Welcome the Counter Culture, a talk show normally in a diner.

My guests tonight include the co-owner of Philly's oldest piano company, Cunningham Pianos, Rich Galassini.

- When we sit down and play piano, the serotonin in our blood level goes up.

That's the hormone that makes us feel good, safe and comfortable.

- The director emeritus of the Lehigh Gap Nature Center, Dan Kunkel.

- Everybody got the idea that Lehigh Gap could become a recreational mecca again.

And it has.

- ♪ You got a friend in me ♪ - And the singing songster of Dottie's Serenade Service, Dottie Levine.

- I meet people outside who are quarantining and they don't expect me when they open their door and there I am ready to play and sing for them and it's safe.

- All right here on Counter Culture.

Hi, folks, I'm your host, Grover Silcox, coming to you from Lehigh Valley Public Media's Studio B while we wait for the go-ahead to return to our original home at Daddy Pop's Diner in little old Hatboro.

You know, when the famous composer George Gershwin wrote the music for Porgy And Bess, he used a Cunningham piano.

Patrick Cunningham, an Irish immigrant, founded the company in 1891 and it's still going strong 130 years later.

Rich Galassini is heir to the legacy as co-owner of Cunningham in the 21st century.

Please welcome Rich Galassini to the counter.

Rich, how are you?

Beautiful backdrop, by the way.

- We've got some beautiful pianos, Grover.

It's great to be here.

Thank you so much for including me.

And frankly, I'm a little jealous that I don't get to go to the diner.

We got to do that in the future.

- Yes, we will.

Yes, we will.

Absolutely.

Over a cup of Joe.

And we can clink mugs.

But in the meantime, how are piano sales and piano lessons, which I know you also offer?

- We've been around since 1891 and we built pianos brand new from 1891 through World War II.

As you mentioned, George Gershwin wrote Porgy And Bess on a Cunningham piano.

Since then we've kept our factory open, but we do full restoration.

So over my shoulder here is an 1876 Steinway grand piano, fully restored.

We also sell new pianos and we brought back the matchless Cunningham and that has been great for us.

We deliver them all over the nation, frankly, all over the world.

- What does it take to make a piano, to restore a piano?

What kind of craftspeople are involved?

First of all, how many parts are there?

- There's over 12,000 parts to an acoustic piano.

And we've got tons of tension withholding, supporting the tension on the strings.

We've got thousands of parts moving to make the action work.

Really, an acoustic piano is like a piece of magic.

It's difficult to build.

It's also difficult to restore.

But this is something that we specialize in.

It's our love and passion.

I have two degrees in music.

A lot of my colleagues are professional level musicians.

We have members of our staff that take their vacations to go on tour and play in Europe, play in Asia, play around the nation.

So it's really cool.

We love doing what we do.

- So let's take a moment and talk about what each of these basic components do.

The sound board, the bridge, the rim.

- I've seen your video, in which you explain the basic components.

- Oh, yes.

So we invite anybody to check out our YouTube channel and they can pick and choose.

We have over 300 videos on all kinds of parts of the piano restoration, parts of new pianos, how to choose a first piano.

There's all kinds of videos there.

And that's YouTube.com/CunninghamPiano.

Check them out.

They are a lot of fun.

- Are there two basic types, the grand piano and the upright?

Is that right?

- Yeah.

If we were going to go the very simplest terms, the grand piano, which I've got two over my shoulders here, and then upright piano - that's really a grand piano on a vertical axis.

It allows a piano to fit into a space, it's more reasonably priced.

But today there's so much technology available.

We now have digital pianos, the Klavinova by Yamaha.

♪♪ Yamaha Invented the digital piano.

There's also hybrid pianos that combine an acoustic piano action, so it feels just like a piano, with the latest digital technology.

So it never needs tuning, never needs to be... You don't have things like humidity and temperature that will affect a regular acoustic piano.

This really amazing things out there.

- What is it about the piano?

I've heard...

