JOHN BARTLETT
John Bartlett has studied piano since beginning lessons in 1951 when 6 years of age, and studied with 3 different teachers for 12 years in the Scottsbluff and Gering, Nebraska area. His primary fields of study were the playing and performance of piano works by such classical masters as Hayden, Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin.
During high school years, at Gering High School in Gering, NE, he accompanied small vocal groups, and also gave solo piano performances for Nebraska State Music Contests, at which he consistently received superior ratings. As well, he performed solo piano work for various civic groups, namely Kiwanis, Lions Club, etc. Because of his superior ratings in solo work at state contests, he was invited to Summer Music Camp at Chadron State College, Chadron, NE in 1962.
Beginning at age 13 he played piano for all the services at the Central Church of Christ in Gering, NE until 1974, and accompanied their choir during Easter and Christmas cantatas, and also accompanied various solo performers. As a junior in high school, in 1962, he accompanied the high school musical stage production of “Bye, Bye, Birdie”. He was offered a four year scholarship to Chadron State College, but declined since he wanted to pursue a career in mechanical engineering and received his engineering education at Scottsbluff Junior College and the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City.
John’s engineering career has been in the field of material handling equipment in the food handling and packaging fields. John was also involved in the design of amusement park and carnival rides, and has prepared patent application drawings for clients for submission to the United States Patent Office. During his years working as a mechanical engineer, he has also given some piano lessons, mostly to high school age students.
During the 1980’s, when he and his family lived near Virginia City, NV, he was pianist for the Silver Empire Ragtime Orchestra, eventually becoming leader of this 13 piece group. At the time, the first trombonist for this group was Kenny Trimble, formerly with the Lawrence Welk Orchestra.
John also helped to organize and performed for the annual “World’s Fair of Ragtime”, a ragtime piano festival held in Virginia City, NV for a number of years. This festival was graced with the appearance of a number of notable pianists from the west coast, such as Robbie Rhodes of the South Frisco Jazz Band, and Wally Rose, who was retired from Turk Murphy’s Jazz Band. John also performed solo ragtime piano in and around Virginia City and Reno, NV, and Sacramento, CA. Among these performances were ones located at the Ragtime Corner of the Sacramento Jazz Festival held each year during the Memorial Day weekend. John’s last public performance in this area was in 1996.
John’s interest in the mechanics of the piano began early as well, when his father bought a player piano that did not operate because of its age, at which time John was about 13 or 14. At the time, in the late 1950’s, there were no publications giving instructions on the repair or rebuilding of the player piano mechanisms, so John wrote to the Library of Congress for information, and received his initial instruction from the material obtained. During his high school years John rebuilt a number of player pianos, about 15 or so, as well as reed organs, the type used in homes in the late nineteenth century. John also started to collect player piano rolls, and built up an extensive collection of those as well as sheet music dating from the 1890’s to the 1930’s. He also purchased a player reed organ from a collector in Chicago, a Wilcox and White unit, and enjoyed this for many years. During his years at Junior College, the local newspaper and college paper wrote a number of articles about John’s interests.
In the 1970’s and 1980’s, John had a piano rebuilding shop located in Gering, NE, where he rebuilt pianos and player pianos, and also restrung, refinished, and generally repaired all types of pianos, both grand and upright styles. He had a showroom that held 10 pianos in the front of the shop. He learned many techniques, and was a student member of the Piano Technicians Guild, Denver, CO chapter.
At this time John also became involved in player carnival or carousel organs, a type of pipe organ voiced loudly to be heard at a great distance. A local owner of one of these types of instruments brought in his organ for John to restore. These units play a roll similar to a player piano, but have an air pressure system as well as a vacuum system, the pressure system being used to provide wind for the playing of the pipes. John purchased a second one of these, made by Wurlitzer of North Tonawanda, NY, for resale, and, since it was constructed somewhat differently than the first one he restored, he disassembled it and documented some of the features of this second unit before selling it.
After moving to South Carolina in 1994 to accept a Senior Mechanical Design Engineering position with Cryovac, now a division of Sealed Air, Duncan, John was not involved with music, except for his own enjoyment, for a few years. Then, about 1999, he decided to design and build his own carousel organ, based on his experiences in years past. Rather than using rolls on this new organ, however, John designed it to play computer midi files, and purchased a number of files scanned from old organ rolls. John’s unit had 168 pipes in 11 ranks, a 24 note glockenspiel, bass drum, snare drum, and cymbal, all played by the midi based program. It was quite loud, once again being voiced for loudness so that it could be heard at a good distance. It had an effective range of about one city block.
John’s intention with this instrument was to mount it onto a trailer, and hire someone to tow it to fairs, use in parades, and so forth, but at the time, he couldn’t find anyone willing to pursue the endeavor. He sold the organ as parts, and some of the pieces went to organ collectors and rebuilders both in the UK and Italy.
More recently John became involved in the playing, rebuilding, and restoration of piano accordions, and now owns four of these. In the future, he would like to pursue the building of a button accordion, the type of instrument used in Cajun music from Louisiana or Conjunto music from South Texas and northern Mexico.
In March, 2009, John submitted a report of the pianos in the collection of the Rose Hill Plantation in rural Union County to the South Carolina State Park Service and as a result was named a state historian for South Carolina. In June, he gave a historical piano lecture and recital in the ballroom of the mansion.
Similar research papers have been submitted to Case Brothers Piano Company in Spartanburg regarding their historic piano collection, and to the North Greenville University for their recently donated 1793 Broadwood pianoforte.
John has recently acquired 2 pianos from Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, CA, and plans to restore them. In doing this, he hopes to learn the art of early piano string winding for period instruments.
At times, John has been involved with:
American Mensa
American Radio Relay League
FCC amateur radio license KF7RO
Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
North Carolina Woodworker’s Association
And is a holder of numerous amateur radio awards.
