All pianos have different personalities. So says Karen Beluso, who heads institutional sales at Steinway & Sons, whose showroom is in midtown Manhattan. “We want people to select a piano that speaks to them.” Karen said that Steinway wants each piano to assist artists in realizing their creative goals and dreams. The company has been doing so for more than 164 years.
In her job she sells Steinway pianos to institutions ranging from small churches to large conservatories. Some days she remains at the Steinway midtown showroom, but also enjoys going on the road two to three days a week. One of her more memorable trips was to go see a 125-year-old Steinway grand piano in a high school in New Jersey. “It had seen better days,” she said, adding, “The piano lid had a huge crack in it but the piano beneath was unharmed.” She learned that a number of musicals, inspired by tap dancer Gower Champion, involved students dancing upon the piano.
She has also traveled to Astoria, Queens, to give tours of the Steinway factory that dates to the 1870s. “On the first dozen tours, I went in the same way, but I never came out the same place in exiting the building.” She added, “I must say to my credit, though, I didn’t lose anyone.”
Reflecting on her career, Karen says she has come to work at Steinway through a “circuitous route.” Her previous job was as director of education of the Long Island Philharmonic. The role included developing its presence in the schools. “It’s part of the mission of the organization,” she said. She also produced youth concerts.
One entertaining anecdote involves the time she organized a concert at the Tillies Center at C.W. Post Long Island University in Greenvale, N.Y. A charter bus en route to the concert hall with half the musicians on it was pulled over by the police. Once the bus had halted at the side of the road, it wouldn’t start. Karen said, “Half the orchestra was on stage. I had 1,000 students looking at the conductor.” The conductor proceeded to get another piano on stage and told Karen that she should play and try to help fill in for the missing parts of the orchestra.
Prior to working at the Long Island Philharmonic, Karen was head of the department for performing arts at the Portledge School in Locust Valley, N.Y. She had a doctorate in music but had never taught in a classroom, let alone one with middle schoolers. “It was baptism by fire,” she said.
Her mentor there was Lisa Cermak, a drama teacher who was then head of the lower school. “She taught me how to be a benevolent dictator.” She said that “children like and need boundaries, but also they need to know that you are fair.”
Music has been part of Karen’s life since her earliest years growing up in Los Angeles in the area of Monterey Park, which is in the San Gabriel Valley. At age two, she played on a toy piano. “Apparently it was my favorite toy.” At age four, she asked for a real one, so her parents bought her a Story & Clark upright piano.
On Fridays, her mother would drive her as far as an hour to downtown Los Angeles, where the young Karen, a first generation Filipino American, took lessons. “As immigrant parents, they wanted to provide for their only child what they never had the opportunity to do.” So they enrolled her in tennis, dance, swimming and piano lessons. She sighed, “Piano is the only one that stuck.”
Her teacher in Los Angeles, who is now in her 90s, was Ruth Sitjar. She had come from Hawaii after World War II to study at Juilliard in the 1950s. Sitjar taught Karen’s from her first musical note to when she arrived at Juilliard. “My teacher would show you the way but allowed me to experiment. She was totally devoted to her students. She was a second mother.”
Sitjar would also drive her students to concerts at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in downtown Los Angeles. “She would load us into her station wagon. We’d have money from our parents for tickets. Sometimes parents would come too.” She added, “Five years later, to be able to play on that stage can only be described as awesome,” Karen said. Karen recalls a memorable performance there, hearing Murray Perahia for the first time. “It continues to inspire me.”
Karen applied to Juilliard while in high school and studied there for about a dozen years. The teacher who most influenced Karen at Juilliard was Herbert Stessin. He taught her to be a nurturing teacher: “If you weren’t at your best, he would be less interested in the usual ‘why are you not practicing?’ but what else was going on in your life that contributed to it.”
Stessin he allowed her time to explore her own ideas about music and try different approaches to see what felt comfortable.” She added, “I learned how to be true to myself as a performer.”
Speaking of her teachers Herbert Stessin and Ruth Sitjar, she said, “Perhaps the most important lesson I learned from both of them was how to make music part of my life.”
Karen said most Juilliard students want top careers performing and touring, but that it obviously cannot turn out true for everybody. “In New York we have to learn how to land on your feet.” Karen said she had honed skills that were transferable to the the world outside concert halls. “Paying attention to details is a trait that we as conservatory artists can take into the business world.” Studying at Juilliard has helped Karen in her job in institutional sales at Steinway. One reason is that her peers from Juilliard are on the faculty at a number of institutions. “I’m reaching out to classmates who are dear friends,” she said.
What makes a good pianist? “There is firstly the technical ability but perhaps most important is the ability to communicate with your audience, which is true of any artist.”
Her favorite composers in no particular order are Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff. Her more modern favorites include Prokofiev and Stravinsky.
Karen helped arrange a fundraiser for The Lambs last fall where pianist Rosa Antonelli performed at Steinway Hall. The successful evening raised $1,000 for The Lambs Foundation piano fund. Interestingly, the Club has a connection with Steinway & Sons. Charles H. Steinway, who became a Lamb in 1906, was president of Steinway & Sons from 1896 until 1919, the year of his death. His grandfather was Henry E. Steinway, the founder of the company.
Rosa introduced Karen to Marc Baron, when Karen came to see the pianos at The Lambs in need of replacement. “Marc gave me a tour and I was fascinated by the club. I am a student of history and to see all the interesting connections was wonderful.” She recalled seeing the large photo of a touring show Lambs called gambols in which a white-hatted W.C. Fields stood in a group photo with John Philip Souza and a young Fred Astaire. “To be part of that tradition is humbling,” she said.
At the concert at Steinway Hall, Rosa largely performed Latin American music. Rosa has the distinction of being both a Steinway Artist and Lambs member. Another who shares this distinction is musical director and orchestral conductor Don Pippin.
At the event, Marc spoke of the importance of getting more people to learn about and join The Lambs. He turned to Karen who had arranged the concert and said offhand, “What about you?” She replied, “I’d be honored.”
Karen still performs piano in the city and tristate area. One of her two sons in college wants to enter the theater. The other is a biology major and music performance minor in trumpet.
The Lambs has subsequently selected two new Steinway Boston pianos, one for the large performance room, and the other for the rehearsal space called The Jim and Gerry Ruth Room. Karen said, “I am glad that these two pianos will help bring wonderful music to The Lambs,” Karen said.
–written by Gary Shapiro