The withdrawal of the planned sale of Kiama’s Baby Grand piano has revealed how loved it is by the community.

Barry Spooner, a Kiama Probus Men’s Choir member and part of the group that ensured the piano stayed in our community, says, “We think the sale was an administrative decision… because of the financial difficulties created by the pandemic.”

Kiama Council took a financial knock during COVID, and one way to make some savings was by selling off assets. It must have been decided that the piano wasn’t used much.

Knowledge of this plan came about purely by chance.

Choir chair and Emeritus Mayor, Brian Petschler, went to the Pavilion to see if the choir could use the piano to accompany singers at the funeral of a former choir member.

“At the same time, I asked if we could also use the piano later in the year for our Kiama Rotary Club Choir Extravaganza” says Brian.

“An innocent question, but that’s when I found out, quite by chance, that the piano was scheduled to go out to tender.

“I told the choir and they were shocked. I was outraged.”

Brian Petschler (second from right) when the Choir played at Parliament House in Canberra in 2016

In 1982, the Kiama Jazz Club arranged for first-class international artists, Jamaican pianist Monty Alexander, and Americans double bass player Ray Brown and guitarist Herb Ellis, to perform at the Kiama Bowling Club.

Monty needed a grand piano and the only one in town was at the Blue Haven Retirement Village. Several keys were duds. A piano tuner couldn’t help.

Post-performance, the Kiama Independent reported that the Jazz Committee had managed to bring three of the greatest jazz musicians playing in the world to Kiama, “but could not produce a piano fit to be played upon”.

Their next edition was full of angry letters from local residents and the ‘Great Piano Scandal’ rocked Kiama to its very foundations, according to Harry Stein in his book, Blowing at the Blowhole.

This fiasco sent Kiama’s jazz man Dennis Kok searching for a Grand piano, which he found stuck on a wharf in Melbourne.

He secured the brand new 6’4” Yamaha Baby Grand piano for $6,500 (half price) with the help of an interest-free loan from Kiama Council. The Kiama Jazz Club was then the only jazz club in Australia to have its own Baby Grand.

This piano has since been played by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Sydney University Singers and many international performers.

Australian classical concert pianist Roger Woodward said in 1986 that it was one of the finest Baby Grand pianos he’d ever played on in this country.

We only wish we had a picture of Roger Woodward playing Kiama's piano

“I was only a kid when this ‘Great Piano Scandal’ happened,” says Becky Guggisberg (above), Caretaker of the Kiama Jazz & Blues Club.

“I don’t know how we could have brought world-class musicians to town with such a daggy piano.

“My understanding is that later on the Jazz Club sold the piano to Council and a purpose-built storage space was built in the Pavilion.

“Kiama’s Jazz people are thrilled that there has been a backflip and we are keeping this piano. I’m confident it was Brian and Barry’s loud voices that got this piano saved. 

Brian continues the story, “When I heard about the sale, I got straight onto Mark (Mayor Honey) and he and Councillor Kathy Rice acted very quickly to stop it.

“It shocked me, it really did. I thought, ’How could this happen without someone recognising the community outrage that would occur as a result of the sale?’

“What’s the piano worth? Maybe $20,000? How is that going to help when you have a million dollar debt?” 

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