YAMAHA BRINGS MUSIC BACK INTO FIRE VICTIMS' LIVES

—Joins Music World to Loan Clavinovas and Disklaviers to Los Alamos Residents Who Lost Instruments in Spring Wildfire—

LOS ALAMOS, NM (August 15, 2000)—No insurance company or government agency can replace the family photos, heirloom furniture or beloved mementos that were lost when more than 250 homes were destroyed by wildfire in Los Alamos, NM this May and June. However, Yamaha Corporation of America and Music World of Santa Fe are joining forces to restore one important element of victims' lives—their music.

Don Johnson, owner of Music World, greets Orbry Wright, recipient of a loaned Clavinova, as the piano is unloaded.

In mid-August, some 18 households who lost pianos in the Cerro Grande fire will receive Yamaha CLP or CVP Clavinova digital pianos or DGT2 Disklavier digital player pianos from Music World, a total of more than $35,000 in equipment. The pianos will be on loan for about six months.

"When you can experience this type of giving and helping, it just feels good," says Don Johnson, owner of Music World, which has locations in Albuquerque and nearby Santa Fe.

Music World will absorb the depreciation in the pianos, while Yamaha will contribute free shipping and waive the financing charge it normally assesses dealers upon delivery. Some of the pianos will be ones that have already seen light use in the Yamaha Music School in Albuquerque, and were due to return to Music World for retail sale.

Don Johnson with the Wright family of Los Alamos and their Clavinova.

Two DGT2IIXGs will go to professional music teachers in the area who depended upon their pianos for their livelihoods, and the Clavinovas will go to local music students who lost their instruments. The recipients of the loaned instruments will face no obligation at the end of the program.

The initiative owes a great deal to Los Alamos music teacher Juanita Madland, whose own home and piano escaped damage by less than a quarter-mile. Her daughter Michelle in New York State is acquainted with Mike Bates, Director of Academic and Institutional Affairs, Piano Division, Yamaha Corporation of America, and put the two in touch. With active support from Bates, Johnson and Madland as well as Piano Division District Manager Mark Peterson and Piano Division Disklavier Consultant George Litterst, the plan came together quickly

The Wright family girls of Los Alamos, enjoying their Yamaha Clavinova.

Madland used her contacts in the Los Alamos music community to identify teachers and students who had made serious use of their pianos and felt their loss most keenly—"People who played it, not just had their flowers on it," as she put it. Madland worked with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) representatives to verify the fire losses, while Bates helped calm the agency's apprehensions about the temporary mobile homes some of the families are still occupying.

"The only hurdle was, initially FEMA didn't know they were digital pianos," Bates explains. "They were worried about putting heavy pianos in the temporary housing trailers." After he explained the difference, Bates says, FEMA personnel provided valuable support to the project. He also promised that the trailer residents would be supplied with headphones, so they could play without disturbing others in the close quarters of the emergency housing area.

The Cerro Grande fire began May 4 when a controlled burn by the National Park Service at Bandelier National Monument leapt its boundaries. It was not contained until June 6, and wasn't fully extinguished until July 20. The 25,000 residents of the Los Alamos and White Rock areas were forced to evacuate, and 250 homes, 40 temporary buildings at the Los Alamos National Laboratories and 47,650 acres of forest were destroyed.

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