Kurt Ford, piano technician for the Lionel Hampton School of Music, adjusts the tuning pins on a 1904 Mason & Hamlin 6-foot grand piano. Jeremy Castillo/Argonaut

Ford is the piano technician for the Lionel Hampton School of Music. It’s his job to repair and maintain the school’s 67 pianos, which he has listed by age and work needed.
The piano in his workshop has history in California. Inside it is a small plate with an engraving: “In Memory of Elizabeth Wakefield, Concert Pianist, UC Berkeley Concert Symphony, 1923.”

Kurt Ford’s workshop is mostly run-of-the-mill. Tools hang on a shelf at the back wall. A small boom box leaks out political commentary from public radio.
One of Ford’s bigger projects sits in the middle of the floor. It’s not a car part or anything to do with an engine, but a 1904 Mason & Hamlin 6-foot grand piano.
Ford is the piano technician for the Lionel Hampton School of Music. It’s his job to repair and maintain the school’s 67 pianos, which he has listed by age and work needed.
The piano in his workshop has history in California. Inside it is a small plate with an engraving: “In Memory of Elizabeth Wakefield, Concert Pianist, UC Berkeley Concert Symphony, 1923.”

Ford, like the instrument, has roots in the Golden State. He lived in Long Beach, where he worked part-time as boat captain for the Starship Express, which commutes to Catalina Island.
But his main career—piano tuning—brought him to Idaho. Ford found a job listing on the Piano Tuners Guild Web site and applied in December. He moved to Moscow and its winter soon after.
“Sometimes I’m kicking myself about that one,” he jokes. Anchorage, Alaska was his home for 20 years, he said, so the cold isn’t a stranger.
There wasn’t much time for Ford to adapt to his new surroundings. He started working for the University of Idaho on Feb. 4, three weeks before the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival started.
Ford looked after 24 pianos that week, making sure they were ready to play for the numerous concerts and clinics. He said a well-tuned instrument influence an artist’s performance and can be rewarding to watch.
“I can tell by how a musician plays if they like it,” he said. “I can sit back and see they’re getting the best out of the piano. Then I know I helped create wonderful music.”

Although the fruit of his labor usually blooms on stage, most of Ford’s work is done behind the scenes. Pianos have 230 strings in them and all are attached to tuning pins. A slight adjustment in torque or the pin’s angle will alter a key’s sound. That’s why a piano takes about two hours to tune. It’s also why it’s such a heavy instrument.
“Each string needs about 180 PSI and each pin has to hold that,” he said. “Every piano has a cast-iron beam structure that holds 20 tons of tension. That’s why pianos are so heavy. It’s like stacking 20 Volkswagen Beetles.”
Ford learned his craft in 1974 at the Detroit School for Piano Technicians. He admits not being a piano virtuoso, though he still hits the keys from time to time. However, there is a parallel between the musical and technical side of piano.
“I always tell people it’s like playing,” Ford said. “There’s a lot of continuing education and lots and lots of practice. Above all it’s having the right attitude. There are varying levels in your quality of work just like there’s varying levels of playing.”
Ford can’t explain exactly why his interest in the technical side of piano but it comes from an organic place.

“It was just something that fascinated me,” he said. “Just like a lot of people get fascinated with mechanics. I enjoy it. Not too many people can say they enjoy their careers.”
And as far as careers go, Ford has had a pretty storied one.
Ford has been to the Steinway Factory in New York, where the piano for Carnegie Hall is stored, and worked on the piano for “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” Ford has also met several big-name musicians, a list that includes Jimmy Buffett, Dave Brubeck, and Bob Hope. He remembers his favorite celebrity meeting.

“I’ll never forget it,” Ford said. “It was in the mid-‘80s. Ray Charles came to Alaska to play in the new arena. … When he played an arpeggio leading to ‘Georgia in My Mind,’ he leaned back and says ‘Yeah, this piano’s tuned.’ That’s a fond memory.”
Now he calls Idaho home. He has yet to create a workday routine, but usually he does about two tunings a day. The rest of his time is split between computer and office duties, which include assessing necessary repairs and ordering parts.
It’s a far cry from skimming the Pacific Ocean’s surface on a multimillion-dollar commuter ship but Ford is happy to escape the hectic California lifestyle.

“Long Beach is so crowded. I wanted to live someplace where going home didn’t take two hours,” he said. “I live about a mile and a quarter from campus so I can walk back and forth between here and there. And rush hour is only 10 minutes long.”

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