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Six years ago, midway through the 91st Academy Awards telecast, a walnut Steinway and Sons Model B grand piano took center stage at the Dolby Theatre. After being smoothly propelled from the wings, it stood for a moment alone, its lid aglow with reflected top lights.
Sharp-eyed movie fans might have recognized it as one of the pianos used in that year’s Oscar-nominated “A Star Is Born” and indeed, Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga quickly left their seats to perform the eventual original song winner, “Shallow.”
It was an emotional high point of the show, the camera circling the piano as Lady Gaga began to play, then following Cooper as he joined her on the bench for the song’s final notes. When the two rose to acknowledge the standing ovation, the instrument stood with them, captured briefly in all its shining glory.
There is a photo of that performance on Susie Chung’s website. Chung is a classically trained pianist with a doctorate in piano performance from USC. For years, she supported her life as a student and a performer by teaching burgeoning musicians to play the instrument she has loved since she was 3 years old.
When she married Anthony Ho in 2017, she moved into his house in Altadena, and her dream of playing and teaching in a home studio complete with a grand piano came true. In 2019, she added the picture from the Oscars with the note: “Ask Dr. Chung about her piano!”
The picture is still there. The home, the studio and the Steinway Model B are now gone.
Chung, Ho and their 3-year-old son, Elias, left their house on the night of Jan. 7 after the power failed. They could see the glow of the Eaton fire, but it was far enough away that they were convinced they were simply exercising caution. They would spend the night at Ho’s parents’ home in nearby San Gabriel and return the next day.
Which they did, only to find rubble, ash and scattered flames. The skeleton of the piano was barely distinguishable, marked by a metal plate bearing the name “Steinway” and some scorched metal strings.
A piano is only a thing. Chung knows that, and she and Ho are grateful that they and their son are alive and well. Unlike many of their neighbors, they had a place to go, and stay, that is welcoming, familiar and already filled with Elias’ toys. Ho, a computer engineer, did not lose his business in the fire; Chung has begun teaching again.
But some things matter more than others. Some things exist deep in the weave of a life, a family, a community, a city, a culture. Their loss leaves a jagged hole that may shrink over time but can never be mended.
Chung’s walnut Model B grand piano was one of those things and so I follow the instructions on her website and ask her about it.
Owning such a piano became possible after Chung met Ho, a local boy who grew up in San Gabriel, went to San Marino High and UC Irvine. After he got his master’s degree in computer science at Stanford, he returned home, living with his parents while he worked and saved. In 2012, he bought a house in Altadena, drawn like many to the area’s natural beauty. “It felt like you were going to camp,” he says.
He and Chung met in 2016 and soon became engaged. Chung was thrilled to move to Altadena. Born in South Korea, she had come to the United States first as a child when her father, a well-known television host, was sent to UC Davis for English immersion classes, and then for her own college education. After years of being a student, she says, she embraced stability. “Having a home studio was always my dream. Finally I could do that.”
But first she needed a piano.
The Yamaha upright on which Ho learned to play as a child had a nice tone, light and bright, Chung says, but as a performer, she wanted a grand piano. She and Ho spent months looking for the right one, an instrument with a sound, tone and power that spoke to Chung. An instrument that she could play, use to teach and live with for the rest of her life.
As they tested new, used and rebuilt grand pianos, Chung called a friend from USC. Ben Salisbury is senior manager for Steinway & Sons’ concert and artist division.. As such, he pairs pianos with artists, producers and production designers for live events, studio recordings, films and television series. When the project is over, the instruments are often for sale.
It was a long shot — Chung did not think they could afford a Steinway.
Salisbury remembers the call. “She said she had a price range and I told her I would look for a Model B from the ‘80s.” He soon alerted her to a black grand that fit the bill, but Chung did not respond quickly enough.
“It was sold in less than a day,” she says. “So I learned my lesson.” When he contacted her again, about a brown Steinway, she dropped everything and drove to the company’s Burbank location.
The piano had just been returned from the set of “A Star Is Born,” where it appeared in the woodsy studio that Ally (Lady Gaga) shares with Jackson (Cooper). “To fit the location, the set director needed a wood-toned piano,” Salisbury says. “Which is very rare — almost all grand pianos, including our rental pianos, are black or white.”
Steinway & Sons has loaned Chung a replacement piano so she can continue giving lessons. Families who were also displaced by the Eaton fire have told Chung that being able to play piano has soothed their children. (Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)
But he had found one among the Steinway inventory. It had been made in the 1980s, and when it was returned, he called Chung. He mentioned that the piano had been used in a movie but only as the reason it was now available. “We’re manufacturers of musical instruments,” he says. “We’re not selling memorabilia.”
