Giving a guided tour of four centuries of keyboard innovations - “my playground’’ - it’s clear that Sykes’s teenage enthusiasm hasn’t waned. These instruments are going to outlast me, but, on the other hand, I’m going to squeeze every drop out of them that I can while they’re here.’’ “These are tools - they’re moved in and out for concerts, and I’m playing them constantly. “If all these were antique harpsichords, it would be like having a collection of Stradivarius violins,’’ he says. Only one of his pieces is a period instrument. Now an internationally-known performer, he no longer makes instruments “as a kind of day job,’’ as he once did, but his collection of over 20 instruments (of which a dozen reside at First Church) has continued to grow, a resource for local performers and Sykes’s students. Having just bought a new piano, his parents balked at a harpsichord, so Sykes began to build his own from kits. “There was something about that sound that absolutely captivated me.’’ “It started with my falling in love with the harpsichord, at age 13, through an LP that my mother brought home from the Stop & Shop called ‘Greatest Harpsichord Hits,’ ’’ he remembers. CAMBRIDGE - The expanse of keyboards, clavichords, harpsichords, and pianos crowding Peter Sykes’s basement office at First Church in Cambridge came, oddly enough, from the supermarket.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |