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As the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation kicks off this summer's festival, one of the organization's most dedicated backers is being honored by the world's leading piano manufacturer. Gerald R. "Skip" Daynes, fourth-generation owner of Daynes Music, is the latest recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from Steinway & Sons.
"Without Skip, not just the Bachauer but so many [arts] organizations in Utah would not exist," Bachauer board chairman Kary Billings said.
A video made by Steinway announcing the award notes that Daynes Music "has likely sold more Steinways than any other dealership." It also mentions the company's financial and in-kind support of the Utah Symphony, Utah Opera, Ballet West, Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Grand Teton Music Festival, as well as donations of pianos to several medical facilities, nursing homes and educational institutions. With private piano ownership declining over the past couple of decades, Steinway relies increasingly on educational sales, and Daynes has been at the forefront of that effort. Nearly all of the state's colleges and universities are all-Steinway schools now.
Daynes has been among Utah's most prominent musical names since 1862, when John Daynes crossed the plains in a Mormon handcart company, bringing a small pump organ that now sits in a corner of Skip Daynes' office. John Daynes set up a jewelry and music shop in downtown Salt Lake City shortly after arriving in Salt Lake City. (His son Joseph, already an accomplished keyboardist when he arrived in Utah at age 11, soon was put to work assisting Joseph Ridges in building the Salt Lake Tabernacle Organ; he was the first official Tabernacle organist and one of the longest-serving.) Daynes Music and Jewelry became the first Steinway dealership west of New York when, in 1873, the elder Daynes persuaded the manufacturer to ship a piano to Salt Lake City via the Straits of Magellan. The jewelry and music sides of the operation diverged at the beginning of the 20th century, with John Daynes' son Royal — Skip's grandfather — taking over the music shop.
Skip Daynes had no intention of taking over the family business from his father, Gerald; he wanted to be a rancher. But in 1967, with the music store nearly $100,000 in debt, he was persuaded to step in. He was not a pianist, though he'd learned to sing and play clarinet as a boy. Now nearly 80, he reported that he is learning to play the piano, using the same technology he's used to teach some of his dogs to play.
"He knows a fine instrument — he has a good ear," Billings said. "He knows when a piano is not ready for the task. He relies on musicians — he's a smart businessman."
Daynes has been a Bachauer backer since the competition moved to Salt Lake City from Provo in the late 1970s. For the first several years, he donated a Steinway grand to the winner. He still lends pianos for the competition, related concerts and school presentations, moving some of them himself. "We definitely don't take him for granted," said Billings, who has known Daynes since his teens; the piano purveyor routinely turned over his downtown shop to local piano teachers, including Billings' teacher, Bachauer founder Paul Pollei. (He still does this, though the shop moved to Midvale a decade ago.) "Without Skip, how many events would not happen?"