The exhibition of the State Polytechnic Museum "KPI" added a new exhibit. In the I.I. Sikorskyi Department of Aviation and Cosmonautics the instrument - an ancient piano attracts the attention of visitors. It would seem, what does this thing have to do with aviation and rocketry? It turns out - absolut, because it has its own amazing story ...
The worldwide known aircraft designer Igor Ivanovich Sikorskyi has an older brother Sergei. He was a naval officer and when he retired in 1913, he settled in Kiev in a big stone house that was full of roses on the street Novozabarskiy on Kurenivka. Sergei loved music, and his young and beautiful wife played the piano beautifully.
Igor Sikorsky became the main designer of aircraft "Ilya Muromets" in one of his visits to St. Petersburg to Kyiv in 1914, was invited to the birthday of his wife's brother. The famous German piano music factory "C.J. Quandt, Berlin, Kgl. Hoflirferant" was a gift from him, which the factory produced since 1885.
Sikorsky relatives liked a tool and it had been used for a long time in their homes, enchanting all with it’s sound. Unfortunately, during the First World War, Sergei's brother was killed, and after the events of 1917 his family moved to another location. Piano Sikorski got to Kapiyevskyh Polish family, who also lived in Kurenivka. It survived all the turbulent twentieth century. It was kept playing and its history, as could.
In 1970, when building industry Kurenivka was started, all private houses on street Novozabarskiy was destroyed and their residents were given new apartments in Obolon. Because of that descendants of Kapiyevskyi moved Sikorsky piano to new apartments, where the instrument was until 2014, until was transferred to II Sikorsky History of Aviation and Cosmonautics Department of State Polytechnic Museum of "KPI".
The piano was in bad but not hopeless state. A tool was needed a restoration and tuning. In 2015, this work was done thanks to the sponsorship assistance Andriytseva Bogdan Viktorovich – a representative of the investment company Iland Management, a member of the Supervisory Board of "KPI", who found this universal exhibit for our museum. Masters were restorers and tuners Yaroslav D. Pinchuk and Sergey Nikolayevich Belov – they did the impossible: piano Sikorsky sounds again after more than 100 years left! There were many visitors who wanted to perform music using it or even just touch it - because it remembers the hands of our famous politechnic - Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky!
First public presentation of the historical instrument held in the International scientific-practical seminar "Digitized heritage: preservation, access, representation", held at the State Polytechnic Museum on November 26-27, 2015. Seminar participants – students of "KPI" Valentine Guts, Vladimir Fomenko and Daniel Panchuk demonstrated their musical skills.