As a watershed year, 1992 may have been the shop’s most important: our move to the schoolhouse in The Plains was announced with ads and postcards which noted another change. No longer in Washington now, our name was changed to Wolf Instruments to cover anything in the future. The building underwent a winter’s renovation: interior framing for apartments was removed, opening up the original large rooms; virtually everything had to be replaced, including the roof and 60 large windows. The first week of May it took the entire staff, a professional mover with three 24-foot truckloads, and endless van-loads to accomplish the migration. The Dowds and a couple of employees also made the move, while others commuted.
But this upheaval couldn’t interrupt our production schedule: 7 more pianos, a couple of harpsichords and a clavichord went to clients as far away as Israel, Arizona, and Toronto. There were also obligations at conferences, and many MozartJahr concerts to cover. Our rental piano was booked for all the best players from Tanglewood to Mostly Mozart. It went to Texas and Puerto Rico in its Anvil crate; Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society toured with it starting in Montreal. Barbara got to be piano nanny/tuner/technician for many of these concerts.
On a less high-profile level, a new clavichord went to the Cleveland Museum of Art (nice to have your work in a museum collection). The famously ferocious Cleveland music critic gave it a lengthy favorable review. And rescuing us from the onslaught of fortepianos was a harpsichord that turned into a monumental decorative project for everyone, particularly Sheridan Germann. Intended to replicate the appearance of a famous French antique instrument, the client found many details to alter in some respect. Started in the firehouse, it was delivered in two stages, with the lid painting finished years later. Eventually it ended up in another museum collection.
