Ken Caswell of Austin, TX has asked me to solicit the MMD audience for
a rare and perhaps unobtainable component for his Welte project.  For
those of you who may have missed the information about Pierian CDs,
issued in collaboration with Prof. Karl Miller of the U. of Texas
there, three releases have been produced to date.

Ken uses an upright Feurich (one of the most admired of the German
pianos of yore) and carefully transfers his Licensee rolls, either
originals or exact copies and has thus far covered the complete
recorded legacy of Claude Debussy (Pierian #1) and Enrique Granados
(Pierian #2) and now Fannie Bloomfield-Zeisler (Pierian #3/4, a 2-CD
set).  They are outstanding, and in my opinion the most accurate and
impressive of roll transfers from non-Vorsetzer sources.

As many are aware, a great deal of the original Welte-Mignon issues
were only T-100 or "Red" rolls, with the wider tracker bar.  Ken needs
the device to supply Richard Tonnesen, whose expert roll recuts are
familiar to many, in order that he can convert the ret-100 rolls to
the Licensee format.

Ken will entertain a reasonable price.  (Naturally, if you happen to
have one lying around, he'd love to have it gratis! <smile!>)  If you
can be of any assistance, please contact me (Ken is not "computered")
and I'll forward the information to him.

His work is very important and is a most-welcome step in the direction
of preservation of -- and, equally valuable -- our enjoyment of these
historic performances.  Upcoming in 2001 will be CDs of the complete
Ravel and Scriabin legacies.   I have suggested to him that he consider
the transfers of the Welte performances of Camille Saint-Saens and if
enough interest can be ascertained, I believe he and Prof. Miller would
be agreeable.

Any information as to the whereabouts of this component will be very
much appreciated.  The web site for the Reproducing Piano Roll
Foundation, providing complete detail of all known classical releases
for the historic performers, has been restored; access
http://www.rprf.org/

Hope someone can help.  There are many issues of extreme importance
that were never converted to the Licensee format.

Best to all,

Albert M. Petrak, Founder
The Reproducing Piano Roll Foundation