Cleburne Mayor Justin Hewlett and Cleburne Conference Center Manager Jeremy Allen were on hand Friday morning to accept a donation of a Maeari grand piano to the center from Southwestern Adventist University.
Gary Temple, Southwestern vice president for university advancement, presented the piano to CCC on behalf of the university.
“We’re very thankful for this,” Hewlett said. “This is a great way for [Southwestern] to be part of the community and get involved.”
The piano makes a beautiful addition to the center, Hewlett said, and adds to the variety of Cleburne’s cultural offerings.
“We’re happy to be able to do this,” Temple said. “This is part of our goal to reach out and serve the community.”
Workers renovated and expanded CCC, which also contains the Cleburne Performing Arts Center, two years ago. The plan was always to have at least one grand piano in the center, Allen said.
“There’s a space behind the stage [in the performing arts center] to store a piano,” Allen said. “Their vision was also to have one in the lobby.”
Funds to purchase pianos never materialized, Allen said.
The idea of the donation first occurred last year after Southwestern students performed a concert at the center.
Needing a grand piano for the performance, the school incurred costs of several thousand dollars to have one delivered to the center and tuned.
“I mentioned at the time, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we already had a piano here?’” Allen said. “[Southwestern] considered it and we talked about it. The other day [Temple] was here and said they could donate piano. What I said was, ‘When can I come out and look at it? I was that excited.’
“He said we could go right now so I jumped in my car and was phoning [city officials] on the way out there saying, ‘I think we’ve got a piano.’”
Allen said the addition of the piano further enriches the center and increases the possibilities of future musical events.
“The Brazos Chamber Orchestra has already asked about using it for a performance,” Allen said, “and [the Greater Cleburne Carnegie Players] want to use it in their next play.”
Temple added that Southwestern music students will no doubt perform concerts at the center for years to come.
