Performance Piano Museum Now Open in Hunter

In 2008 I wrote a Chronogram feature on the Pleshakov Piano Museum in Hunter. Founded by pianist Vladimir Pleshakov in 2002, the facility has since been renamed the Piano Performance Museum and expanded its collection of more than 20 historical pianos and is open weekends this summer for walk-in tours (private group tours can be arranged and occasional concerts are held on site).

The museum contains a piano from Mozart’s era, a piano owned and signed by Liberace, a rare Beethoven-era 1842 John Broadwood semi-grand, a Liszt-era 1873 Erard Paris grand, a 1783 Stein Viennese pianoforte, an 1803 Muzio Clementi square grand, an 1869 Henri Herz upright, an 1896 Bechstein 6-foot parlor grand, and others.

Here’s some audio of Pleshakov playing Asioli’s 1795 Sonata on a 1795 Broadwood grand piano:


The Catskill Mountain Foundation’s Piano Performance Museum is located in the Doctorow Center for the Arts in Hunter, New York. The museum is open for walk-in tours Fridays and Saturdays from 12-4pm. For more information, call (518) 263-2036 or visit http://www.catskillmtn.org/index.html.