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Eduard Zilberkant and Disklavier Piano Specialist Shana Kirk

Alaska Live took up residence in Eduard Zilberkant's office, just down the music wing hall from the KUAC studios to feature a unique Yamaha grand piano, known as a Disklavier. This "modern day player piano" has technology built in that allows the acoustic piano to play notes and operate the pedals without a person operating it. Disklavier specialist Shana Kirk operated the technology and talked about how it is used in classrooms, rehabilitation after injury and sharing compositions through the internet. Guests turned the tables at one point and had host Lori Neufeld playing with the help of the Disklavier technology. Eduard Zilberkant played a gorgeous piece without any help from the technology to demonstrate the versatility of the piano. He spoke about how a dream is becoming reality with the upcoming Alaska International  Piano-e-Competition at UAF kicking off June 29th with dozens of worldwide competitors on the David Concert Hall stage.

Lori’s love for public broadcasting runs deep. She was raised on Car Talk, Morning Edition, Adventures in Good Music with Karl Haas, and later while studying wildlife biology at Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas, she realized that if she helped answer phones during the fund drive at KMUW, she could meet and chat with the hosts of locally produced shows.