Campaign Oregon - University of Oregon

Grand Gifts

Thirty More Pianos Needed for Music Building Expansion

For Alexandre Dossin, the arrival of a new Steinway Model D concert grand from Hamburg, Germany, this June means the University of Oregon will now be able to attract more of the world’s finest musicians.

“The design, the acoustics, and the beauty of Beall Concert Hall make it one of the nation’s top concert venues,” said Dossin, an acclaimed pianist who joined the faculty of the UO School of Music and Dance last fall. “With this piano, we can invite any world-renowned pianist and they will certainly say that we are very fortunate.”

Dossin traveled to Hamburg with David Riley, assistant professor of collaborative piano, and Alan Phillips, the UO’s piano technician, to choose the piano purchased as a gift to the university by Jackie Giustina ’43.

The glossy ebony concert grand will be one of two new Steinways scheduled to arrive this year. The other, to be selected this fall, is an American Steinway given by Bob DeArmond ’52 as a birthday tribute to his wife Leona ’51.

About thirty more pianos are needed for new practice rooms and performance spaces in the $17.8 million expansion of the MarAbel B. Frohnmayer Music Building.

“The only way that we are able to purchase or replace our pianos is through private donations,” said Phillips, who maintains about a hundred pianos including several dating back to the 1920s. “When someone steps up to help us do this, we are so grateful.”