Arts Center Tuning Up for Piano Sale

Ear cocked, Wayne Berwick stroked a black, B-flat piano key Thursday at Simi Valley’s Cultural Arts Center and twisted a tuning wrench until the tone rang true.

He was readying the instrument for this weekend, when a piano sale will raise money for the Cultural Arts Center to buy its own $20,000 Kawai concert grand piano.

Spinets and consoles, babies and grands hulked around Berwick’s hunched shoulders as he worked at tuning one of the 30 pianos scattered throughout the arts center.

Baby grands waited on stage, and a computerized, self-playing grand piano sat in the upstairs lobby, floppy disk at the ready.

Berwick straightened up from the spinet he was tuning and played a few chords, then packed his tools, satisfied with a day’s work.

“I don’t like to do more than four a day,” he explained. “I get a little spaced out, because it takes such intense concentration.”

Another tuner will join Berwick this morning to finish the massive tuning job.

The pianos--supplied for sale by Owen Piano Co. of Canoga Park--will go on sale today and Saturday to anyone who makes a preview appointment. Then the theater will be opened to the public on Sunday from noon to 5 p.m., said Debbie Leighton, coordinator for the benefit.

Steinways and Baldwins, Yamahas and Cables of many styles and finishes will be on sale, ranging in price from $800 to $3,000, Leighton said.

Profits from the sale will be split between the piano company and the arts center, she said. And anyone who buys a piano or makes a donation toward the center’s concert grand will be remembered on a plaque as the honorary purchaser of one of the new piano’s 88 keys.

To reserve one of the 50 or so appointments available today and again on Saturday, call toll-free (888) PIANO 96 or (888) 742-6696.