I live on the island of Fiji in The South Pacific.  We are blessed in a
special way, in which our monuments are not man-made but are the land as
it is.  But the piano industry is rather stagnant!

I guess because of our isolation and not much demand, there are rather
few pianos and pianist here.  At The University of the South Pacific
(USP), where I am a student, we have a total of five pianos (all
uprights).  Only one piano works to a decent proficiency; the others need
tuning and some keys are not working.  The piano teacher at USP, Mr.
Solomona, told me that he was trying to get someone from New Zealand to
come and tune our pianos.

So, if there is anyone out there that is able to tune pianos and is
planning a vacation to Fiji, come over to the USP music centre in Suva,
Fiji.  We really need our pianos fixed.

Getting hold of written piano music to play in Fiji is almost impossible.
There is only one shop in Suva that sells written music, most of which is
beginner courses,  and their entire range -- if put one on top the other
-- won't even reach waist height.  So, I guess you could understand a
pianist's  frustrations here in Fiji.

I appeal to anyone out there who can send some written piano music to us
here in Fiji to do so.  There are a group of students here at USP who
really love the piano, although we don't have as much technical knowledge
as some of you who contribute to this newsletter.

Looking forward to your replies.

Ryan Gounder

 [ Editor's note:
 [
 [ Welcome to MMD, Ryan.  A vacation in Fiji is certainly a nice thought.
 [ Perhaps I'll learn piano tuning, just so I can visit!  There are 
 [ several old songs from "the Ragtime era" (pre-WW1) which mention
 [ the tropical isles, including Fiji.  Would you students like to play
 [ and sing old-time songs of this sort?
 [
 [ Robbie Rhodes