MAY MONTHLY LUNCHEON REVIEW R EVIEW
Rhonda Boyle
late Professor Max Cooke. The Team of Pianists are Artists-In-Residence for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) Ltd. at Glenfern, the National Trustâs Centre for the Arts and Culture, in East St Kilda. In 2007, and serendipitously while online, she discovered Donison-Steinbuhler (DS) keyboards with narrower keys. None were available in Australia at the time, but David Steinbuhler came to Australia in 2008 and measured her grand piano for the new keyboard. In 2009, Rhonda thus became the first person to import this keyboard, a DS5.5ÂŽ which is approximately 7/8th of the normal width.
At our 5th May Monthly Luncheon, Rhonda Boyle spoke to: The âone size fits allâ piano keyboard causes much pain and injury and prevents most pianists form reaching their musical potential: A revolution is needed! Rhonda began with a question to the audience: How many play or have played the piano? â and about 50% raised their hands. She then went on to explain that she played piano as a child but always knew that her hands were too small to become a serious performer. She pursued a career in government in a variety of fields (policy, environmental science, strategic planning), before returning to piano lessons in 1999 with the brilliant Robert Chamberlain, a well-known performer in Melbourne and partner in Melbourneâs Team of Pianists, founded by the 26
This experience prompted her to get involved in the research on hand and keyboard sizes, and thence to presenting at international conferences and setting up the website: smallpianokeyboards.org which summarises the scientific basis for narrower keyboards. Making information relevant and freely accessible is her main priority. In 2013, she co-founded the movement known as PASK (Pianists for Alternatively Sized Keyboards) with Professor Carol Leone from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and Erica Booker, a Sydney-based piano teacher. The goal of PASK is to convince piano manufacturers to begin producing piano keyboards in three standard sizes: the current âlargeâ size (6.5 inch octave) and two additional sizes with narrower keys: DS6.0ÂŽ and DS5.5ÂŽ with 6.0 inch and 5.5 inch octaves respectively. She is now a director of the DS Standard Foundation, created by David Steinbuhler who converted the Steinbuhler business to a not-for-profit.
