News & Info - Waterbury Republican

WATERBURY REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
Fixing Pianos is his forte, Mozart, Tull return to Litchfield facility thanks to repairman.

LITCHFIELD - Joe Di Blasi took one look at the old piano at the Bantam Falls senior citizen housing facility and realized it would be a big job to make its keys dance in tune again. Then he glanced at the faces of some of the residents who had gathered to greet him there Saturday." I knew then that I had to try to fix it." Di Blasi said Tuesday while completing a tune up of the Gulbransen upright piano, which he estimated to be about 100 years old. "If I couldn't do it, I was willing to donate a piano so they could make some music."

DiBlasi, a former professional piano player, is the owner of Litchfield Piano Works, a rebuilding, repair and tuning business. Recently, he got a call from Shirley Zimmerman of Bantam, asking if he could take a look at the piano, which had been donated to the facility about eight years ago.

What DiBlasi found was a piano with major needs. The foremost problem was what is known as the bridge, a section controlling the bass keys. It had become detached from the piano, rendering the keys useless. Donating his time, DiBlasi spent four hours Saturday repairing the bridge and two hours Tuesday tuning the keys. By noon, the piano's sound was resonating through the hallways of the building, with DiBlasi playing numbers from artists ranging from Mozart to Jethro Tull.

"When Joe first came out, we thought there wasn't much hope for the piano," Zimmerman said. "But I think he sensed the love that was in the room that day and he came back and fixed the bridge. So now, we have some new possibilities."

Bantam Falls resident Frances Reddick, a former church pianist in Baltimore, MD is the main beneficiary of DiBlasi's work. Reddick was able to play some of the piano's keys while entertaining guests during the holiday tea Bantam Falls held last month, and with the piano fixed she should be the star of the show at the Valentine's Day party being planned." This shows that with a little bit of faith, even a situation that seemed hopeless can get better," Zimmerman said. "Thanks to Joe, we're ready to spread some joy."

Written by John McKenna, 2004 Republican-American Register Citizen

December 2, 2003