By Genevieve Presley and Angelina Syribouth
Columnist & Photographer
The music department at Amarillo College was left devastated and concerned when a ceiling leak caused damage to the school pianos. Chair of music and theater Camille Neis said the pianos will be officially assessed on April 16. “From our perspective, we know they’re not playable and we think they will probably be totaled rather than be repairable,” Neis said. While they are disappointed with the incident, they, as a department, appreciate that the physical plant reached out and let them know what was happening as soon as it occurred.
“We’ve got lots of other equipment for our students to use and for our faculty to be able to teach with, so we are devastated by the loss of those particular instruments, but we know we can continue to teach and learn with the equipment that we do have because we’ve got some really great opportunities here for folks, and we’ll get those replaced as soon as we can.” Director of piano studies, Dr. Bruce Lin, said this was not the first time something like this has happened on campus.
“It’s really bad. These pianos are totaled because this is not the first time this has happened. This is the second time, and when it’s the second time, just like any car when it’s been in a wreck for the second time, it’s done. So we are very sad, but it was out of our control,” Lin said.
According to Lin, there are plans in place to make sure this does not happen again. “I think one of the guys from the physical plant said he was going to make sure they would get it done right and we believe they will. I’m sure they’re working hard to prevent this from happening again.”
The damage has also caused concern for students and their quality of practice. “Hearing about the leak just kinda sucks as a musician because we think of our instruments as an extension of ourselves, so hearing about damages to great instruments probably affects us more than the average person,” Seth Hodges, a music major, said.
Hodges said there are several pianos in the music department, and most of them seem to have an issue in one way or another. “The ones that are leaked on are very nice, so without them, we have to turn to some of the older pianos that have various issues. Playing these pianos doesn’t make playing impossible, just more difficult. The best way I can describe it is that an instrument is a channel through which we make sound, and when that channel isn’t as effective or is broken, the sound suffers,” he said.
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