Chung and Ho remember him saying that the piano had been in a film with Bradley Cooper but they aren’t sure now if he mentioned Lady Gaga and they did not know the name of the movie until much later. It didn’t matter anyway. The moment Chung sat down to play, she knew this was her piano.
“The sound was so beautiful,” Chung says. “So powerful. It had just the right tone. And I loved how it looked.”
“I was surprised because she had not been excited by any of the pianos we had tried,” Ho says.
They bought it that day, paying $32,000, and considered it a wedding present to themselves.
“I never in my wildest dreams imagined I would own a Steinway,” Chung says. “I felt so lucky to have such a beautiful piano, and the space for it — because it was big. The second-biggest size after a concert piano.”
It was so big that they had to put it in the master suite, which they turned into a studio, moving themselves into a smaller bedroom. “I couldn’t believe it was mine,” Chung says.
Her students, child and adult, were also impressed. Though they did most of their lessons on the Yamaha, Chung decided she would let them play the grand as a reward for learning their pieces and for recitals. “It’s just a totally different experience. The immediate sound is different, the touch is different, it is more difficult to control.”
In early 2019, Salisbury called again. Lady Gaga was scheduled to perform at the Oscars and had requested the walnut grand from the film. Salisbury had explained to her team that the piano was no longer Steinway’s to lend and offered alternatives. But the star was insistent.
Chung was honored by the request, which included Steinway’s standard leasing fee, but initially reluctant. Pianos are fragile and she worried that the sound board would be damaged in transport. “If you have to repair the soundboard, it becomes a different piano,” she says. “I was afraid I would never get my piano back.”
Salisbury assured her that Steinway would move it, that they would provide a temporary replacement and that she and Ho were invited to watch the rehearsal to see how well the piano was being treated. After a few days, Chung agreed. “We went to the rehearsal and it was exciting — exactly like the show — and the piano sounded so nice. So often they have black grand pianos and it’s just ‘plink, plink’ but this one…” She sighs, remembering.
After a few mishaps — the piano was in fact scratched at some point — Chung had her piano back, sound intact. Steinway provided a certificate of authenticity regarding the Oscar appearance, along with a photo from the performance. Chung framed it and put it on a shelf.
Her students were thrilled to be in the same room as an instrument that had been to the Oscars (and touched by Lady Gaga) and worked hard to be allowed to play it.
A year later, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and in-person lessons were suspended. Chung got pregnant and then became caught up in the demands of early motherhood. She continued to give lessons, remotely and then in person, but it wasn’t until last year that she began to focus on her piano studio again. She changed the name to the Altadena Piano School, made up signs and banners, and, with a dozen students, once again showcased “Dr. Susie’s” piano, including at two recitals.
“Everyone was excited and I felt like I was starting a new chapter,” she says.
That chapter ended in flames. When the couple saw the charred remains of their home, Ho says, it was the loss of the piano that caused Chung to weep. “It was her prized possession,” he says simply.
When Chung and her husband, Anthony Ho, saw the charred remains of their Altadena home, Ho says it was the loss of the grand piano that caused Chung to weep. “It was her prized possession,” he says. (Susie Chung)
“If it hadn’t been to the Oscars, I might be a little less sad,” she says. “Because that made the students so happy.”
Mixed with the sorrow is a sense of guilt. She fears that, between COVID and new motherhood, she didn’t showcase her piano enough. When, just after the 2019 Oscars, friends suggested they use it in a video to bring attention to the Lady Gaga connection, Chung demurred. She didn’t want to brag and she thought she would have a lifetime to play and share the piano that she loved, to tell its story to generations of students.
“Now that it’s gone, I feel like I didn’t do the piano justice,” she says. “I didn’t share it enough.”
Her husband gently reminds her of the joy the piano did bring to her students and their parents. How excited they had been to take pictures at the recitals and how many of them, including those who lost their own homes, have reached out to her wanting to resume lessons. Some of the displaced students were staying at homes with pianos and their parents told Chung that being able to play has soothed them.
Chung recently began giving lessons again. After the fire, Salisbury reached out to tell her that Steinway was trying to help its customers as best they could; they loaned Chung a replacement piano, which now occupies an entire room in Ho’s parents’ house. “They were so kind,” she says of her in-laws. “They moved out all the furniture.”
Chung and Ho have insurance that covers the house but nothing inside, so she is very grateful to Steinway, just as she is to a local church that has offered her a teaching gig, and the Colburn School, which gave her access to a practice room, as well as friends who have referred new students. Ho’s sister started a GoFundMe for the family, who plan to rebuild their home as soon as they are able.
Chung is also grateful that, thanks to “A Star is Born” and the footage of the “Shallow” performance from the Oscars, she can still see her piano when she can bear to. But tears still come when she speaks of it.
“I feel so sorry for the piano. That I bought such a perfect instrument and it had such a nice story and I didn’t give it enough,” she says. “I thought it would be there forever.”
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