An Evening of Music, Mavericks, and Steinway
How Music brought the Dallas Mavericks and Steinway Together.
On Tuesday, October 27th the Dallas Mavericks opened their 2009-2010 regular season against the Washington Wizards at the American Airlines Center. This was a special night for the Mavericks as it was the start of a new season. This was also a special night for Steinway Hall as Steinway Artist, Bruce Hornsby, performed an amazing rendition of the national anthem on a Steinway concert grand piano.
For me, this was an exciting day, since I am a huge sports fan and when you mix sports and great music, this was an opportunity of a life-time. When we deliver a concert piano to any venue there are many logistical issues to deal with. When does the piano need to be delivered? What time is rehearsal? When does the piano need to be tuned? When is the performance and what time do we pick up the piano? With all the scheduling information completed we delivered Steinway Concert Grand CD#261 at 2:00 on Tuesday to the American Airlines Center. This was the same piano that was used during the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth.
As some of you may or may not know, Rick Carlisle, the head coach of the Mavericks, is a piano enthusiast. Well, a Steinway piano enthusiast. Rick owns a Steinway Model ‘D’ and is quite the talented pianist. In September we delivered the same Steinway concert grand piano, CD #261, to the Dallas All-Sports Banquet where Coach Carlisle played the national anthem. (Here is my post from this event). It turns out that Coach Carlisle and Bruce Hornsby are long time friends. Coach Carlisle had been trying to get Bruce to perform the national anthem during the Mavericks Playoff run last year, but the schedules never worked out. Well, their schedules both worked out this evening as Bruce Hornsby’s playing of the national anthem was incredible.
You may be wondering why this was such an exciting day for myself. Instead of writing why this was an experience of a lifetime I will let the pictures below do the explaining.
