CORDOGAN'S ACTIVELY CONTRIBUTES TO COUNTLESS MUSICAL ORGANIZATIONS AND SUPPORTS THE FINE ARTS, GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY WHAT IT GIVES TO CORDOGAN'S.

Since 2006, Cordogan's has maintained their "Piano Donation Program" that helps non-for-profits obtain wonderful pianos!

12-25-06 PRESS RELEASE : Cordogan's announces the "Piano Donation Program"

"Play It Again, Sam! -- Cordogan's gives pianos a second wind through innovative donation program

Geneva, IL -- Thinking of selling your piano? Cordogan's Pianoland in Geneva has designed a program to pair up piano donors with non-for-profit institutions in need of a piano.

For qualifying pianos, Cordogan's will pick up the piano at Cordogan's expense and provide the donor with an appraised value for tax purposes once we have found the piano its new home. Cordogan's will tune the piano, provide for any necessary repairs and review their list of non-for-profit institutions who have expressed the need for a piano. The only expense to the institution is a discounted delivery fee. Their services can easily exceed $1000 per piano.

The idea came to a co-owner after donating a piano to a Katrina victim over the summer. The teenage music teacher of handicapped students caught his attention when she indicated her piano had be ruined by the hurricane. When local media picked up on the story, people began contacting Cordogan's, indicating that they'd also be willing to donate their piano to a worthy cause.

"We often get calls from organizations asking us to donate a piano, but calling a piano dealer for that kind of donation is like asking a pew builder to donate pews to a church. Churches and schools are a big part of our business," Cordogan said. "Nonetheless, we have become aware of willing donors, and for any piano dealer to ignore the opportunity to pair up willing piano donors with hardship situations is almost culturally irresponsible." To that end, Cordogan's is now actually going out of their way to find donors and non-for-profit institutions who are in need of a piano.

Cordogan's participation in providing for the appraisal, move, tuning and repairs is proving to make this an easy way for people to give, especially during the holiday season. Such services can easily otherwise reach $1000 per piano which is often cost prohibitive for both the donor and the would-be recipient.

"We have a retiring music teacher who is donating a five-year-old, European-made professional upright valued at $13,000. An elderly lady in Elgin also just donated a very nice piano." Cordogan's is in the process of reviewing potential "homes" for these instruments.

If you are in a position to donate a piano, please fill out our “Instrument For Sale” form, and under the “Reason for selling”, indicate that it’s for donation. Please understand that the response to this program has been overwhelming and Cordogan’s cannot accept every piano that is available for donation. Our services involved with each donation piano can exceed $1000 so we begin by limiting qualifying pianos to being worth at least that much. Beyond that there can be other hurdles as well – difficulty of move, amount of work needed, etc. Cordogan’s has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Chicagoland in pianos – but there is a limit to what we can do! :)

Since 1994, Cordogan's has donated the use of 12 grand pianos for an annual fundraising concert called American Grands, in which over 300 piano students of all ages -- and from all over Chicagoland -- get to perform alongside their peers and teachers. This concert is always completely sold out and helps benefit Elgin Community College's Visual & Performing Arts Center.


Over 300 performers sharing twelve grand pianos is the essence of the Cordogan's sponsored "American Grands" concert annually held at Elgin Community College.

If you haven't experienced the power of music lately, thirty seconds of sitting in this audience will remind you. Seeing children as young as 7 years old wearing tuxedos or sequined gowns while gaining the unique stage experience at the hands of over 1000 concertgoers is a most memorable site!

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