I read somewhere, a quote by one great pianist who said, When I sit at the piano, I feel like I'm sitting in front of the entire orchestra.

I can do everything I need to do on this one instrument.

♪♪ - Virtually every classical composer is a keyboard player.

Why?

Well, the way that a piano is laid out, and in order to play piano, you get to understand everything that happens in front of you.

It's all visual.

It makes a lot of logical sense.

If I were just a guitarist or a trumpet player, I could play my part, play my part of the trumpet, and really know nothing about the theory behind what I'm doing, the actual musicality, what's making all these things happen.

In piano.

I can't help but learn it.

So it's a great first instrument for that reason.

And also kids that study piano exhibit, this is with all music, but it's most profound with piano, they exhibit greater abilities in math and science.

They learn languages easier and they exhibit higher GPAs.

All these are great reasons to get kids involved in piano or music in general.

- And if I'm correct, I think I also read that that growth that what that music does lasts a lifetime.

- As we grow older, there's other benefits from music, particularly piano.

Playing.

Piano doesn't just involve the left half and the right half of the brain.

We now see active MRIs and we can put someone in an MRI and watch them as they play piano.

These kinds of parts of the brain that work - we have fine motor coordination, gross motor coordination, language, math, science, all these parts of the brain light up at once.

So for older people, it really gets things like short term memory...

It can improve short term memory.

It can improve the way our brain works and keep it healthy.

It's also relaxing.

When we sit down and play piano, the serotonin in our blood level goes up.

That's the hormone that makes us feel good, safe and comfortable.

Also cortisol, which is the hormone that makes us feel fearful or anxious, and that goes down all the same time.

So it's good for us in a variety of ways.

- Has the making or restoring of a piano, is it still largely handcraft people with their hands on the instrument, or is there new technology that is used?

What's the ratio?

- Keep in mind that when you have a piano that was hand built, say, 100 years ago, everything about it, even though it's a particular model and maybe there was 100 of them made that year, everything about that hand built piano is individual to that particular instrument.

So if we want to make an instrument like it was the day it came off the factory line, if you will, 100 years ago, we have to do everything by hand.

So, yes, there are technologies that make some things easier and we do use them.

But what we're after is not just making a widget.

We want to make an artistic, beautiful instrument and that requires hand work and I think always will.

- Now, if you're starting your child out on piano, is it better to begin with a keyboard or an acoustic piano?

- Sure, there's no question that digital technology has come a long way.

Yamaha invented the Klavinova 35 years ago.

They looked like a piano, but they didn't really sound like a piano.

They didn't really feel like it yet.

But Yamaha improves them every year and they sell a huge amount of them.

A huge amount of all digital pianos in the world are Klavinovas.

♪♪ I would recommend starting with a Klavinova if that's possible because today they sound like a piano and they feel like a piano.

So you can absolutely learn on one.

- Has the pandemic caused you to have more sales in terms of instruments and lessons?

I would think that it would actually boost it because people are at home.

- For some families, a piano lesson... We also do voice.

We do guitar.

We do strings.

For some families, that hour or half an hour lesson for their kids is the only bit of normalcy in their week, even if it's remote.

So, yes, we've had a nice boost in piano lessons and a nice boost in piano sales.

In fact, March 12th, we shut down, and in those first few months we delivered pianos to Hawaii, Texas, Maryland, Idaho, all over the nation and outside the nation.

- I love it.

Music is my passion.

Piano is my passion.

So it's been it's been a pleasure to be involved.

- It's been a pleasure having you on the show.

Thank you so much, Rich.

Good to see you again.

- Grover, great to see you.

Thank you for asking me on.

I really appreciate it.

- You got it.

You have the keys to getting through this pandemic.

- Yes, we do.

- Take care.

Rich, Rich Galassini, a man who believes that the best players are on the bench.

My next guest has devoted his life to helping others connect to the natural world, first as a high school biology teacher, then as the motivating force in transforming 400 acres of an EPA Superfund site into a thriving environmental education nature center and preserve.

