The gift of music

Though Jacobs School of Music student Georgina Joshi was killed in a plane crash last April, her parents hope her memory will live on through a donation to the music school.\nLouise Addicot and Yatish Joshi of South Bend made a special trip to Hamburg, Germany, in December to select a Steinway concert grand piano in memory of Georgina. \nIU's distinguished professor of piano, Menahem Pressler, who was in Germany touring with the Beaux Arts Trio, also assisted with the selection.\nThey spent several hours in the factory's showroom, with Pressler demonstrating instrument after instrument, as they narrowed \ntheir choices.\n"As a result of the selection process, we were down to two pianos, and we picked one," Addicott said. "Then we decided, you don't come across pianos like this very often." And so they bought two pianos.\nGeorgina Joshi was returning from a community-choir rehearsal in Lafayette last April with fellow students Chris Carducci, Garth Eppley, Zachary Novak and Robert Samels when their plane crashed near the Monroe County Airport. \nAddicot sees the pianos a way for her daughter to continue to be part of the school she cared about so much.\n"We thought, this was a way Georgina could continue being on the stage," she said. "She absolutely loved the music school."\nMusic School Dean Gwyn Richards stood by as the donated pianos were raised to stand on the Auer Hall stage Tuesday afternoon.\n"It's quite a touching moment for all of us," Richards said. "This arrival represents many things. It gives a voice to Georgina and it reminds us of what she meant to us and her family."\nAlain Barker, the school's marketing and publicity director said faculty members were "breath-taken" by the generosity of Joshi and Addicot.\nAt least one piano will remain in Auer Hall with the other possibly placed in Ford Hall or elsewhere.\nRichards said a dedication concert is \nbeing discussed.\n"We hope to have a dedicatory recital sometime in advance of the anniversary" of the accident, he said.