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Calming harmonies
Yu Jaing’s Boston piano provides tranquility for café patrons.
Chinese businessman Yu Jiang claims to be ‘ignorant of music.” But he is very wise when it comes to understanding music’s ability to calm and soothe. That’s why he selected a Boston grand piano to provide relaxing music in his Weifang café.
Situated on a busy downtown street in the thriving city of Weifang in China’s central Shandong Province, the cafe, Mr. Yu observes, provides a tranquil respite from urban life. “The social development is too fast and many people are hotheaded,” he says. “But the music drifts out from here and makes passers-by feel comfortable.” From the very beginning, Mr. Yu knew he wanted a grand piano in his Both Side C.straits Café and hoped that adding a piano would attract additional high-end customers. C.straits Café is part of a 400-restaurant chain primarily serving Western food.
Mr. Yu selected his piano at Quingdao Hai Yun Music Co., Ltd., which opened its showroom of Steinway-designed pianos in Quing Dao two years ago. During visits there, Mr. Yu discovered quickly that other piano brands were not as expressive as the Steinway family of instruments. “Even a layman like me can tell the difference,” he says. An unusual – some even say spectacular – feature of the C.straits Café restaurant is how the 5-foot-10-inch Steinway-designed Boston grand piano (GP-178) is displayed on a glass platform in a piano pit surrounded by a small wooden fence.
Originally, the pit was filled with water, Mr. Wu recalls, but when more than 10 very enthusiastic music lovers leaned too far over the railing to enjoy the Boston, they slipped into the water. The pit was pumped dry soon thereafter, but the piano remained.
Mr. Yu gave the same thoughtful consideration to selecting a pianist as he did when choosing the Boston piano. After asking a music-teacher friend to select two outstanding students to audition, Mr. Yu… and his wife… spent an entire evening in the café, listening as the students took turns playing the Boston grand piano.
Such care harmonizes with Mr. Yu’s belief that all elements of a given environment should match.
“In an elegant environment such as this café, products, service and guests should be of good quality,” he explains. “To match them, we needed a piano and player of the same quality.” The café’s pianist calls the Boston grand piano’s sound and action “very impressive,” and says the Steinway-designed piano’s quality is one reason she accepted the position to play here. She entertains customers with a mix of popular and classic music.
According to Mr. Yu, general manager of Shandong Welsend Telecom Corp., the Boston piano draws business people and families to his restaurant for get-togethers. He says piano music helps guests calm down emotionally by replacing random noises with pleasurable sounds. “The piano,” he offers, “relieves the impetuous emotions.”