Please welcome the director emeritus of Lehigh Gap Nature Center, Dan Kunkle.

Dan, how are you?

- I'm very well, Grover.

Thanks, and thanks for having me on.

It's great to talk to you again.

- Same here.

It all began with your interest in nature as a biology teacher and I think department head at Freedom High School in Bethlehem, is that right?

- Yes.

My first 28 years of my working life was at Freedom High School as a as a science teacher, biology teacher and department chair.

But the interest even started way before that, running around in the woods as a kid with my brother.

I grew up in nature and always nature has always been a very important part of my life.

- And you grew up actually in the Slatington tin area near where the Gap is, the Nature Gap.

- Just a little north of that.

Lehighton is where I grew up, a few miles north of Lehigh Gap.

And so I spent my... And I lived there for many years.

And so I spent most of my working life driving through that gap every day on my commute and looking up at that mountain.

It looked pretty much like the moon.

It was desolate.

Never imagining that someday I would be involved in changing that.

- Yeah, let's talk about the location and the topography and how you transformed it, you and your colleagues, because that's quite a project.

I mean, at the beginning, it must have looked almost overwhelming.

But you had a lot of faith, evidently, that it could be done.

- The site is where the Lehigh River bisects the Blue Mountain.

The river comes through the mountain.

That's why it's called Lehigh Gap.

It's a gap in the ridge there.

There was a zinc smelter or a couple of zinc smelters in Palmerton, Pennsylvania.

This was a very good company that was very responsible.

However, they just didn't have the technology to stop the pollution back in...

They started in 1898 and they smelted zinc there for over 80 years and it devastated the mountainside.

And there were over 2,000 acres of barrenness that most people referred to as a moonscape.

- And most of that pollution came from the fumes coming out of the stacks and so forth.

- Yes, it was smokestack emissions that killed the vegetation.

There was a lot of sulfur in it, and that's toxic to vegetation.

And then there were a lot of heavy metals as well, zinc, cadmium and lead.

In spite of the best efforts, as I said, of the zinc company, all of this came out and the sulfur killed everything and the metals kept it from growing back.

The metals poisoned the soil.

And that is where we were when our conservation group came on the scene and started the idea of turning it into an environmental education center.

- Right.

Because the zinc companies were defunct at that point, correct?

- Yes, they were defunct.

But there's a provision in the Superfund law.

Superfund is a is a federal law that manages toxic chemical waste sites.

And even though the zinc company didn't physically put the pollutants on this site, it's not like a dump or anything, the emissions from their smokestacks landed in this whole region.

So it's a Superfund site as a result of that.

And we needed to deal with that toxicity as we were undertaking our project.

- One of the keys to turning this around was grass.

- Am I right?

- Yes.

In fact, it was the main key.

Most plants will not grow in those metals.

They will not grow in that toxic soil, but a certain kind of grass, not the kind you plant in your lawn, but the kind of grass that grows on our prairies out in the Midwestern United States, It's called warm season grass - I think those seeds that grow in a parking lot.

Our advisors told us to use these grasses and we could revegetate the site and they were absolutely right.

And these grasses led the way.

And then after the grasses were established, then many other things started coming in as well.

But, yes, I remember saying things like, Watching grass grow has never been quite so exciting.

- And you actually... You kind of wowed the EPA folks who were working with you on this.

- I give the credit to our advisors.

These are not things I thought of.

These are things that I found the right people to give me good answers on, good advice on.

We did turn things around.

The area was designated a Superfund site in 1983.

It was put on the first list of Superfund sites in the country after the law was passed in 1980.

Since 1983, they had been trying to fix this site without success.

And then we came along with these new ideas and it really was outstandingly successful.

And so for the last 17 years, it's been going very well there.

- So when did the nature center open and what does it offer nature lovers and everyone who wants to take advantage of it?

- In May 2003, we announced the opening of the center.

