Upcoming Concerts to Highlight New Piano

Contact: George Manlove at (207) 581-3756

ORONO — Don’t tell University of Maine Assistant Professor of Music Phillip Silver the department’s new Steinway grand piano is just another instrument.

It does not live and breathe; but it has life, personality and a soul, he says.

It also is highly sensitive to temperature, humidity and its behavior will change as it ages. At less than a year old and on campus only a few weeks, the personality of this new resident of Minsky Recital Hall at the University of Maine is still developing.

Silver says the new piano, which “dropped into our lap” as a result of a large donation last year from a former student, responds differently to the different people who play it.

“It’s friendly,” Silver says. “I would say that to me, the personality of that instrument is copasetic