Classical Musicians and Their Instruments

Felicity Coltman

Felicity Coltman is director of and a faculty member at the Austin Chamber Music Center. With cellist Margaret Coltman-Smith and violinist Jennifer Bourianoff, Coltman plays in the Arundel Trio.

"I bought my beautiful Bösendorfer piano in 1988, after a yearlong search for the perfect piano for my needs -- and also for the size of my home. It was a dream of mine to own a quality piano, and this was an investment that is exceeded only by the cost of our home!

"I've had a Mason and Hamlin grand for many years, and also a Bechstein upright (which my parents bought for me when I was four years old), but I wanted a piano with a very special sound and feel. I played on many pianos in Austin and visited a piano factory and a large piano store in Stuttgart, Germany, and spent a day trying out every piano there. The Bösendorfer had the sound I liked the best.

"The Bösendorfer factory is in a small town outside Vienna, and their philosophy is that it takes a long time to build a piano (four to seven years). The builders resist mechanization and standardization, and produce each piano as a uniquely crafted work. The wood used is spruce, and the theory is that if the entire body of the piano is a single thickness of spruce, it will resonate in sympathy with the strings like the body of a guitar or a violin. This gives the tone a rounded, open quality that produces volume without hardness in the bass and midrange and a bell-like quality in the treble. The keys are made of ivory, which is more responsive to play on than plastic. I actually bought it in Austin, from Strait Music Company. It lives in my living room -- I teach in another room on the Mason and Hamlin."