A well-known local couple has donated $3,000 to the Trail & District Arts Council’s Grand Again piano fundraising campaign.
The donation from Linda and Raymond Masleck will support the rebuild of a Steinway piano.
Linda moved to the area in 1977 to teach at Montrose Elementary and Raymond in 1980 to report for the Trail Daily Times. Raymond is also a former president of the Trail Society for the Performing Arts, Trail & District Arts Council and the VISAC Gallery.
“We have enjoyed the piano at many concerts as varied as the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, popular Canadian pianist Hagood Hardy and a Montreal women’s chorus,” Raymond said.
“The women hadn’t planned on using our piano until they discovered we had a beautiful circa-1926 Steinway to offer and quickly jumped at the opportunity. Hardy said it was the best piano in any concert venue in Western Canada at the time.”
Raymond was involved in the initial upgrade of what is now The Bailey Theatre around 1990, when the building was renovated and the arts council created the dressing rooms and small performance space adjacent to the main theatre.
“We want to honour and remember the people who led that project: then President Muriel Griffiths, Ted Milner and Charles Bailey,” Raymond said.
“The community is also indebted to the many piano teachers such as Helen Dahlstrom, the founder of Canada Music Week, and those devoted instructors who helped raise up generations of music lovers and musicians and continue to do so. But, most of all, we want this beautiful instrument to be enjoyed by generations to come as they attend concerts at The Bailey.”
The Trail/Castlegar Branch of the BC registered Piano Teachers Association has donated a Broadman piano to use while the Steinway is at the spa.
The Maslecks’ donation is part of a larger fundraising campaign to raise funds for the restoration of the Steinway to her former glory to celebrate her 100th birthday.
Fundraising has reached $9,812 including individual donations such as the Maslecks, and $54,500 from a Columbia Basin Trust community development grant, the Kootenay Savings Foundation and the Regional District Kootenay Boundary Areas A and B. The goal is $81,218.
A $50 donation comes with a piano pin, while $200 donors will be recognized on an inscribed piano key. There are also higher donation levels at the $1,000 Prelude, $2,000 Sonata, and $3,000 Concerto level. All donations of $200 or above will be recognized as part of an art installation commemorating the instrument’s restoration.
All proceeds go directly toward rebuilding the Steinway, a staple of The Bailey’s musical programming and a favourite among touring and local musicians alike. Donors may also get acknowledgement on the donor wall if requested.
