The analogies are almost endless in describing the process Angelina Gadeliya used in helping UConn purchase its Steinway & Sons piano for von der Mehden Recital Hall in 2018 and now its 2024 Model D for Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts.

It’s a little like test driving a new car – getting behind the wheel of a Rolls-Royce, for instance – and noticing the differences between models – each one luxurious, yes, but just one perfectly tailored.

It’s also a little like picking out a show horse, walking into a hay-filled stable, maybe on a cold day, in search of an animal that exudes agility, grace, and athleticism from the stall, full potential not yet tapped.

When Gadeliya, a critically acclaimed Ukrainian American pianist who is UConn’s assistant professor-in-residence of piano and the Department of Music’s coordinator of keyboard studies, walks into the selection room at the Steinway factory in New York City, a large room with instruments at the ready for test runs, she knows well the analogies.

“It’s like getting to know a person,” she says of trying out each piano. “You could compare it to speed dating.”

When you know, you know, and the Jorgensen acquisition last year required two trips into the city and 10 grand pianos tried narrowed to two to find the one that fits like a glove.

That instrument will make its debut Sunday, Jan. 26, during a 3 p.m. performance featuring Gadeliya and her group Decoda, in which she is one of 33 core members who have performed together since 2012 following a two-year fellowship program of Carnegie Hall, The Julliard School, and the Weill Music Institute.

Tickets to the show are free to both UConn students and the public, thanks to the Lenard Chamber Music Endowment. They can be obtained on the Jorgensen website.

Cutting through the sound of an orchestra

Jorgensen Executive Director Rodney Rock says the arts venue has always had at least three Steinway pianos in the building, with room for two on stage and one located in the lower lobby. Since mid-December, when it received the latest piano, it’s had four, with the 1976 Steinway in the lower lobby and the 1990 instrument off to the side.

On stage, the 2008 and 2024 Steinways will be at the ready, the former selected for Jorgensen by the German-born Israeli American pianist Menahem Pressler. Rock says that while the 2008 Model D is a lovely instrument, at this point in its life it lacks the ability to generate a big enough sound and might be best suited for a chamber recital.

That big sound is something Gadeliya says she was looking for during the 2024 piano search.

“The top part of the Steinway is probably the most important, because you want that brilliant sound in the top few octaves that can cut through an orchestra. Jorgensen hosts a lot of orchestras – the Czech National Symphony Orchestra is coming in February – so we needed a piano that could cut through an orchestra and still have a beautiful, warm singing sound. That’s a lot to ask for in one piano,” she says.

Pianists are sizing up the quality of sound from each instrument from the top of the register downward, making sure the bass is deep and rich, and the middle register has enough singing power to project far and wide.

“You want there to be a nice blend of all the registers,” Gadeliya says. “A Steinway has the potential to be as rich as an orchestra, and you’re looking for that richness. A great piano also will have sensitive response to your touch.”

A high-quality piano can almost read a pianist’s mind, she says, almost instinctively producing the kind of sound the player wants with each key stroke.

“A single piano key is so complex and has around 100 individual parts. So, when a key is pressed, the action mechanism sets into motion these 100 parts. Then, the way you touch the key can have infinite possibilities, because of all the parts reacting to your touch. A great piano will respond to your thoughts and intentions almost immediately, whereas a bad piano requires a lot of work to get the sound you want,” she explains.

All-Steinway School initiative ongoing

Jorgensen’s new piano is the result of a fundraising campaign that began in 2023, separate, but nonetheless dovetailing with the music department’s All-Steinway School initiative, in which it is seeking to upgrade its piano inventory to Steinways.

UConn is 75% of the way there following the purchase of 13 upright pianos in spring 2024 with support from the Lawrence J. and Natalie D. Portell Foundation, Persbacker Foundation, and Jean and Richard Widmark Foundation.

Rock says Jorgensen’s campaign included nearly two dozen major donors, many of whom visited the Steinway factory with him and Gadeliya last year and were part of an honorary committee formed to make the purchase.

