Two large moving trucks were spotted outside the School of Music on Monday, and they carried more than just black and white keys.
Each truck’s cargo contained 15 brand new Steinway pianos donated by the George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts to the School of Music, along with four pianos purchased by the school.
George Rodrigue was a renowned Louisiana painter and the creator of the famous “Blue Dog.” Rodrigue died on Dec. 14, 2013, but his legacy lives on.
His son, Jacques Rodrigue, is the executive director of the foundation and a University alumnus. He said the School of Music approached his father to paint a piano to auction off with all proceeds going to the school. Given the painted piano’s meaning to his family, they opted to put it in a museum and decided not to auction it off.
Instead, the foundation came up with another way to help the School of Music.
In September, the foundation released “Take Five,” a posthumous Rodrigue piece that features the famous “Blue Dog” sitting beside a piano with a scene from a Louisiana swamp in the background. All proceeds from the piece went toward the 15 donated pianos, valued at $125,000.
“Our foundation is all about arts and education,” Jacques said. “Dad was a huge supporter of LSU.”
Jacques said the flagship university of the state should have the best equipment.
“Now that the school is improving their inventory of pianos, hopefully Louisiana’s talented students will remain here instead of going to another state,” Jacques said.
The School of Music has 116 pianos in its inventory. According to the school, 35 percent of the current inventory is considered “beyond repair and requires replacement,” while 27 percent is considered in excellent condition.
David Reid, piano performance and finance senior, said the school needs good pianos like the ones donated to get work done.
“Nice pianos are like nice cars,” Reid said. “It’s amazing, and you can do more with them,and they do better things.”
The school’s goal is to have 77 percent of its inventory in excellent condition with 23 percent in good condition by the year 2019.
Willis Delony, Virginia Martin Howard professor of keyboard studies and professor of jazz studies, said the music school is “restocking the cupboard” with the new donated pianos.
“It was an opportune time to basically restore and enjoy the new car smell,” Delony said.
Delony said he is grateful for the partnership with the Rodrigue Foundation, and the pianos are essential to the School of Music because every student has to take a piano class.
“This is a sign [that] the School of Music is committed to quality and taking care of our students,” Delony said.
Reid said the new pianos raise the level of musicianship for the School of Music.
“We can get better work done if we had better instruments. That’s the best way to put it,” Reid said. “I’m grateful for the ones we have because we wouldn’t be able to even practice without them, but having nicer instruments is a huge deal in terms of opening up — sort of what we can do in the practice room and subsequent performances.”

Gallery • 5 Photos

Raegan Labat

A collection of Steinway Pianos was donated by George Rodrigue to LSU School of Music Monday, Dec. 01, 2014.