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A life-long love of pianos...
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When I was a boy visiting my grandmother's house, I was fascinated by the grand piano in her living room,
which I wasn't allowed to touch because she was afraid I'd damage it. I think my life-long fascination with pianos comes from
her prohibition, and I'm glad she kindled the spark that led me to my profession.
I pestered my parents until they bought me a piano, and started lessons at age eight. I never became
a good pianist, but still get tremendous pleasure from playing. After getting a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Hunter
College in New York, I decided become a piano technician.
I began learning the trade in 1972 from an old-time technician who had worked in the Sohmer piano
factory starting in 1908! My first jobs as a piano technician were with the Aeolian Piano Corporation and the International
Piano Archives. Later I lived near Toronto and was a technician for Yamaha Canada, the Royal College of Music, Hamilton Place
Concert Hall, and the McMaster University Concert Series. After moving to San Francisco in 1976, I continued as a Yamaha technician
until I started my own Virtuoso Piano Service in 1978.
I'm now located in Petaluma, California, about an hour north of San Francisco, where I tune, repair
and restore pianos. I've also worked on player and reproducing pianos, reed organs and harpsichords. I enjoy working with
great instruments made by craftsmen of the past, when quality of workmanship and materials was in many ways better than today's
keyboard instruments. It's gratifying to be able to satisfy the needs of my customers, who range from amateur to professional
musicians
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I've tuned pianos for world-renowned artists in all fields of music, from Philippe Entremont, Shura Cherkassky
and Alicia Delarrocha to Pink Floyd, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and Johnny Mathis. I've serviced keyboards for the Monterey
Jazz Festival, the New York City public schools, the Royal College of Music in Canada, and the City College of San Francisco.
Every instrument entrusted to me, whether a $100,000 concert grand or a low-priced spinet, is something special
and important to its owner, and keeping this in mind I do my best to bring each one to its highest potential. I enjoy helping
people restore and maintain their cherished instruments.
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In my work there have been some unusual adventures:
One day I got a call from a company that rents pianos to professional musicians. They wanted to know if I
would get on an airplane that day and fly to the Bahamas to service a piano being used in a recording session by the rock
band Emerson, Lake & Palmer. I did, and had a wonderful working vacation in an exotic place I'd never been to before.
A company I worked for sent me to tune several pianos on board an ocean liner, the SS Michelangelo, docked
in New York harbor. I was welcomed on board by the captain, who insisted that before I start work I join him for lunch in
his private dining room, where I enjoyed an elegant meal served by stewards on fine linen, china and silverware.
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hayforker@comcast.net
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