The first piano owned by the Deià Festival was a Wurlizter "ship´s piano" inherited from Stephanie Shepard´s grandmother and shipped from Cincinnati, Ohio. It was used by Gonzalo Augusto to play Bartok dances in the Deià Church with Suzanne Bradbury at the keyboard. Occasionally we borrowed the old Bradbury Steinway, hauling it up to the church or to the park, but mostly the concerts were without keyboard, or with our DeBlaise harpsichord.
After Gonzalo's concert, it was obvious we needed to have a piano for the Festival, if for no other reason to expand the repertoire. It was then we bought an old Bechstein grand and eventually moved it into Son Marroig, where we used it for several years, played by such fine musicians as Leonid Brumberg, Jean-Louis Steuermann, Gian-Carlo Ricci, and Irina Edelstein, among many others.
Finally, in 1985, with the help of Hannes Rössner, a few Friends of Music, and the Consell Insular, we were able to purchase the Yamaha C7-E still kept in the music room of Son Marroig.
This piano has served very well, but the prestige of the Deià Festival continues to rise in the estimation of public and performers, and it was time to upgrade to a Steinway.
In 1994, Dr. Franz Gozon and his wife Yvonne became members of Amics de la Música Clàssica. With a home in Port Andraitx, but living mostly in Switzerland, they often attended the concerts in Son Marroig and Deià.
In 1998 Dr. Gozon passed away. At the concert on August 6, 1999 in the Deià church by the Orquesta Illa de Mallorca, given in memory of the late Tomeu Rotger, Yvonne informed me at the interval that she wanted to make a donation to the Festival. Dr. Gozon was a great lover of music, and she felt he would have wanted to support us in our efforts. She said she had always a preference for the smaller, independent initiatives, such as ours here in the outskirts of Deià.
Her substantial donation was put into a special account of Alma Concerts in the Sa Nostra Bank, and made the beginning of a fund to purchase a Steinway grand, long a dream.
We have now purchased an excellent Steinway, Model C, and this piano has been in use since the XXII Festival, in the year 2000.
Here are the contributors to the "Steinway Fund"
Walter and Dorothea Biemel Frank BrunsPeter ChildElena DavisPat FabianFederico GiliJuan and Francis Graves Birgit and Eckart HöppnerCarl and Antoinette ManskerLeonard PearceyAndreas PironSon Marroig Steve Riches Robert SherwoodJames StevensonDr.Gottfried & Mari-Ana Tourneur Pierre and Katya Watters Mungo and Uta Westerhoff Barry and Marion Wiggins and these pianists who played concerts in support of the fund:
Suzanne BradburyIreneusz JaglaFrancesc BlancoMaria Victoria CortésIvan Martín