I met Henry Steinway in 2005, shortly after my book was published. Betsy Hirsch (Steinway salesperson extraordinaire) had given him a copy of Piano Girl. As fate would have it, he was in his office the day I visited Steinway Hall. It's a challenge to add to the lovely things already written about him—he really was elegant, down-to-earth, witty, and gracious.
Thinking back on the thirty-minute meeting I had with him, I'm left with the warmest of memories. Having struggled for so many years as a pianist in New York City, I was stunned to be sitting in Henry Steinway's office, almost tongue-tied (unusual for me) with awe. We sat across from each other at a huge table of dark polished wood, and I knew I was with an music giant, perhaps the last great man of the piano industry as we know it.
His kindness put me at ease and we slipped into an easy conversation about playing, about writing, about his family, about mine. His respect for what I do took me by surprise. In a business blind-sided by ignorance, antipathy, and cut-throat competition (not on the part of the players, but on the part of the commercial end of things) his genuine regard for musicians seemed a kind of fizzy tonic—one that restored my belief in Piano-land.
He walked me out of the Hall that afternoon, and as he greeted various co-workers I noticed he treated all of them with that same respect—his assistant, his sales team, his technicians. He listened, he responded, he remembered everyone's names. Smiles abounded, cheer permeated the Rotunda air. Somewhere in the distance—accompanying our stroll through the hallowed halls of that gorgeous building— was the muted sound of Ravel being played on one of the instruments that carries his name.
May he be remembered for a very long time—in every perfectly played sonata, in every chorus of every jazz ballad, in every Broadway show tune, in the hesitant scales of those just learning the joys of music. He loved us all.
Robin Meloy Goldsby
Author of PIANO GIRL: A Memoir
RHYTHM: A Novel (coming in October 2008)
RMG is a Steinway Artist
