Posted by Douglas Fisher on Wednesday, September 3, 2014 in News.

This is a guest post by Doug Fisher, Faculty Director of Warren College.

A fire drill seems to be going smoothly, with all the residents of Warren or Moore on the Wilson Lawn, or so we hope. The drill gives me about 20 minutes for a blog post.

When I went down for breakfast from The Kitchen this morning, I found the new Kawai upright piano in the Warren Great Room. Its exciting to actually see it in place. Soon, a Steinway baby grand will appear in the Moore Great Room.

The pianos are the brainchild of Jim Lovensheimer, Faculty Director of Moore College. Jim has arranged a concert series, hosted by College Halls, for the Vanderbilt community, throughout Fall and Spring semesters on selected Sunday evenings starting about 7:00 pm (Oct 19, Nov 2, Jan 11, Jan 25, Feb 8, Feb 22, Mar 22, Apr 5, Apr 19). Jim arranged such a good deal on the baby grand, which will be a centerpiece of the concert series, that there was money to spare for the upright piano at Warren (and I was raised on an old upright, so I like it very much). The Warren Great Room will play host to a number of showcase events on selected Saturday nights, highlighting College Halls student talent, again for the entire Vanderbilt community (including tentative dates of Nov 15 and Mar 14). I expect that the upright will be a centerpiece of some of our student talent!

Because the great rooms are used for study and conversation, the plan is to lock the pianos except for performances. Its possible that student interest might lead us to unlock the Kawai upright on some non-performance nights, perhaps Friday and Saturday nights, but we don’t want to interrupt study patterns.

I am more excited about the pianos than I first imagined I would be. Glad that I kept the faith with my friend, Jim Lovensheimer! Thanks, Professor Lov!

**This guest post reflects Doug’s opinions, and not necessarily those of Vanderbilt University.