Steinway & Sons has donated a Boston UP-126E upright piano to the MusiCares charity.
But this is no ordinary Boston upright. This is the special turquoise-blue UP-126E that singer-songwriter, and 15-times Grammy winner, Alicia Keys played in a recent Amazon Livestream, and in a public service announcement promoting the New York 2020 Census.
Keys has had the piano in her Los Angeles home for several months and it has appeared in the artist’s recent social media postings.
To make the instrument even more special, Keys has signed it right across the front panel.
And now the piano is being auctioned in aid of the MusiCares Covid-19 Relief Fund. MusiCares, part of The Recording Academy (the people who run the Grammy Awards), is a charity that provides financial assistance to music industry workers in times of need. And this particular fund has been set up to help musicians whose livelihoods have been impacted by the coronavirus.
“I’m super excited that this piano — which has so many personal memories for me is going to be auctioned for MusiCares.”
Alicia Keys
Auction Ends August15th, 2020
All the proceedings of the auction will go to the charity. But if you are interested in bidding you will need to be quick because the auction ends on Saturday, August 15th. To bid visit Steinway’s special auction page on the Charity Auctions Today website. At the time of writing the piano had received 22 bids with the price reaching $27,000.
Boston pianos, first appearing in 1992, are designed and engineered by Steinway, and utilise many of their patented features, but are manufactured primarily in the Far East (this model is made in Kawai’s Japanese factory).
The Boston UP-126E Performance Edition is an ideal upright for home, teaching, and studio applications. It features:
- Steinway’s Octagrip 11-ply multi-directional maple pinblock
- a solid Sitka spruce soundboard (not laminated)
- 11 spruce ribs
- solid maple bridges with cantilevered base
- a vacuum cast iron plate
- duplex scale
- individually weighted spruce keys
- a laminated hardwood keybed
- Steinway specified hammers
- a solid maple action with aluminium action rail
- Solid brass hardware
- [UPDATE 2-Sep-2020]: Rochester, NY will be the new home of this piano. It will be placed in The Avenue Blackbox Theatre and used for teaching both adults and youths.
- [UPDATE 19-Aug-2020]: The piano has now been sold for $38,000. It received 41 bids.
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