Yamaha Artist Services

Yamaha Artist Services, Inc. (YASI) is a subsidiary of Yamaha Corporation of America.[1] It was brought into being in April 1987 as Yamaha Concert & Artist Services,[2] in the United States, having originated that same year in Paris, France, as "Centre Européen des Activités Artistiques" (C.E.A.A.).[3] For a time, Yamaha managed the program within its new West 57th Street "Yamaha Communications Center", or "YCC" facility, located near Carnegie Hall.[4] YCC closed in 1992.[5] In May 2004, the current facility was opened.[6]

The YASI logo appears on a banner on the corner window overlooking 5th Avenue and 54th Street in New York City

The program maintains relationships with classical piano performing artists[7] and the performing arts world in general, by extension. Its current quarters occupy two entire floors of the historically designated Aeolian Building on the Northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and East 54th Street. This complex includes a hall known as the Yamaha Piano Salon[8] and a brass and woodwind atelier, showroom, and custom shop.[9]

Corporate purpose

Chiefly, "YASI" (its common reference)[10] is devoted to the public exposure (i.e. – marketing) of Yamaha Pianos, through the professional use of the pianos by artists, producers, and recording engineers. Yamaha Artist Services, then, manages not only the facility on Fifth Avenue, but a large pool of pianos, placed at dealers and at various venues around the United States.[11]

Piano floor

YASI utilizes one floor of 689 Fifth Avenue entirely for piano activity. The third floor features its Piano Salon and facilities needed to stage and rehearse musical performances. Opera companies and artist management companies have, as an example, used the salon for opera training,[12] as the acoustic environment is adjustable and can adequately support live performance.

Brass and Woodwind floor

YASI maintains an atelier on its eleventh floor.[13] The floor's facilities include a showroom and a custom shop for instruments of the brass and woodwind family. Artists are permitted, by appointment, to consult with technicians about their instruments, have them adjusted if requested, and to sample Yamaha instruments.

Address
Yamaha Piano Salon

Located in the 1927-opened Aeolian building at 689 Fifth Avenue,[14] the third floor piano salon was originally occupied by a showroom of the Aeolian Piano Company,[15] which made its reputation in organs, reproducing organs, pianos and most particularly piano roll mechanisms and rolls themselves from 1887 until 1985. Encompassing the entire third floor, the Piano Salon features a performance venue seating up to 150 and houses a selection of concert grand pianos and "Disklavier" performance reproducing pianos. The floor also features various facilities for accommodating performing artists, a stage which can accommodate multiple pianos, business offices, and room for piano technical work. Each window on the third floor is sealed by hinged glass panels, which keep street sounds from entering the space. A device and product designed by Yamaha, known as "Active Field Control",[16] is capable of enhancing the native acoustic of the Piano Salon to simulate an aural concert environment – useful in performances and recordings. The Aeolian Building itself was designated a NYC Landmark in December 2002.[17]

Selected personnel

Terry Lewis, who had a 26-year career at Yamaha, from 1982 to 2008, retired as Executive President of Yamaha Corporation and as President of Yamaha Artist Services. He was, in 2004, the founding President of Yamaha Artist Services. Tom Sumner (né Thomas L. Sumner; born 1959), upon Lewis' retirement in 2008, became President of Yamaha Artist Services.[18]

gollark: Which is going to hold 144 servers...?
gollark: Do you have, er, 144 servers?
gollark: How can you POSSIBLY fill those usefully?
gollark: 36 server racks‽
gollark: COOL bases are just bland industrial cuboids packed with machinery.

See also

References
  1. Spoke.com YCA overview
  2. Rothstein NY Times 1987
  3. Alink-Argerich Foundation Contact Site
  4. Music Trades, 1991
  5. Music Trades 1992
  6. Music Trades 2004
  7. Beth Levin NY Times Review – 6/2005
  8. Cann Twins Recital Listing 3/2009
  9. YASI Opening – 2004
  10. Culture Mob Website
  11. LvTSg Press Release
  12. Costa Jackson Website
  13. "Day of Trumpets" Notification
  14. City Review Article on Aeolian Building
  15. American Guild of Organists NYC Chapter
  16. AFC/Yamaha Website
  17. NY Times on Aeolian Building History
  18. "Lewis Retires From Yamaha Young And Sumner Promoted," Impromptu, American Music Teacher, Vol. 58, No. 2, October/November 2008, pp. 6, 8, 10-13 (retrieved October 4, 2017, via JSTOR at www.jstor.org/stable/43539569
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