Six years in the past, halfway by way of the 91st Academy Awards telecast, a walnut Steinway and Sons Mannequin B grand piano took heart stage on the Dolby Theatre. After being easily propelled from the wings, it stood for a second alone, its lid aglow with mirrored high lights.
Sharp-eyed film followers might need acknowledged it as one of many pianos utilized in that yr’s Oscar-nominated “A Star Is Born” and certainly, Bradley Cooper and Woman Gaga rapidly left their seats to carry out the eventual unique track winner, “Shallow.”
It was an emotional excessive level of the present, the digicam circling the piano as Woman Gaga started to play, then following Cooper as he joined her on the bench for the track’s last notes. When the 2 rose to acknowledge the standing ovation, the instrument stood with them, captured briefly in all its shining glory.
There’s a photograph of that efficiency on Susie Chung’s web site. Chung is a classically educated pianist with a doctorate in piano efficiency from USC. For years, she supported her life as a pupil and a performer by instructing burgeoning musicians to play the instrument she has cherished since she was 3 years previous.
When she married Anthony Ho in 2017, she moved into his home in Altadena, and her dream of taking part in and instructing in a house studio full with a grand piano got here true. In 2019, she added the image from the Oscars with the notice: “Ask Dr. Chung about her piano!”
The image remains to be there. The house, the studio and the Steinway Mannequin B at the moment are gone.
Susie Chung’s dream of taking part in and instructing in a house studio full with a grand piano got here true in 2017. Then, final month, the Altadena dwelling, the studio and the Steinway Mannequin B all burned down within the Eaton hearth.
(Susie Chung)
Chung, Ho and their 3-year-old son, Elias, left their home on the night time of Jan. 7 after the ability failed. They may see the glow of the Eaton hearth, however it was far sufficient away that they had been satisfied they had been merely exercising warning. They might spend the night time at Ho’s mother and father’ dwelling in close by San Gabriel and return the following day.
Which they did, solely to search out rubble, ash and scattered flames. The skeleton of the piano was barely distinguishable, marked by a metallic plate bearing the title “Steinway” and a few scorched metallic strings.
A piano is simply a factor. Chung is aware of that, and she or he and Ho are grateful that they and their son are alive and effectively. In contrast to a lot of their neighbors, they’d a spot to go, and keep, that’s welcoming, acquainted and already stuffed with Elias’ toys. Ho, a pc engineer, didn’t lose his enterprise within the hearth; Chung has begun instructing once more.
However some issues matter greater than others. Some issues exist deep within the weave of a life, a household, a group, a metropolis, a tradition. Their loss leaves a jagged gap which will shrink over time however can by no means be mended.
Chung’s walnut Mannequin B grand piano was a kind of issues and so I observe the directions on her web site and ask her about it.
Proudly owning such a piano grew to become potential after Chung met Ho, a neighborhood boy who grew up in San Gabriel, went to San Marino Excessive and UC Irvine. After he acquired his grasp’s diploma in pc science at Stanford, he returned dwelling, dwelling together with his mother and father whereas he labored and saved. In 2012, he purchased a home in Altadena, drawn like many to the realm’s pure magnificence. “It felt like you were going to camp,” he says.
Chung works with piano pupil Max Herman, 17, throughout a lesson in San Gabriel earlier this month.
(Carlin Stiehl / For The Instances)
He and Chung met in 2016 and shortly grew to become engaged. Chung was thrilled to maneuver to Altadena. Born in South Korea, she had come to america first as a toddler when her father, a well known tv host, was despatched to UC Davis for English immersion courses, after which for her personal school training. After years of being a pupil, she says, she embraced stability. “Having a home studio was always my dream. Finally I could do that.”
However first she wanted a piano.
The Yamaha upright on which Ho realized to play as a toddler had a pleasant tone, mild and vivid, Chung says, however as a performer, she wished a grand piano. She and Ho spent months searching for the best one, an instrument with a sound, tone and energy that spoke to Chung. An instrument that she might play, use to show and reside with for the remainder of her life.
As they examined new, used and rebuilt grand pianos, Chung referred to as a good friend from USC. Ben Salisbury is senior supervisor for Steinway & Sons’ live performance and artist division.. As such, he pairs pianos with artists, producers and manufacturing designers for reside occasions, studio recordings, movies and tv sequence. When the venture is over, the devices are sometimes on the market.
It was a protracted shot — Chung didn’t suppose they might afford a Steinway.
Salisbury remembers the decision. “She mentioned she had a worth vary and I advised her I might search for a Mannequin B from the ‘80s.” He soon alerted her to a black grand that fit the bill, but Chung did not respond quickly enough.
“It was sold in less than a day,” she says. “So I learned my lesson.” When he contacted her again, about a brown Steinway, she dropped everything and drove to the company’s Burbank location.
The piano had simply been returned from the set of “A Star Is Born,” the place it appeared within the woodsy studio that Ally (Woman Gaga) shares with Jackson (Cooper). “To fit the location, the set director needed a wood-toned piano,” Salisbury says. “Which is very rare — almost all grand pianos, including our rental pianos, are black or white.”
Steinway & Sons has loaned Chung a substitute piano so she will proceed giving classes. Households who had been additionally displaced by the Eaton hearth have advised Chung that having the ability to play piano has soothed their kids. (Carlin Stiehl / For The Instances)
However he had discovered one among the many Steinway stock. It had been made within the Eighties, and when it was returned, he referred to as Chung. He talked about that the piano had been utilized in a film however solely as the rationale it was now out there. “We’re manufacturers of musical instruments,” he says. “We’re not selling memorabilia.”
