Grand gesture
OBAN Music Society’s long campaign to raise funds to pay for a new Steinway grand piano has ended in success.
THE EARLY history of the Oban Music Society is lost in the mists of time but it was soon after the Second World War that a small group of enthusiasts came together to meet other groups from around Scotland to arrange and be included in tours for small chamber groups, especially quartets.
Concerts were held in a variety of venues around Oban, including Christ Church on the Esplanade, Glencruitten Church Centre, the Corran Halls and even in the Oban cinema.
However, it was not until 1985 that the society, after a lengthy fundraising appeal, raised sufficient funds required to purchase a piano – a Steinway Model S, made in 1937, previously belonging to Lady Isla MacCallum of Turvine, Kilchrenan, and valued in 1991 by the Arts Council of Scotland at £4,000.
The piano was housed in St John’s Cathedral, where it has been to this day. Because of the difficulties of moving a grand piano, most of the concerts since then have been held in the Scottish Episcopal Church in George Street, Oban.
In 1992, the society was first registered as a charity and the constitution was drawn up under the chairmanship of Claire MacKinnon. The object of the society was ‘to promote and encourage the study, practice and knowledge of music in Oban and the surrounding district’.
The society has been loyally supported over the past 25 years and concerts regularly held through the winter season. Since the year 2000, the society has been part of the Argyll and Bute Concert tours group along with Bute, Cowal, Kintyre, Mid Argyll and Islay. The group has had the advantage of being able to negotiate advantageous fees from visiting artists and has become a very effective and mutually supportive organisation.
In 2016, the society became increasingly concerned that its piano, now nearly 80 years old, was in need of reconditioning. Furthermore, it was also the opinion of a number of visiting pianists that the instrument was too small for the venue.
Over the years the society had been steadily adding to a piano fund specifically for this eventuality. Rather than reconditioning the old piano, it was decided to purchase a larger instrument which had already been reconditioned. This led to a very successful appeal that raised sufficient funds to purchase a Steinway Model B made in 2003.
Jeremy Church said: ‘The target for the appeal was £ 35,000, which we raised very successfully by April and we were able to top this up by a legacy from a past member, which allowed us to buy the Steinway Model B.’
The society would like to thank all those who donated to the purchase of the piano, especially Thomas Tunnock Ltd, Scottish Sea Farms, the Rotary Club of Oban, the Gordon Fraser Charitable Trust, Oban Common Good Fund, the Hugh Fraser Foundation, the Highland Society of London, and friends and members of the society.
The piano is to be showcased at a concert to an invited audience by Peter Evans and Uli Fenner on September 9. Further information about Oban Music Society and details of future concerts can be found on the society’s website obanmusicsociety.org.