That's after we bought the land.

Everybody got the idea that Lehigh Gap could become a recreational mecca again.

And it has.

The Appalachian Trail is on top of the mountain there and the river is at the bottom of the mountain.

The D&L trail, the Delaware and Lehigh Trail has been built along our property at the bottom next to the river.

We have about 13 miles of hiking trail, if you include the Appalachian Trail next to us and the trail next to us.

So our trails connect, so people can hike in loops and hikers love that.

They can walk all day on our trails and not retrace their steps.

A boat launch was built for people accessing the river.

So we build a visitor and education center as an addition to the farmhouse that was there.

We educate over 11,000 students a year now.

And for the last year, our virtual programs have been seen actually in other countries and in many other states.

Our reach has been expanded in the last year, unfortunately, because of Covid.

- You can still walk along the trail.

I would assume they're all still available.

- They have been available right through the whole pandemic and we have never seen so much use of those trails.

It has been... We can't know exactly, but I am sure the trail use must have tripled in the past year because of the pandemic.

And having a resource like this in the community has been really important to many, many people.

Those people who enjoy getting outdoors and walking have really enjoyed our trails in the last year.

As I said, they've never been used so heavily.

You can't find a parking place there on a weekend these days.

- Well, there's a whole bunch of kids and parents, adults who are benefiting from that effort that you helped, with your colleagues.

Continued success out there at Lehigh Gap Nature Center.

- Thank you so much, Grover.

- You're welcome.

Dan Kunkle, an educator who believes that we needn't strive to be one with nature because we are, in fact, one with nature.

And it's in our own best interest to nurture that connection.

- ♪ You got a friend in me ♪ - My next guest will make your heart sing by singing to you.

- ♪ I got to ♪ - Perhaps even with you.

Especially during this time when many of us are feeling isolated and disconnected from others.

Please welcome the founder of Dottie Serenade Services, Dottie Levine.

Dottie, welcome.

- It's good to be here.

Thank you so much for having me.

- Yes, you're in sunny Florida.

We could use a little bit of that sunshine up here in the northern world.

Now, I have to say, you know, when this pandemic started, and through it, many businesses have been suffering.

Businesses have gone...

They've gone out of business.

But your service, you actually began during the pandemic.

Am I right?

♪♪ ♪♪ - I was being defensive, you know, I lost all of my gigs, my performing gigs, but also my students stopped showing up.

The crazy thing is, I've only gained students also since the pandemic started.

So now I teach them all on Zoom.

- But your serenade service can be on location, right?

- Yeah, I am extremely meticulous about Covid safety.

I am above, far, far above CDC standards.

I meet people outside who are quarantining and they don't expect me and they open their door and there I am ready to play and sing for them.

And it's safe.

♪ All you need is love ♪ I do always perform from outside for safety reasons, but it is always on the street, more or less.

I occasionally, you know, in a suburb might sneak around somebody's back yard where, you know, they set it up so that I'll surprise them from the back yard and they come outside where I'm set up.

If it's in, like, tight, small streets, I might be across the street or in the street, but usually I'm on the sidewalk outside.

- Wow.

Do the neighbors come out?

I mean, it must draw a crowd, I would think.

- The first one that I did was amazing.

Somebody had me come out.

This was like the first or second week of things being shut down and it was his anniversary and I did sing through the window.

It was the first one.

They were inside.

I'm singing to them and I'm focusing on them.

And I was doing a Billy Joel song.

And when I finish, applause erupts, applause, and applause erupts from the block, and there's people up and down the block standing outside their doors.

And that has been a theme.

It happens a lot where, you know, sometimes with the apartment buildings high rises, I'll hear applause come from all the windows going up many floors.

- People hire you for, I guess, all the reasons they send Hallmark cards, you know - anniversaries, happy birthday.

- Yeah, and also, just like all the reasons people send postcards, you know - people just really miss each other and they just want to connect.