Chung and Ho keep in mind him saying that the piano had been in a movie with Bradley Cooper however they aren’t certain now if he talked about Woman Gaga and they didn’t know the title of the film till a lot later. It didn’t matter anyway. The second Chung sat all the way down to play, she knew this was her piano.
“The sound was so beautiful,” Chung says. “So powerful. It had just the right tone. And I loved how it looked.”
“I was surprised because she had not been excited by any of the pianos we had tried,” Ho says.
They purchased it that day, paying $32,000, and regarded it a marriage current to themselves.
“I never in my wildest dreams imagined I would own a Steinway,” Chung says. “I felt so lucky to have such a beautiful piano, and the space for it — because it was big. The second-biggest size after a concert piano.”
It was so massive that they needed to put it in the main bedroom, which they became a studio, shifting themselves right into a smaller bed room. “I couldn’t believe it was mine,” Chung says.
Her college students, baby and grownup, had been additionally impressed. Although they did most of their classes on the Yamaha, Chung determined she would allow them to play the grand as a reward for studying their items and for recitals. “It’s just a totally different experience. The immediate sound is different, the touch is different, it is more difficult to control.”
Susie Chung provides a piano lesson to 5-year-old Charlotte Huang out of her in-laws’ dwelling in San Gabriel.
(Carlin Stiehl / For The Instances)
In early 2019, Salisbury referred to as once more. Woman Gaga was scheduled to carry out on the Oscars and had requested the walnut grand from the movie. Salisbury had defined to her workforce that the piano was not Steinway’s to lend and provided alternate options. However the star was insistent.
Chung was honored by the request, which included Steinway’s customary leasing charge, however initially reluctant. Pianos are fragile and she or he anxious that the sound board can be broken in transport. “If you have to repair the soundboard, it becomes a different piano,” she says. “I was afraid I would never get my piano back.”
Salisbury assured her that Steinway would transfer it, that they would supply a short lived substitute and that she and Ho had been invited to look at the rehearsal to see how effectively the piano was being handled. After a number of days, Chung agreed. “We went to the rehearsal and it was exciting — exactly like the show — and the piano sounded so nice. So often they have black grand pianos and it’s just ‘plink, plink’ but this one…” She sighs, remembering.
After a number of mishaps — the piano was the truth is scratched sooner or later — Chung had her piano again, sound intact. Steinway offered a certificates of authenticity relating to the Oscar look, together with a photograph from the efficiency. Chung framed it and put it on a shelf.
Her college students had been thrilled to be in the identical room as an instrument that had been to the Oscars (and touched by Woman Gaga) and labored laborious to be allowed to play it.
A yr later, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and in-person classes had been suspended. Chung acquired pregnant after which grew to become caught up within the calls for of early motherhood. She continued to offer classes, remotely after which in particular person, however it wasn’t till final yr that she started to give attention to her piano studio once more. She modified the title to the Altadena Piano Faculty, made up indicators and banners, and, with a dozen college students, as soon as once more showcased “Dr. Susie’s” piano, together with at two recitals.
“Everyone was excited and I felt like I was starting a new chapter,” she says.
That chapter resulted in flames. When the couple noticed the charred stays of their dwelling, Ho says, it was the lack of the piano that brought about Chung to weep. “It was her prized possession,” he says merely.
When Chung and her husband, Anthony Ho, noticed the charred stays of their Altadena dwelling, Ho says it was the lack of the grand piano that brought about Chung to weep. “It was her prized possession,” he says. (Susie Chung)
“If it hadn’t been to the Oscars, I might be a little less sad,” she says. “Because that made the students so happy.”
Blended with the sorrow is a way of guilt. She fears that, between COVID and new motherhood, she didn’t showcase her piano sufficient. When, simply after the 2019 Oscars, buddies prompt they use it in a video to convey consideration to the Woman Gaga connection, Chung demurred. She didn’t wish to brag and she or he thought she would have a lifetime to play and share the piano that she cherished, to inform its story to generations of scholars.
“Now that it’s gone, I feel like I didn’t do the piano justice,” she says. “I didn’t share it enough.”
Her husband gently reminds her of the enjoyment the piano did convey to her college students and their mother and father. How excited they’d been to take photos on the recitals and what number of of them, together with those that misplaced their very own houses, have reached out to her desirous to resume classes. Among the displaced college students had been staying at houses with pianos and their mother and father advised Chung that having the ability to play has soothed them.
Chung lately started giving classes once more. After the hearth, Salisbury reached out to inform her that Steinway was attempting to assist its clients as greatest they might; they loaned Chung a substitute piano, which now occupies a whole room in Ho’s mother and father’ home. “They were so kind,” she says of her in-laws. “They moved out all the furniture.”
Chung stands within the room in her in-laws’ San Gabriel dwelling the place she has been instructing since being displaced by the Eaton hearth.
(Carlin Stiehl / For The Instances)
Chung and Ho have insurance coverage that covers the home however nothing inside, so she could be very grateful to Steinway, simply as she is to a neighborhood church that has provided her a instructing gig, and the Colburn Faculty, which gave her entry to a follow room, in addition to buddies who’ve referred new college students. Ho’s sister began a GoFundMe for the household, who plan to rebuild their dwelling as quickly as they’re ready.
Chung can be grateful that, because of “A Star is Born” and the footage of the “Shallow” efficiency from the Oscars, she will nonetheless see her piano when she will bear to. However tears nonetheless come when she speaks of it.
“I feel so sorry for the piano. That I bought such a perfect instrument and it had such a nice story and I didn’t give it enough,” she says. “I thought it would be there forever.”