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Goddard Stage Remodel Means a Home for College's Much Traveled Piano For Immediate Release: 
A grand piano sat center stage at last December's Choir Tour Preview Concert in Goddard Auditorium. Facility renovations, funded by a grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, will make it possible to move Earlham's Steinway to a secure area and out of the way for other events. RICHMOND, Ind. — Finally, Earlham's Steinway grand piano will have a safe and permanent home. The piano and other equipment will be housed in a secure, climate controlled storage area that will be added at the back of Carpenter Hall's Goddard Auditorium, thanks to a $200,000 Private Higher Education Grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations. "Right now our backstage is just a six-foot wide section that is separated from the stage by a traveler curtain, and it is so crowded," says Lynn Knight, director of events coordination. "The piano gets pushed around from one side to the other." The initial phases of construction have begun, and the project is to be completed by January, Knight says. Contractors are working around the Goddard fall event schedule, and much of the work will be completed during the semester break in December and January. Members of Earlham's music department are excited and pleased with the addition. "Goddard stage is used by a great many groups on campus," says Forrest Tobey, associate professor of music, "and yet it must also serve as the rehearsal space for the orchestra and, once a week, the choir. All of our equipment for orchestra — racks of music stands, racks of chairs, five timpani, chimes, harp and various other percussion equipment, as well as a Steinway grand piano — must remain on stage." Other users of the hall must work around these obstacles, and they endanger the instruments. "When there is a major concert, incredible lengths must be taken to clear the stage, as will happen for the Sweet Honey in the Rock® concert during Homecoming Weekend," Tobey says. "A moving company must be hired to move the piano. A team of students is recruited to painstakingly take all the equipment through the loading dock, then back inside the building where it is shuttled, one item at a time, up an elevator to an available room on the fourth floor. After the concert, the same drill is done in reverse." When the choir rehearses on stage once each week, heavy risers must be carried up a steep flight of stairs from a low basement room, then carried back down after the rehearsal. "The storage area will take care of all of these needs," Tobey says. "Once constructed, we will simply move our equipment out onto the stage." The storage area will also provide a valuable crossover area for users of the stage. Established in 1952, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations awards grants in areas of private higher education, secondary education, graduate theological education, health care and public television. — EC — Contact:
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Earlham
College · 801 National Road West · Richmond,
Indiana 47374-4095 |