A Steinway grand piano is added at the Greylock Glen Outdoor Center

ADAMS — It’s not just a piano. It’s a Steinway grand piano, and it has just arrived at the Greylock Glen Outdoor Center, adding ambience and music at any given moment.
Within hours of the instrument's delivery last week, a visitor from Worcester asked to play, and then he did — mesmerizing the volunteers and visitors who happened to be in the room with a string of classical pieces on an instrument with a dazzlingly warm sound.
The 1937 Steinway B and its journey from the Berkshire Music School to the foot of the state's highest mountain was arranged by Jim Wojtaszek, a musician with long ties to the Glen property.
His grandmother grew up on the Wojtusiak farm, raising dairy cows, chickens, pigs and turkeys on a portion of the Glen just off of what is now Thiel Road. Years ago, he also volunteered on a committee working to develop the Glen in environmentally sensitive ways.
In October, Wojtaszek played guitar at the center in a duo called Boots and the Mixtape and took note of the room's size and acoustics. He had a preliminary conversation with Daniel Doyle, executive director of the Greylock Glen Outdoor Center, about the possible addition of a piano to the holdings at the center.
Wojtaszek teaches music at the Adams Theater on Wednesdays and heads Berkshire Music School’s satellite program there. He was also aware of the number of pianos that aren’t being played at the Pittsfield-based school.
“It just seemed like kind of a natural marriage,” he said.
He first went to Luis Granda, executive director of Berkshire Music School, and asked about the possible donation of a piano. And Granda agreed.
“We have a quite vast array of Steinway pianos,” Granda said. “We have too many at this point. They weren’t all getting the use I thought they needed. We went up. We saw the space. We thought it would be the perfect place to put a piano.”
The idea also appealed to Granda’s love of musical instruments.
“I have a strong dislike for instruments not being played,” he said. “I would much rather get them somewhere where they’re going to be played.”
To make the move happen, Wojtaszek went to a family member who, with him, helped pay for the transportation, refurbishment and initial tuning of the black piano, which measures about 6 feet, 10 inches long.
The piano is now nestled in a corner of the outdoor center — not too close to the fireplace to protect it from sudden changes in temperatures. It has undergone a rough tuning by David Locke from Flynn Pianos in Great Barrington. Locke took the keyboard cover for a bit of work and planned to return for a final tuning.
In the meantime, as an alliterative twist on the brand, Doyle has named the piano Stella. He sees it as an asset for both public use and events.
He’s also put the word out to volunteers who want to tickle the ivories. Within 24 hours of the call, he’d collected the names of 17 interested players.
“I think art is a good complement to what we have in here as is music,” Doyle said.
Anne Ronayne, a volunteer at the Greylock Glen Outdoor Center, was in the room when the piano arrived.
“To get it in here was magic,” she said. “To see it all broken apart and put back together.”
She was happy to learn about the piano and to hear the man from Worcester give an impromptu concert.
Of the instrument, she said, “She just has a presence of her own.“
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