I went to the U.K. the week of April 29 to May 6 to attend the British
Player Piano Group "Annual General Meeting" dinner in Leatherhead,
England.  Given the location of this venue I made a week of it,
spending the first four days visiting sites in London (up at 7 AM, back
to the hotel at 11-12 AM) and meeting up with Julian Dyer and his
family, Thomas Pool of Cambridge Pianola Company, Peter and Margaret
Davis, Rex Lawson, Dennis Hall, and Bob Wilson, most whom are MMD
members.  I've never in my life been shown such hospitality as I've
received by each of these individuals!

Present at the May 5th dinner was the granddaughter of J. Lawrence
Cook, Dr. Lisa Fagg, and her husband, Dr. Steve Fagg, with whom I had
the privilege of being seated at the same table.  I was introduced to
Lisa and Steve by MMD member Mike Meddings who was hosting their
attendance.

What a fun night that was!  After starting with a social hour that
included tea and cookies we had a demonstration given by PPG member Sid
O'Connell and his MIDI equipment.  He has taken specific symphonic
recordings of Rachmaninoff, entered their scores into MIDI, then
painstakingly adjusted the MIDI velocities and timing so to _exactly_
match those in the live recording.

His demonstration played the original recordings simultaneously with
his MIDI recordings, each on a different speaker.  A moment here and
there was a glimpse of echo as if the two pianos weren't in exact
synchrony, but the difference was negligible.  His hopes are to work
with a symphony orchestra to use his MIDI on a solenoid piano in a kind
of a "Music Minus One" situation to recreate an exact duplicate of the
original program.  Sid has worked six years on this project, and the
results were impressive.

More social time followed with a glass of sherry, then came the buffet
dinner.  Adam Ramet, Julian Dyer, Joyce Brite and I took turns playing
rolls throughout the meal.  Lisa and Steve Fagg were intrigued by the
playing -- a few rolls which were (of course) "Grandpa's" rolls.  After
dinner, Mike Boyd gave a concert on the push-up player, during which he
invited Lisa to play a roll for the attendees.  Lisa related that her
memories as a child at the player were to "grab the sides of the piano
with both hands and _pump_!"  While her performance wasn't quite this
extreme, she clearly was enjoying herself.

I found the PPG dinner attendees -- as well as complete strangers on
the sidewalks of London - a warm, knowledgeable and hospitable group.
I will not hesitate to visit this country again soon!

Lisa and Steve had an eye-opening time, in my estimation.  They've
concluded that they'd like to join the Player Piano Group, and are
presently in the market to purchase their own player piano.  Good luck
to them as they embark on their new hobby: Grandpa's vocation --
player pianos !

Karl Ellison