Send A Piana To Havana

Ben Treuhaft is 59 years old and has been tuning and repairing pianos for 40 years. After dropping out of St. Johns College in Annapolis MD and Santa Fe NM, he crisscrossed the country learning tuning at piano factories in the Midwest and East Coast. He polished his skills in the early 70s at the prestigious Steinway & Sons Concert Basement in New York where he tuned for such artists as Vladimir Horowitz and Glenn Gould. He learned rebuilding with his mentor, the radical thinker, piano maker and composer Victor Charles in San Francisco. For the past 25 years Ben has operated the Underwater Piano Shop in Berkeley, and now in New York City.

In 1993 Ben inherited $28,000 from Victor Charles, who would have loved to see him donate a piano to the Cuban revolution. In October 1993 he traveled to Cuba with Global Exchange, a San Francisco group which arranges tours to various fascinating spots around the world. The trip was a challenge, through civil disobedience, to the laws that forbid U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba without a license. No one was arrested, and most fell in love with the place. Back in Berkeley, Ben restored a 6' Weber grand piano and sent it to Havana's Museo Nacional de la Musica, and he collected from other tuners thousands of dollars worth of piano supplies for Cuba. When he delivered this musical aid, the US Treasury Dept. got wind of it and tried unsuccessfully to fine him $10,000 for giving comfort to enemy pianos.

In 1994, on his third trip to Cuba, Ben hit upon Send a Piana to Havana, which has since been occupying all his spare time.