A Not Quite So Young Girl at the Piano

Buying a piano on the Amalfi Coast & reflections on returning to playing for World Piano Day.

Sometimes it takes a long time to find all the pieces of yourself in another country. No matter how many suitcases you pack, not everything fits in. When I was about 12 years old, I started playing the piano. I had fallen in love with classical music, especially Chopin and Debussy, and dreamed of playing my favorites one day.

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—Playing the piano in 1992.

I took lessons for several years and absolutely loved it. I still marvel at how my mother made that all possible, and it’s such a sweet memory. But, as way leads onto way, life got busy with moves and school and many other things along the way. At St. John’s College, I had a brief but wonderful return to music and even played the piano a little. But, as more years passed, I doubted if I would ever get back to playing again. 

I wish I could say that I eventually did find my way back easily. I did not. What did happen is that I got breast cancer a little over two and a half years ago. While it’s been a slow process, that experience did rearrange my priorities. I knew one of them was a return to the piano.

There was just one problem. Our house in Amalfi is piccolissimo. Before moving in back in 2019, I spent a lot of time trying to find a spot for a keyboard and just couldn’t make it work. But, not long ago, I realized that as long as neither of us care if there’s a piano squeezed into the tiny living room, what difference does it make?

—Driving home piano piano, as they say in Italian, with the hatchback taped shut!

Once the complicated was suddenly rendered quite simple (isn’t it nice when that happens?), there was just one big task. Actually getting a piano! Just before Christmas, we zigzagged up over the mountain roads to an excellent music stored called Inghilterra in Gragnano where I bought a Roland electronic piano. We had an adventurous day getting it home in our equally piccolissimo car. Not to mention finding a way to get it up the even tighter staircase to the house. I wish I had more photographs of the experience, but we did it it somehow! (As my friend Michelle said that day, welcome to Italy, “Where nothing is ever easy but usually funny.) When a very strong man sat down the huge box as light as a feather in our living room and left, we looked at one another and just laughed.

—My new Roland electric piano. (Artwork above is by my father when he was in college!)

Since I’ve returned to playing, one of the sweetest things has been the rediscovering of memories I had forgotten - or simply misplaced along the way. When deciding on the piano color—between white, my original plan, and a light wood color at the store—I suddenly remembered one of the few photos I have of my grandmother playing the piano. In that moment, it was what made me choose the light wood color, because it reminded me of her piano.

—My grandmother playing in 1989.

She was an accomplished piano player and teacher in Nelson, Nebraska. Unfortunately, I don’t have any specific memories of her playing the piano. But I do have very strong memories of me playing with her piano. I’m so happy to have this photo since I remember looking at the porcelain plate of Renoir’s Young Girls at the Piano sitting on top (which now hangs on my wall) and her exquisite needlepoint rendering of it above the piano. I remember the creak of the bench as I opened it to discover sheet music and books inside. A little hidden treasure trove.

So for World Piano Day (held on the 88th day of the year because there are 88 keys on a piano), this is a little encouragement to make space for your passions and hobbies. Pick them up again - no matter how many years it has been. It’s been over 30 years for me. There are treasures to discover!