All posts by azlanukc_sam

01Feb/16

BBC Young Musician Announces 2016 Category Finalists

ulian Trevelyan among keyboard finalists at Young Musician 2016

The BBC Young Musician category finalists across Keyboard, Woodwind, Percussion, Brass and Strings have been announced. Julian Trevelyan (pictured) is one of the five keyboard finalists, and should be a firm favourite having come top at the Long Thibaud Crespin competition in October last year.

The five keyboard finalists are:
Jackie Campbell (15) – piano
Tomoka Kan (17) – piano
Harvey Lin (13) – piano
Julian Trevelyan (17) – piano
Yuanfan Yang (19) – piano

The category finals for the keyboard section will take place on 6 March at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, in front of jury and audience. The semi-final (all categories) takes place on 13 March 2016.

Three musicians will be selected to go through to the final of BBC Young Musician, which will take place on 15 May 2016 at the Barbican in London in front of an audience and a panel of adjudicators. This is the first time the final has taken place in the capital for 14 years.

The three finalists will play a concerto and be accompanied by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mark Wigglesworth.

BBC Young Musician will be broadcast extensively on BBC Four with complementary programming on BBC Radio 3.

Now in its 38th year, BBC Young Musician is a part of the BBC’s ongoing commitment to supporting and providing a platform for new and emerging talent. Since its first outing in 1978 the competition has established an enviable reputation for finding outstanding new talent. Seventeen-year-old pianist Martin James Bartlett was awarded the title BBC Young Musician 2014 and has since given acclaimed solo recitals in concert venues across the UK, made his debut at the BBC Proms (2015) and appeared as part of the BBC’s 2014 charity single, ‘God Only Knows’.

Martin James-Bartlett, 2014 BBC Young Musician, commented: ‘BBC Young Musician has been the most exhilarating and inspirational musical experience of my life! Winning the title has launched my solo performing career and for that I am immensely grateful. I would like to wish every category finalist the best of luck for their upcoming performances!’

Martin takes his place alongside a star-studded list of former BBC Young Musician winners and finalists that includes Thomas Adès, Alison Balsom, Nicola Benedetti, Benjamin Grosvenor, Stephen Hough, Jennifer Pike and Paul Watkins.

Following its successful launch in 2014, the BBC Young Musician Jazz Award will return in 2016, running alongside the established classical music format and comprising two audition stages followed by a final on 12 March to be held at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. The Jazz Award finalists will be announced at the end of January 2016.

Tickets to the final are now on sale.

01Feb/16

test news

First ever Medtner Festival in London 28-30 January 2016

Starting today, and running over three days, go along and be immersed in the music of the composer Nikolai Medtner, the composer whom Rachmaninov considered ‘the greatest of our time’!
Some of his piano music is just ravishing.

Many fine musicians and musicologist are taking part in the festival: Dmitry Alexeev, Hamish Milne, Christoph Flamm and some of the best RCM students to name just a few. Participants are flying from Holland, USA, Germany and Japan in order to celebrate Medtner together!

The festival has received great support from established Medtnerians: Nikolay Lugansky, Severin von Eckardstein and Marc-Andre Hamelin.

Venues that support the festival include Royal College of Music, Pushkin House and British Library.

21Sep/15

Selling your piano and other stuff

For loads of stuff about how to look after your piano

More details to follow but meanwhile go to www.pianotuner.org.uk

Looking for a piano?

There are a lot of tempting new cheap black shiny pianos out there mainly made in the far East. They’re not all necessarily the great buys they look! Cheaply produced pianos often use sub standard materials and combined with poor design can mean the piano won’t work as it should or even be impossible to tune properly. Often, a secondhand more carefully built older instrument is a better choice.

If we haven’t currently got the piano that you’re looking for we may be able to help you find one in your price range and in the kind of style you’d like. Just give us a ring and we’ll keep an eye out for one that may fit the bill for you!

Looking to sell a piano?
Let us sell your piano for you as your AGENT

If your piano is within 20 miles radius of St. Albans we can inspect, value
it and put it up on our website together with photos for £50. In addition, if we are successful in introducing a buyer to you we, as your agent, will do so for 7% of the selling price, unless the piano is sold for less than £700 in which case the commission will be £50.

The advantages of selling your piano this way are that it will have our
professional endorsement as an instrument fit for purpose and at a fair price, usually much more than a dealer will give you!
We regularly have people contact us looking for pianos in all price ranges.
The advantages to buyers are obvious of course, they know they’ll be buying a piano which is sound, works well, is tunable and priced realistically.
We reserve the right not to advertise your piano if, in our opinion, it is
not fit for purpose.

A piano bought and sold in this way is essentially a private transaction between buyer and seller. Delivery isn’t included but we can recommend a reliable and expert piano mover at good rates.

More stuff about selling your piano and valuations                                                        
As we can’t go traipsing around Hertfordshire for nothing we will usually still make a charge of £20 for the inspection of pianos which are sadly not worth anything.

