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The donor of this beautiful grand piano had the following to say about it:

“This Steinway B was purchased in 1981 by Kees van der Ben, who worked as an instructor of piano and teaching methodology at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. It was placed in the spacious living room of the 1920 townhouse, next to the already existing (much older) Steinway grand piano. Kees and his students played the grand piano extensively during private piano lessons and also at the house concerts that were held regularly. Students did, however, have to exercise some patience before they were “promoted” to playing “the new instrument”; according to Kees, it was best to first learn to play the other instrument, which was slightly more difficult to play (though still very beautiful). But I was fortunate enough to be able to do so very regularly throughout the majority of my 25 years as his student. After Kees passed away at an advanced age in 2020, I was deeply moved to discover that he had bequeathed the instrument to me. Due to various circumstances, I decided that it would best honor Kees’s intentions if I, in turn, donated the instrument to the Musical Instrument Fund, in the hope that through this foundation it might continue to contribute to many years of musical enjoyment for both performers and listeners.”

The grand piano is currently located at the Klassiek in ‘t Veen concert venue.

Read the short interview with Mr. Altewischer on the website here.