Boston Kids Enjoy the Science of Yamaha Pianos

BOSTON KIDS ENJOY THE SCIENCE OF YAMAHA PIANOS

—Disklavier Pro 2000 Is Centerpiece of Museum's "Playing With Music" Exhibit—

BOSTON (March 29, 2001)—When you want to show kids the intersection where music, science and fun meet, who are you going to call? For the debut of the "Playing With Music" exhibit at the Current Science & Technology (CS&T) Center at the Museum of Science, Boston, the answer was Yamaha.

Yamaha's George Litterst helps two Massachusetts kids make music on a Yamaha Disklavier.

"Playing With Music," a special exhibit running through April 15, explores some of the intriguing ways that computer technology is being applied to the art of making music. The exhibit features a variety of Yamaha Disklaviers, Clavinovas and Silent Series™ instruments to illustrate the use of technology in music. Visitors from Boston area schools even used the instruments to make their own musical web pages.

During the exhibit's run, including two Saturdays when schoolchildren were treated to a special interactive experience, Yamaha Piano consultant George Litterst gave demonstrations of the Disklavier Pro 2000, Yamaha's ultra high-tech $333,000 voice-activated player piano. The Pro 2000 is futuristically designed with a cherry case, brushed aluminum legs and key cover, and split-panel transparent lid. This piano allows the user to enjoy original MIDI music with simultaneous video performances that are stored on disc. When the disc is inserted into the instrument's built-in DVD player, the performances are displayed on the computer monitor or an external source, such as a large-screen TV.

With the help of museum volunteers, the schoolchildren recorded short passages of music on a Yamaha DC3A 6' 1" Mark III Series Full-Function Grand

Piano in the building's lobby. Then, the children had their photos taken and entered some personal information on a computer terminal. In another room, they were able to use a touch-screen kiosk to access the personal web pages they'd created—while the Disklavier Pro 2000 used MIDI data to recreate the music they had recorded in their own keystrokes. The student web pages and their music are available online at http://www.mos.org/exhibits/digitalmusic/.

The Yamaha Disklavier Pro 2000 took center stage in the first exhibit of the museum's Current Science & Technology Center.

The Yamaha pianos were provided for the exhibit with the combined assistance of Yamaha Piano Division and Boston Organ and Piano.

"The interactivity has been tremendous fun for many kids," Litterst says. "They're always amazed and excited to see and hear their performances played back by the Disklavier."

"We want to excite people about science and technology, inspire future leaders in research and innovation, and provide a forum to consider the impact of scientific discoveries and new technologies," says David W. Ellis, the Museum's President and Director. "CS&T programs and exhibits are a bold experiment in enhancing the public understanding of research and what's behind the hype and the headlines. If it works, it will provide a new model for museum content delivery which others may find useful."

In addition to the interactive music making activity, the museum also features a Yamaha DGT2IIXG GranTouch Digital Grand Piano, running Home Concert 2000 software (which Litterst co-wrote) on a Macintosh G4 computer. Visitors can see the score flow across a computer monitor in sync with the piano's recreation of the music.

Yamaha's Silent Series of string instruments and brass mute inserts has also lent its technological edge to the exhibit, thanks to "headphones-only" demonstration performances by young artists from the nearby Berklee College of Music. Elsewhere in the museum, visitors can also marvel at a Yamaha CVP107 Clavinova digital piano that is linked to a personal computer.

The Museum of Science brings headline-making science and technology news into a dynamic new educational environment that is the first of its kind in the world. Making use of the digital technologies fueling science and technology today, the $2.5 million CS&T Center is designed to present and interpret discoveries and innovations virtually as they occur.

For more information on the Current Science and Technology Center, visit www.mos.org/cst or contact Carole McFall at 617-589-0257.

For more information about Yamaha Disklavier pianos and Clavinova digital pianos, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Piano Division, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622-6600; visit www.yamaha.com; or telephone (714) 522-9011.

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