Baby Grand Piano From Germany Finds a New Home in Freyburg

An antique baby grand piano arrived at the Freyburg Methodist Church on Monday, April 27, after being stored in Spring for five years. Plum Piano Restoration Company, piano technicians, Marquis and Quinton Burkham, moved the piano for Vikki and Roger Warnken who have endowed it to the Church.

In honor of Roger’s grandmother, Alice Warnken, who played the piano for over 50 years at the Church, Roger and Vikki asked the Freyburg Church Council on Easter Sunday if they would accept the piano as a donation to the Church. After deliberation the Council voted unanimously to accept the piano.

Vikki’s parents, JoAnn and Michael Buttarazzi, purchased the piano in 1969 from an antique dealer, Brown & Sons on Long Island, N.Y. for his children to eventually play. He had a great appreciation for piano music and hoped to have time to learn to play it. The company M. Welte & Sons originated from Freilsburg, Germany and had a piano manufacturing company in other cities including New York, where this one was built from mahogany in 1922.

The piano was relocated from Long Island, N.Y., to Spring in 1981 when the Buttarazzi’s came to Texas and then returned to Long Island with Mr. Buttarazzi before it resided with him in Miami, Fla. for over 25 years. He never learned to play but took great care of it and had it restored during his time in Florida.

When Mr. Buttarazzi moved back to Texas to spend his retirement near his children in 2017, he eventually moved in with Roger and Vikki Warnken and their two sons Matthew and Ryan, in Spring, he placed the piano in storage. After his death in 2021, Vikki inherited the piano and kept it in storage until last week when she and her husband bequeathed it to the Freyburg Methodist Church where the Warnken family had been instrumental in sustaining the life of the church.

The piano is becoming adjusted to its new environment and Marquis and Quinton will tune and begin restoring it in a month. Vikki said, “We are so excited to have the piano at the church where Roger’s grandmother, Alice Warnken, played for many years. I know that my father and Roger’s grandmother are so happy that the piano has found a loving home.”