Since Groven is less familiar to American audiences, media interest there is more likely to focus on the unique artistic and technological aspects of the Groven Piano. As an indicator of the potential media coverage we may look to another recent project involving the merging of pianos and technology: George Antheil's "Ballet mecanique." Composed in 1923 while Antheil lived in Paris, "Ballet mecanique" calls for three xylophones, four bass drums, a tamtam, two pianos, a siren, three airplane propellers, seven electric bells, and 16 synchronized player pianos. It was never performed during the composer's lifetime since the technology for linking and synchronizing multiple player pianos did not yet exist. The technology exists now, though, and composer Paul Lehrman used computers and 16 midi-controlled player pianos (donated by Yamaha-USA) to stage the very first performance of the work on November 18, 1999 at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.

       The sold-out concert was broadcast live over national public radio and the internet, and will be followed by performances in New York and San Francisco later this year. A compact disc recording from the concert and a new publication by G. Schirmer of the score and parts with a CD-ROM version of the player piano computer files are forthcoming. Media coverage has included features on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition," the Canadian Broadcasting System's "As It Happens", and Boston's WGBH-TV, as well as newspaper articles in The Boston Globe, The Medford Transcript, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the London Daily Telegraph, and the Sacramento Bee. Lehrman also wrote an article about the premiere for the on-line magazine "Wired."

       Further information about the Antheil project including transcripts of most of these articles can be found at:

David Loberg Code
School of Music
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo, MI 49008
Phone: 616.373.6877
Email: code@wmich.edu