Hi, everyone. I am Dave Kerr, a 44 years young backstage technician at
the Stratford Festival Theatre going on 23 years.
I horrified my parents at the innocent age of 13 by bringing home in
pieces my first reed organ and after it was playing, all the more when
two years later I assembled a 4-rank pipe organ from castoffs from our
church's rebuild.
In 1986 I acquired my first player piano and was most confused by those
horizontal slots to the left & right of the note holes. It took an
invaluable 9 months to teardown, analyze and rebuild - Reblitz and PPCo
guiding all the way - a Mason & Risch 'HOMER' solodant upright.
'Themodist' rolls led me to discover DUO-ART rolls which led to all the
worthy products of AEOLIAN.
My learnin' curved sharply when a vague suggestion in 1990 led to the
fine person and collection of Ken Vinan with whom I have had the
pleasure to assist in the maintenance or restoration of both his and
my expanding stables of music machines.
My dream machine is a reproducing pipe organ of modest size. There's
always something on the bench and I can't imagine a better use of my
free time except of course sitting back and enjoying the music. I'm now
finishing up a 1903 Angelus Orchestral 58-note piano player. My next
project is a 1950 Aeolian Pianola key-top piano player.
Dave Kerr
sprocket@orc.ca
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