtown Piano Works is the only Yamaha piano dealer in Frederick County and one of only a few in the state of Maryland. Owners Theresa and Dan Shykind opened the store in early October and found immediate demand for their products and services, which include piano sales, service and lessons. The company is well ahead of its initial sales targets.
Theresa Shykind holds a Bachelors of Music, and Master of Arts in Composition. She has had extensive experience in teaching and recording/engineering, as well as sales management experience at the nation's largest piano retailer. She is the former head of the IB music program at Baltimore City College High School.
Dan Shykind has broad experience in sales management. He began his career as a manager with the largest piano retailer in the country, rapidly rising to Director of the E-Commerce Division, and then Vice President. He further honed his executive management skills as the Director of Retail Operations for a nine-store outdoor outfitter, and finally as an Operations Executive for a Fortune 500 retail company, before starting Downtown Piano Works with his wife, Theresa.
The visit began with a brief introduction by the Shykinds and the description of their operation and the work done to prepare for the business opening. This was followed by a tour of the 3,000 square foot facility, which includes a performance stage, a recital hall, two teaching rooms, offices and two retail showrooms. One highlight of the tour was a demonstration of the Yamaha Disklavier Mark IV (bedecked with a “SOLD” sign). The Mark IV is a new generation player piano, capable of use as a traditional performance-quality piano, but also capable of automatically playing thousands of selections, including the piano parts of popular pop recordings, while the rest of the recording plays through the speakers installed in the piano.
The visit concluded with brief remarks by Commissioner Gardner and Alderman Smith, and the presentation of a Frederick Office of Economic Development certificate of appreciation to the Shykinds.
Downtown Piano Works is located at 74 South Market Street in Frederick. For more information, call 301-631-1234.
