By Daniel Hartill,Staff Writer
New piano fills Franco- American Heritage Center with beautiful music.

LEWISTON – The first time Rita Dube heard it, she wept.

The new Steinway piano and soloist Frank Glazer’s impromptu performance at the Franco-American Heritage Center overcame her.

“The tears were coming down,” said Dube, the center’s executive director. “I just looked around, and it was too much. I thought to myself, This is magnificent.'”

When Glazer returned this week to rehearse for a performance here Friday night, Dube listened raptly.

The 91-year-old pianist took the showpiece instrument for a spin, dabbling in Chopin and excerpting a bit of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor.

While a piano tuner stood nearby, Glazer filled the cavernous former church with music that resembled falling rain.

“Well, there you go,” he said when he finished, nodding to the tuner and pointing out a glitch with one of the keys.

The little problems, like a single hammer’s slow response, can throw off the most practiced pianist, Glazer said.

But such glitches are expected on a new piano – even on a Steinway – and they are expected to be fixed before Friday’s show.

The roughly $100,000 instrument was the gift of an anonymous donor, who came forward last fall after attending a performance at the center by the Midcoast Symphony Orchestra.

By February, the center had created a committee to select a piano and dispatched two people, Dr. Donald Christie and pianist George Lopez, to choose a new concert grand piano at the Steinway factory in New York City.

It arrived last Friday.

Christie, who listened and watched as Glazer rehearsed on Tuesday, said the 9-foot-long piano seemed made for the room.

Its black surface seemed to fill the stage and pick up the reflection of the columns, the lights and the plush red seats.

“It’s a beautiful space,” Glazer said.

Friday evening’s performance will be his first at the center.

Besides the Beethoven concerto, the symphony program will include Beethoven’s “Coriolan Overture” and Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 23.”

“It’s the second time I have debuted a Steinway with this piece,” Glazer said of the Mozart. The last was in 1959 with the Istanbul Symphony.

Glazer, now an instructor at Bates College, traveled the world as a piano soloist, performing at Carnagie Hall and other venues.