Piano performance majors Brooke Ballard and Amberlee Woodhouse discuss their experience with BYU’s new Yamaha Disklavier piano
Well before COVID-19 brought remote learning options to the forefront of discussions in the music community, the BYU School of Music was already experimenting with modern developments in long-distance piano technology.
“I’m sitting here in Utah listening to music being played in Oregon by a student from Costa Rica,” remarked Scott Holden during a February masterclass exchange in which Holden worked with students at the University of Oregon, and UO professor Alexandre Dossin worked with BYU piano students.
Yamaha Disklavier technology — often paired with video conferencing — connects two pianos, allowing teachers, students, collaborators or even audience members to hear the way a piece is performed in another location. The Disklavier transmits the pressure and duration applied to a key or pedal on one piano to the other in real time, allowing for aural accuracy far beyond anything conveyed through video or phone alone.