Photo: Phillip Waller, The Daily Mississippian.
Newly discovered “piano man” Marvin King is the resident fellow for the Residential College South at The University of Mississippi. He is bringing an old grand piano from Crosby Hall to the Residential College in hopes of attracting more music lovers to the Residential College and fostering more fellowship among its residents.
“When I was in college, every dorm had a grand piano,” King said when asked about his motives. “I want it to bring in more music majors and make the lobby a more fun place for people to hang out.”
King was first alerted to the unused piano’s existence by a community assistant at the Residential College who used to live in Crosby. At her suggestion, King called a meeting with all of the CAs to ask their opinions.
“All of the CAs are for the piano,” King said. “I had to ask them since they are the ones always in the lobby. They’d be the ones most affected by the change.”
After talking with the CAs at the Residential College, King called together a group of Residential College residents who are known as “music people” by their fellow residents.
“I took a few students with me to check out the piano,” King said when asked about the informally named Piano Committee. “They gave me the thumbs up.”
Olivia Davis, a piano performance major, said she is excited to have a new place to practice and a way to get her nerves out as she plays in front of people she may not know.
“It will just be a whole new environment, and it will be kind of fun because you can play for other people,” Davis said.
She also mentioned that a piano would make the Residential College feel more like a home for her.
“I know that if I had seen a grand piano here when I was looking at Ole Miss, the RC would have definitely been my first choice,” Davis said.
However, since the lobby is an open space, some have expressed concern as to whether or not the noise will be tolerable.
“There are people living in the dorm right above the lobby, and I don’t want the piano to bother anyone at night,” King said.
He said he will put restrictions on the piano so that this is not an issue.
“One idea is to not do any restrictions and see how people use it for the first two weeks or so,” King said. “But then I also thought, we have classes on the same floor, and I might need to say no piano while class is in session. Beyond that, nothing is set.”
Some improvements will be made to the instrument before it is ready to be played.
“A piano needs to be tuned after being moved,” said John Formsma, a registered piano technician in the Oxford area. “And with the amount of playing time it will probably see, it should be tuned twice a year.”
The piano’s care will be paid for by the Residential College’s budget. However, at $100 per tuning session, the piano will most likely only be tuned every other year, according to King.
The piano arrived at the Residential College Monday. Currently, it is not open for the public to play, but it will soon be tuned and ready.
“I’m just excited for it to be here,” King said. “Really excited.”
— Ashton Dawes
aedawes@go.olemiss.edu
