The Olson Family Piano!

My wife Katie and I got married in 2021 at the height of the pandemic. I am a professional musician and Katie is an accountant. She got her CPA after I met her and moved jobs from William & Mary to Christopher Newport University. When I was a young boy, my father asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and having just watched a TV magic show special, I enthusiastically answered "I want to be a magician!" My dad's response was "Oh so you want to be a musician?!" "No, magician!" But after getting a piano, being taken to many different live music performances, and two years later I was hooked on music, just as he wanted. Now, over twenty-five years later, I am a music director and pianist at a local Methodist Church and I play gigs all around town making my living entirely as a musician. Sometimes it feels like I AM a magician, after all. Thanks, Dad!
This is a 1915 Mason & Hamlin upright with an incredibly fantastic action and magnificent sound. Its bright tone is great for my solo Old-Time piano style. My buddy Steve and I have rescued a handful of local pianos over the last 10 years and this one is the shining star. Steve had hoped I would take this one when my wife Katie and I moved into our first home together. However the look of this piano doesn't quite fit into my wife's aesthetic---dirty old brown things do not fit into our decor. She prefers cool tones (greys, whites, pearl---no brown, yellow or warm tones). So for now, my piano is still at my buddy Steve's place and I can be seen playing old hymns and other songs on it on YouTube (@CarlOlsonOldTimePiano). I have heard Mason & Hamlin's of this vintage were over-engineered and based on my experience with this one, I would have to agree. It is my personal dream to have a piano of this caliber be fully restored so that it can last me a lifetime, as my wife Katie would like to see me have one good piano.

• YEAR 1910-1920
• MAKE Mason & Hamlin
• SERIAL NUMBER D26721
• FINISH Mahogany
• CATEGORY CONTESTANT