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Columbia Center
for the Arts

215 Cascade Street

PO Box 1543

Hood River, OR 97031

541-387-8877

 

About the Film

Miracle in a Box / a piano reborn, is a one-hour documentary by Oscar winner John Korty that highlights the piano restoration work done at the Alameda, California workshop of Callahan Piano Service.

This special showing of the film at Columbia Center for the Arts in Hood River, features a piano performance prior to the showing of the film.

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It's the story of the restoration of a 1927 Steinway Grand Piano, a UC Berkley competition for the "worthy student of piano" who would win the piano, and the debute of the winner.

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The film follows the restoration of a 1927 Steinway grand piano bequeathed to the music department at UC Berkeley with the stipulation that it be given to “a worthy student of piano.” To find that most “worthy student,” the music department held the First Berkeley Piano Competition, with a rather unusual first prize: A Newly Restored 1927 Steinway Grand Piano.

Performances from the piano competition provide the soundtrack for the film while the Callahan Piano artisans take apart and rebuild the instrument before our eyes, hewing to standards as precise as a tenth of a gram. The close relationships and easy humor of the workshop accompany the highly professional techniques and tools.

The winner of the competition, Jared Redmond, finally makes his debut on what is now his Steinway grand at a party given in the workshop as a finale.

The celebration is not only about talent, but also about the dedication of craftspeople who give good performers a means to play better than they had imagined to be possible.

Appearing in the film are Garrick Ohlsson, touring concert pianist; Jake Heggie, opera composer; Tammy Hall, jazz artist; Frederick Hodges, music stylist; Jerry Kuderna, pianist; and Steve Willis, blues and boogie songwriter and performer. The narration is spoken by the distinguished actor, John Lithgow.

 

 

Links of Interest

Miracle in a Box / a piano reborn

Callahan Piano Service