Program Overview
The Artist Diploma in Piano Technology is a two-year program of study designed in association with Steinway & Sons. It capitalizes on the conservatory’s long relationship with the piano maker, its access to incredible performers, and more than 240 Steinway grand pianos of all vintages. The conservatory is an all-Steinway school and has been since 1877. It also is the only offsite factory training facility for the C.F. Theodore Steinway Technical Academy.
The program emphasizes the collaborative relationship between the concert artist and piano technician and features mentorship by concert technicians and rebuilders John Cavanaugh and Robert Murphy. Study includes advanced techniques on all piano models in the shop, on stage, in our recording studio, and at Steinway's New York manufacturing facility. The program also includes instruction in Hamburg-built Steinway piano service.
Student Projects
The first-year project requires the student to restore a grand action using existing key and action geometry. It includes bridge and pinblock replacement and restringing in a grand piano, regulating the action, and voicing the hammers.
For the second-year project, the student will restore a grand action using new keysticks on a new keyframe and forefinishing the leverage and geometry of the new keys. This includes setting up levers and parts to make sense inside the piano in three dimensions—depth, width, and height—from scratch, so that the keys feel correct to the pianist and the hammers strike the strings at the correct point. The student will regulate the action and voice the hammers under the supervision of visiting master technicians from Europe and North America, while meeting with performing artists to prepare the action to their taste. The second year concludes with a final examination at the New York Steinway factory, where students perform final tuning, regulation, and voicing on two Steinway grand pianos over the course of one week.
Curriculum Overview
The Artist Diploma in Piano Technology program consists of four semesters of study with John Cavanaugh, program director and executive director of keyboard technology; Robert Murphy, assistant director of piano technology and curator of fortepianos; Patrick and LuAnne DeBeliso of PianoCrafters Inc.; and instuction at the Steinway factory in New York. Additional applied study includes dialogue with concert artists and hands-on training by world-class concert piano technicians.
The teaching staff provides daily mentoring, works alongside the student, tests the student’s work, and provides feedback. Special attention is devoted to understanding tuning theory in equal and historical temperaments, with emphasis in the first year on tuning with accuracy and speed. Students learn to work independently on assigned projects and have opportunities to discuss their work with a supervisor.
Although concert prep skills are an important component of the program, its scope is much broader. In addition to training students in concert tuning and preparation, instructors and staff help students develop rebuilding and shop skills. This includes installing a new pinblock in the Steinway tradition, replacing bridge caps, soundboard repairs, and complete regulation of the action and damper action. At the end of the first year, each student is evaluated by a representative of the Steinway factory.
Second-year students continue to tune and prepare pianos for junior and senior recitals, recordings, and master classes. Work in the shop continues with forefinishing a grand action and complete installation and regulation of a damper system at PianoCrafters Inc. in Plymouth, Michigan, and one week of tonal and action regulation training at the New York Steinway factory. The second semester is dedicated to working with concert pianists to bridge the communication gap that so often occurs between artists and technicians. This includes several opportunities to evaluate Steinway grands with an artist and piano techician instructor, discussing what the artist would like from the piano, and implementing a course of action under the supervision of the instructor. This is followed by a discussion with the artist about the results of the technical work.
All first- and second-year students are required to give one oral presentation on a subject of their choosing each semester and to complete one yearlong independent project, such as rebuilding a grand action, followed by regulation and voicing. At the conclusion of the second year, each student is evaluated at the Steinway factory after preparing two Steinway grands for selection within one week.
