NYC--Yamaha Artist Tony DeSare is well known for crossing boundaries. His agility in interpreting American standards has landed him on serious jazz stages from Birdland to the Vail Jazz Festival, and even on the hallowed piano bench beside Marion McPartland. As an aficionado of more modern classics (and as true child of the 80s) DeSare has also paid tribute to rockers from Journey to Bon Jovi and Prince. In a live show, he’s just as likely to kick out licks (literally — with his size 10 Chuck Taylors in Great Balls of Fire), as mist your eyes with his original ballad “How I Will Say I Love You.” 

BUENA PARK, CA—This Spring (2014), a few lucky students experienced the college audition process like none before them—they recorded their auditions with high definition video perfectly synced to their piano performance via the Disklavier Education Network’s Auditions program. Why would they want to do such a thing? In some cases, winter weather made travel impossible. In others, travel distances were prohibitive. In yet others, high-achieving students simply couldn’t fit all the auditions into an already-packed schedule.

When Wayne State’s Music Department Chair, Dr. Linda Christensen isn’t coming up with new ways to use their school’s Disklavier pianos, she can be found teaching one of the most innovative class piano programs in the country in a state-of-the-art Yamaha Clavinova lab with computers and network connectivity at each station. In the 2013-14 school year, Christensen added a new twist to the class, inviting collaboration with counterparts at the University of Sao Paolo, Brazil.

This article originally appeared in The Wayne Stater. Reprinted by permission.

Hayley Ringle
Reporter-Phoenix Business Journal