Alice Fazel & Her Piano

The piano you are experiencing belonged to my mom, Alice Ruth (Cochran) Fazel, a graduate of Pleasant Hill High School (1960). She died on October 9, 2022.

Alice began her music journey at a young age. The family mythology is as follows. She had been asking her father — my grandfather — for quite a while for a piano. Finally, he relented, but made her promise to play for him his favorite hymn by Christmas. She did.

To pay for her first piano, her father sold Sparky, his only horse — enthusiastically cared for and ridden often in local parades.

Alice went on to play piano and organ at church, including Pleasant Hill's First Christian Church.

Being of limited means, my family used a loan the size of a car loan to pay for it.

Having played many Yamaha studio pianos, I find it one of the best tones and actions amongst its kind. It will give you many more years of joy, just as it did for my mom.

My mom always reminded me that the piano would be mine when she passed. Living now in California, shipping the piano would have been piano cruelty. The best use is to give it to you — promoting the future of musicianship just as my grandfather did.

I've been by the school to watch a rehearsal, and the image of young musicians gathered around the piano practicing and performing will be with me always. She would be happy and is no doubt smiling down on you.