And, you know, I guess in other conditions, postcards come from traveling people.

But these days, you just need to be across town from your friend who you never get to see.

And you could send me instead.

- And you have your customized guitar, right?

A Plain View, customized guitar.

- I use the guitar company...

Plain View in Pittsburgh did make me a custom instrument for which I am deeply grateful.

It's amazing.

They make some of the best guitars I've ever played.

I also play the company National.

I play one of their instruments.

it's what's called a resonator guitar and it's made out of nickel plated brass.

And I play that a lot because it's really loud and, you know, especially playing in a city.

I have to get over traffic.

I have to play from a distance.

And then I'll also play ukulele or banjo.

sometimes.

- Your string instruments are your thing.

- Yes.

- It began with the upright bass.

Am I right?

Back in high school?

- I don't know who you paid to stalk me, but that's impressively accurate.

Although I've been playing music with my family since I was a kid.

I played guitar.

I took piano lessons when I was a kid and I started vocal lessons during the pandemic because having to sing at volume constantly is very trying without proper technique.

And I've had the amazing, amazing help of Diane Gerry in Ardmore, who teaches at some universities locally, but she has been teaching me on Zoom so that I can maintain good vocal health.

And also my singing has just gotten so much better thanks to her.

- Do you have popular requests that are always the same or are there is a wide variety?

- It's a very wide variety.

I mean, I play everything.

One of the main things that people send me out for to brighten somebody's day, to say hello, is just to connect with a friend.

And one of the most popular songs that I do is Thank You For Being A Friend, which was the Golden Girls theme.

- Oh, really?

I can almost picture Betty White.

You know!

- I learned all sorts of crazy, complicated tunes and did the entirety of Stairway To Heaven... - Really?

- Songs by Queen.

I don't think I've done Bohemian Rhapsody yet, but I'm ready for it.

If someone wants me to do it, I'm there.

I played a 105th birthday and it was at a senior citizens' community and I sang to her in Yiddish, which I have studied, and she perked right up when I sang to her in Yiddish.

I knew that she was a Yiddish speaker.

She perked right up.

She smiled really big and it was really special.

- The great thing is that often after the serenade you have a conversation which is just as appreciated and longed for as the song itself.

- People want connection, people need connection, and it's a privilege to be able to, yeah, have a chat, ask somebody how their day's been, you know, talk about, whether it be something like what they ate today or how they're dealing with larger circumstances, you know.

Sometimes I play things in heavier situations and it's a privilege to be able to offer a connection, and I do stay in touch with a lot of both the people who send me out and the people who I play for.

- You're from Philadelphia.

Is that where you're from?

That's where you are based at?

- I am based out of Philly.

I've been in Philly for ten years or so.

I'm from an exurb of New York.

I'm from outside of Newark, New Jersey.

I am in Florida because I am traveling around the country doing serenades for the next few months.

- Oh, wow.

Terrific.

How's it going so far?

- Today is my first day waking up here in Florida and I am already expecting to do a few serenades today.

I'm going to do Valentine's Day in Miami and then I'm going to have a tour of serenades all around cities that have already been booked all around the country, all around the south, because it has to be warm to be able to operate a guitar adequately.

And then I'm going to be three months in LA doing serenades, and then I'm going to do another serenade tour coming back through the north of the US across the country when it's warm there.

- Dottie, I want to thank you.

Continued success.

Good luck.

Keep making those connections, bringing people together in the most beautiful way with such harmony.

- Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I hope I can make you smile with music someday.

- Dottie Levine, a singer, entertainer and miracle of all that's lyrical to lift you from the doldrums and fill your heart with song.

Well, that's our show for tonight.

I want to thank my guests.

The key man at Cunningham piano, Rich Galassini.

Director emeritus at Lehigh Gap Nature Center, Dan Kunkle.

And the singular soloist of serenade services, Dottie Levine.

And thank you for stopping by.

Don't forget to check in with us next week for more amazing guests and great conversation right here at the counter.