Nothing quite matches the anticipation of a long-awaited item arriving by mail or UPS or Wells Fargo Wagon…or so goes the sentiment behind the song in “The Music Man” (forgive me the reference to a composition not by George or Ira Gershwin).  But that’s  the feeling I had when the semi truck from Modern Piano Movers pulled in to the Moore Building parking lot of the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance at 8:30 p.m. on April 13, 2013.  It was really “something special” to see that 75-foot vehicle pull in and unload George Gershwin’s prized Model A Steinway.

Moving a piano out of a Manhattan high rise is no small feat.  Most folks don’t really know that there actually exist a number of companies who make it their business to shuttle pianos back and forth across the United States for manufacturers, retailers, and private individuals looking for a long haul.  However, most long haulers will only pick up at a dealer location, which means that a local move must first be arranged before the piano can be loaded onto the truck for the cross-country trek.  But there are a couple of outfits that will actually go door-to-door.  Modern Piano Moving is just such a company, and no one is better equipped than they to navigate the myriad local rules and ordinances that govern the pick-up and delivery of an item as big as a piano in downtown Manhattan.  It all went off smoothly and the piano “traveled by map,” so to speak, first to a warehouse in New Jersey, then to a distribution center in Kentucky, and finally to Ann Arbor, along with a few household items (including a riding mower!) destined for a west Michigan home, just to round out the load.

The driver and his assistant seemed as excited as I.  They’ve been around a few pianos in their day, and they knew who George Gershwin was.  Piano men in their own way, they set about the work of unloading the instrument, bringing it into the School, and setting it up in the piano tech shop.  For a short while I was the only spectator until School of Music, Theatre & Dance Dean Christopher Kendall stopped by as he arrived from a flight from Washington, D.C., where he had just coincidentally spent a day with Marc Gershwin.  We were all smiles.