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Blind since birth, pianist holds true to his vision
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
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Tom Solich, owner of Solich Piano and Music Co. in Boardman, has been blind all his life and learned to play through a blind tutor.
By Kristine Gill
BOARDMAN
When Thomas Solich sits at a Kawai piano and dances his fingers across its keys, prancing between octaves and tickling every sharp and flat, an almost tangible energy surrounds him.
“This piano responds to me in the same way a Mercedes responds to you,” he said, letting his hands wander across the ebony and ivory, almost unable to sit still when he knows the instrument is in reach.
“This is like the most souped-up automobile. I love the car analogies, which is ironic because I don’t drive,” he said laughing. “You don’t want me on the road.”
Blind since birth, the Howland native has had to work harder than his sighted peers to acquire the skills he’s mastered as a concert pianist and successful businessman. He graduated from the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music in Berea in 2006 and bought The Music Place, now Solich Piano and Music Co. at 1315 Boardman-Canfield Road in Boardman.
“I knew I had to immediately get this place to have arms that reach ... outside of this market,” said Solich, 26.
The company has flourished since, and Solich said he now does four to five times as much business as the previous owner did in the busiest years. It’s because he’s expanded the company from a Mahoning Valley operation. Solich Music is now the sole dealer of Kawai brand pianos in the Youngstown, Warren, Pittsburgh and Boston regions and recently sold the four pianos donated by Tony Lariccia to Canfield schools.
Next week, Solich will fly to Anaheim, Calif., where the company will receive a national award for midsized dealer of the year at the National Association of Music Merchants and Manufacturers annual trade show. There, he’ll also play more than 400 pianos from dealers around the world to select those he’ll sell back home.
In 2008 the company won an award as an “Emerging Business” in the Mahoning Valley Growth Awards through the Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Youngstown State University Williamson School of Business
“There were a lot of naysayers ... people who said you’re going to fail,” Solich recalled when he first bought his business, but the work ethic he’d acquired as a young pianist served him well.
Solich started taking lessons in third grade from another blind pianist, Nicolas Constantinidis, now 74.
“I didn’t really know how much I loved [piano] until I got a chance to work with a teacher who motivated me in every way,” Solich said.
Greek, but born in Cairo, Egypt, Constantinidis studied at several universities in Europe before coming to the United States for his degrees from Baldwin Wallace and the Cleveland Institute.
He was 6 when the world went black.
“I remember my father was eating his breakfast. He was extremely shocked. I said, ‘Where is the sun?’ and he said, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘The sun is gone,’ and he said ‘No, it’s not,’ and then he became very upset.”
Constantinidis attended a school for the blind after several failed attempts to restore his sight through surgery. Doctors have not been able to tell him what caused his sudden and permanent condition.
Constantinidis learned how to read braille music at the school and taught Solich the same. He knew early on Solich was one of his best students.
“I had a wonderful time with Thomas,” Constantinidis said. “He was a very wonderful student. I was very proud of him. I sort of knew he would have a future in music.”
Gerry Guy, 63, of East Palestine took lessons in grade school but stopped practicing after graduation. But during a trip to Solich’s store for sheet music, classical music issuing from an unseen piano caught her ear.
“I thought I might like to learn to play like that,” she said. “And I started.”
Now she’s playing at a level she never reached in her former studies thanks to Solich.
“He’s phenomenal. He can hear something and he can play it. ... He’s a good person; he’s kind and encouraging,” she said. “He gives me pieces to do that are very challenging, which is wonderful because I like to learn.”
Solich credits his blindness with his success today.
“If I were sighted, I don’t know if my family would have taken the time to look at my ability with the piano,” he said. “I’d be a lot worse off if I were sighted. I’d be doing something ordinary.”