Remembering Paul: Restoring his 127-year-old piano

My name is Fabian Almazan, I am a pianist and composer and I’d like to talk to you about a unique friendship that I once had with a man named Paul Cornelius.

 

I arrived in New York, 19 years old, with aspirations of growing and learning as much as I could as a musician. Luckily I was accepted to the Manhattan School of Music, but I had practically no money, so I began working random jobs in order to make ends meet. One of these jobs was at the student-life office, where people would often drop in if they were looking for housing or wanted a room mate. That’s where I first met Paul. 

 

 

It was a slow day when a very tall, older man walked in. He had a small, yellow slip of paper on which he had written down the details of his rent-controlled apartment- he was looking for a roommate. It was my job to review all of the posts before they got uploaded onto the MSM website, so I read it over and I was elated to see that he not only had a baby grand piano in the living room, he specifically wrote that it would be ok for the potential room mate to practice on it. As soon as my shift was over, I gave Paul a call and went to see the place the next day. We were roommates for the next four years. I was in my early twenties and he was in his seventies. While most of my friends were having wild college parties, I was hanging out with Paul, listening to classical music on vinyl and asking him questions about what New York was like in the 50s, 60s and 70s. He remembered when the neighborhood restaurants, some of which are still around, were segregated for whites only. He spoke to me about the day D-day happened, which he remembered clearly because the teacher announced it to the classroom when he was a boy in school. 

 

As it turned out, Paul was an avid opera fan and knew more about classical music than most of my Manhattan School of Music professors. We would sometimes go to the Met together to watch operas, most of which he had already seen probably 50 times before. He introduced me to the symphonic Russian tone poems of Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky and Scriabin. These ended up having a pretty significant impact on me as a composer. Most of the music I composed for my first album, “Personalities” was composed on Paul’s piano and I actually dedicated the track entitled “Russian Love Story” to him. He would even come when I played at the Village Vanguard, the Jazz Standard and the former Jazz Gallery with my band— if you’ve ever been to any of these venues, you know what they have in common… treacherous stairs. Even though Paul was elderly and not the most mobile, he made it a point to come to those gigs and show his support. He was a true, loyal friend.

 

Sadly, Paul passed away in the midst of the pandemic, in December of 2020. 

 

He actually died on the very same day that my son was born. I was really looking forward to the day when I would get to introduce him to my son, but unfortunately, that will never happen. Paul didn’t have any children but he loved his nephew very much, who broke the news to me over the phone because I have been in Australia since July of 2020. It was a very intense mix of emotions for me, having just witnessed the birth of my son and being told less than 24 hours later that someone who I practically considered my grandfather had passed away. It was not easy.

 

Words can’t really describe how moved I was when I found out that Paul had written into his will that his beloved grand piano would go to me. This piano is over 100 years old and it was in Paul’s care for more than 50 years. It is a Steinway made in Cincinnati in the 1894.

 

Paul lived in a building that was bought by Columbia University, which means that everything in the apartment must be removed before September 2021 so that it can be used for faculty housing.

 

 

 

 

This is a very special piano to me. I played it for countless hours (Vijay Iyer can tell you… he was our downstairs neighbor). It is now my responsibility to make sure the piano is safe and sound, in memory of my friend .

 

 

Being over a hundred years old, this piano is in dire need of extensive repairs. I reached out to Steinway and in order to restore the interior of the piano, it would be an amount of money that is beyond my means, especially after becoming a father and having spent the last year and a half not being able to tour or perform for live audiences, which normally encompassed the bulk of my income. This is why I’m reaching out to everybody out there. I realize that we have all suffered during these last two years so please know that I would not be making this plea unless I felt it was absolutely necessary. I want to save Paul’s piano. I want its life to continue in memory of Paul.

 

 

 

 

The $12,500 I am seeking here covers roughly 20 percent of the total cost of the restoration. Steinway requires that half of the payment is made as a deposit and the remaining 50% upon completion of the restoration. It takes approximately half a year for the piano to be restored.

 

 

 

If you would like to learn more about Paul Cornelius, please click on this link: https://paulcornelius.com

 

As a token of gratitude, I offer the following in exchange for your contribution towards the restoration of this instrument:

 

$ 50 donation: A Fabian Almazan Biopholio™ of your choice.

$ 100 donation: Two autographed Fabian Almazan Biopholios of your choice.

$ 150 donation: A Fabian Almazan Score/Sheet music of your choice.

$ 250 donation: A private lesson.

$ 500 donation and above: An online performance on Paul's piano once it is restored (roughly six months after work on the piano begins).