“Jeannie Yu was here this morning and chose a Schimmel semi-concert grand model K230 for the September 2 concert at the Ellison Bay Manor,” says Thomas Zoells, President of PianoForte Chicago. “David Graham and I are certain that this piano will be another cause for excitement for your audience.”

The Schimmel Model K230 is a semi-concert grand (7 feet and 7 inches long) built for performances in smaller concert halls. One of the design innovations it contains is a keyboard that is identical to that of Schimmel’s concert grand. This enables a pianist to have the feel of a concert grand in a smaller piano.

“We believe that the Schimmel K230 is an ideal choice for the upcoming program due to its versatility, be it for more intimate chamber music like Mahler or for more virtuosic powerful works like that of Franck,” says Zoells.

The September 2 concert at the Ellison Bay Manor entitled “Grand Eloquence,” will feature David Perry, Violin; Stephanie Preucil, Violin; Sally Chisholm, Viola; Walter Preucil, Cello; and Jeannie Yu, Piano. Their repertoire will consist of the following works:

Quartet Movement in A Minor, 1876
Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

Café Music (1986)
Violin, Cello, and Piano
Paul Shoenfield (b. 1947)                                                                                                                                

Quintet in F Minor, 1879
Two Violins, Viola, Cello, and Piano
César Franck (1822-1890)

The Schimmel Piano Company was founded in 1885 in Braunschweig Germany. Hannes Schimmel-Vogel is the CEO and the fourth generation of the Schimmel family to lead the company since inception. The Konzert line of pianos, to which the K230 belongs, was launched in the year 2000. It expresses Schimmel’s desire to produce a top flight concert instrument and it achieves this goal by combining the best materials, craftsmanship and German machine tool technology.

PianoForte is offering the Schimmel piano featured in the Ellison Bay Manor concert, which lists at $88,000, for a special sale price of $59,000. If someone chooses to purchase it, PianoForte will reimburse the festival for the $1,000 moving fee and make an additional donation of $1,000 to the organization. If anyone attending the concert purchases a piano from PianoForte in the future, they will also make respective donation to Midsummer’s Music Festival.

Since its inception, PianoForte has evolved into a specialized piano boutique with a focus on selecting fine instruments at various price levels. They are located on the ground floor of Chicago’s historic Fine Arts Building at 408 S. Michigan Avenue and showcase a carefully selected inventory of pianos including Fazioli, Shigeru Kawai, K. Kawai, Schimmel, Grotrian, Feurich, Wendl & Lung, Yamaha (digital only), and various used pianos of other well-known brands.

Tickets for the September 2 concert at the Ellison Bay Manor are available online or through Midsummer’s Music Festival by calling 920.854.7088.