“The acoustics in Jorgensen are certainly not ideal,” Rock says. “I personally was looking for an instrument with a broader dynamic range than the 2008 Model D. A concert piano should be capable of playing softly in quieter moments, but also capable of really filling our large hall with a full, rich sound when needed.”

Jorgensen was built as a concert hall, with 4,500 seats extending from 6 feet in front of the stage to the rear under the mezzanine overhang. This large floor, combined with a mezzanine and two balconies, created a formidable space to fill with sound.

Over the years, even as the seating capacity has dropped to 2,300, the hall is still cavernous.

In the early 1990s, an acoustical study was done when University administrators considered adding fly space to the main hall. Rock says that alone would have dramatically changed the acoustics, but it came with a significant price tag and never came to fruition.

Today, performances depend on an acoustical shell – that’s the white shell-like backdrop erected on stage behind performers – to help project sound from the stage.

“We do what we can realistically at this point to make up for the acoustic inconsistencies, and, of course, many of our performances today require a sound system, which enhances the experience,” he adds.

Each piano has a unique voice

Gadeliya kept these acoustics in mind when in the Steinway selection room. She too wanted a piano with a big sound, and on the first trip into New York none of the five she played gave her what she wanted.

“Every Steinway is like a different person because so many of the parts are handmade,” she says. “You have to be careful in selecting because just like each person has a unique voice, every single Steinway piano has a different tone, different blend of sound, different kinds of colors in each register. The differences could be quite big.”

In October, the group returned to the factory to consider another set of five.

Gadeliya sits at the piano bench, she says, and spends 10 to 15 minutes getting to know each instrument, listening for and feeling what it can offer. Within an hour, she generally can narrow the field of potential.

Jorgensen’s field included two potentials.

Gadeliya alternated between playing and listening, moving herself to locations all around the room when off the keyboard to judge its sound. She and Steinway representative Patrick Elisha played a variety of musical styles, testing out the piano’s ability to go from classical to jazz, pianissimo to fortissimo.

One of the two instruments was more mellow with a beautiful singing sound, Gadeliya says, a prized trait among Steinways. But it lacked the largeness of sound being sought as well as a brilliant sound in the top octaves.

The other was a “baby” – put on the showroom floor only 10 days prior to their visit. In yet another of those analogies, it was like a diamond in the rough, raw and unpolished. Yet, Gadeliya says it offered a solid orchestral sound, with a huge bass, brilliant top, and loads of possibility.

That one was destined for Jorgensen in December after getting its final polishing at the hand of piano technician John von Rohr in Boston, who then traveled to Storrs on Jan. 15 to voice the piano with Gadeliya.

Decoding classical music for audiences

The Jan. 26 performance, “A Grand Celebration,” features Gadeliya and a handful of members of Decoda playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 12 in A major, K. 414; Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A min, Op. 7; and Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op. 44.

As is customary for the Carnegie Hall-affiliated Decoda – a name that came about because the group seeks to “decode” classical music for audiences – the show will engage and educate the audience about what classical music is and isn’t.

“The focus during our fellowship years was to break down the existing barriers around classical music and remind audiences that the concert experience doesn’t have to be a stuffy thing. We created a lot of interactive performances where the audiences participated in some aspect of the music. Decoda carried on that effort,” Gadeliya says.

She continues, “Decoda’s flexible instrumentation, from trios to large mixed ensembles, allows for unique, inspiring, and engaging concert experiences for a vast array of audiences, from concert halls to schools, hospitals, and correctional facilities.”

The first piece, “Schumann Quintet,” is the first piano quintet ever written and was inspired by the early Mozart concerto that also will be performed. Clara Schumann’s concerto isn’t often seen on concert programs, but the second movement was written for cello and piano, an innovative pairing in the early and mid-1800s and one that influenced composers like Brahms 50 years later.

“This concert is more exciting than other performances because my colleagues and students will be there, along with people in the community whom I’ve grown to know and love,” Gadeliya says. “There’s a high bar when I perform for a home crowd. There’s also a closeness that you feel with your audience. It’s both intimidating and exhilarating at the same time.”

 

“A Grand Celebration” featuring Angelina Gadeliya and Decoda will be performed at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 26, at Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are free and can be obtained on the Jorgensen’s website.