For Sale

You can view the full catalogue of pianos and stools here…

Recent additions to our catalogue –

If you’re selling your piano we may be able to help, see our PIANO ADVICE page for details of how our AGENCY works.

We are acting as AGENTS for most of the pianos listed on this site. If you’re interested in any of them please ring Kevin on 07771 642787 or send an email.

View the full list of pianos for sale

Repairs and Restoration

repairsI undertake all action and keys work from minor repairs to full overhauls. After being in the trade for over forty five years I have plenty of experience to draw upon. I have now scaled down my operations and therefore don’t offer full restringing on grands although it is sometimes possible to carry out this work in situ. Previous reconditioning prior to my “downsize” included a Steinway Model K upright, a Bechstein Model V grand, and two identical Bluthner grands both with the unique and much loved patent Bluthner actions.

A typical full action and keyboard overhaul of an upright piano would cost in the region of £1500 – £1750 but could vary considerably depending on whether, for example, the hammers were going to be replaced or recovered or if there was extensive moth damage to the felts in the action or key frame. Prices for overhauling grand piano actions is usually more in the region of £2250 – £2500, again depending on how much work is needed.

To restring an upright piano, depending on type and size, would be in the region of £1750 and from £2750 for a grand.

repairs3I don’t offer a full re-polishing service anymore but for older pianos with a French Polished finish I can strip, stain and hand wax pianos which vastly improves their appearance. All polishing work includes buffing and lacquering brasswork. Prices start from around £850.

Sometimes it would not be worth considering spending a lot of money on a piano depending on the age and quality of the instrument. Investing in a new or good previously owned one could be a wiser  option. I can give you the necessary advice to enable you to make a sensible decision.

Tuning

We are based in St. Albans and tune pianos all over Hertfordshire (and beyond!)

Regular tuning will ensure continued pleasure from playing your instrument. We recommend tuning twice a year to allow for changes in temperature and, more importantly humidity. Over time, all the moving parts of a piano will be affected by both playing and environmental factors. These will affect your piano’s performance.

Whilst tuning we can observe the piano’s action and make small regulating adjustments to help the piano play more efficiently. The other advantage of regular tuning is that we can advise on any further work that may be necessary at an early stage rather than let the piano deteriorate to a state from which it may be more difficult and expensive to recover from.

Tuning will make your piano sound at its best, improving the tone of each individual note and the piano as a whole. It is important to note, however, that the design of the piano and the quality of its components and assembly will affect how well it can be tuned.

I am qualified and experienced to tune aurally (with only the aid of a tuning fork). However, professional electronic tuning devices (ETD’s) are extremely accurate and I use one in tandem with my long years of aural tuning experience. In fact, about 75% of the process of tuning in this way still involves aural skills.

However, ETD’s enhance these skills and help to produce a good scale and octaves, and more accurate pitch raises on even the most difficult of pianos. The ETD I use is an expensive sophisticated software designed only for use by professional tuners, it isn’t a device which would enable a non-tuner to be able to tune! Setting the pin which is vital, and achieving good unisons are skills that can only come with proper training and years of experience.

Piano Tuning reminder

Get an email reminder for when your piano is due for tuning. And enter Mr. Brice when prompted for the name of the tuner!

Expertise

Pianoforte Tuners’ Association logo

Brooklands Pianos was established in 1986 in St. Albans by Kevin Brice who has now been a professional piano tuner and repairer for over 45 years. He has been a member of the Pianoforte Tuners’ Association for over 30 years and has served on its executive council for two separate periods. He trained as an apprentice with H.G. Rogers and Son in Highgate under the guidance of the late Henry Rogers, his son Graham and the workshop manager Karl Elmendorf, who has also sadly passed on.

He has tuned, repaired and restored a vast amount of pianos in private homes, schools, music colleges, recitals and concerts over the years and has benefited from ongoing high quality training at Pianoforte Tuners’ Association Conventions as well as also lecturing in classes at these annual events. He has also visited piano factories to gain insights into manufacturing processes both in this country and abroad, namely Kemble, Milton Keynes (now sadly closed), Fazioli in Sacile, Italy, and Stuart & Sons in Newcastle, Australia.

Although Brooklands Pianos do not directly employ our other two tuners they both have been closely involved with Kevin and the company for many years. We all still go out tuning together when there are multiple pianos at the same venue.

jenniferJennifer Johnson is vastly experienced having graduated from the London College of Furniture in 1986 with a B.Tech HND in Stringed keyboard instrument manufacture and design. Although she has her own long standing customer base she still tunes Brooklands Pianos customers’ pianos on behalf of Kevin, a task she has been doing for more years than I, or she, can care to remember.
about_usKevin’s son Ralph joined Brooklands Pianos as an apprentice on a permanent basis in the Summer 2005. He is currently working part time at Kawai Pianos in Milton Keynes doing final preparation work and tuning on their pianos. Then he’s mostly out and about tuning in private homes, but comes in to Brooklands Pianos workshop from time to time and assists his dad when necessary. He has been full time for about fourteen years now and has successfully built up his own tuning round clientèle.