Professional Tuning Service
Tuning Fortepianos, Harpsichords, and Small Organs for concerts, recordings, festivals and workshops
I have been tuning historical keyboard instruments professionally since 1978. I offer tuning and minor on-site maintenance (replacing broken quills and strings, adjusting dampers, etc) for individual concerts and extended concert tours, for recordings, and for festivals and workshops. I use a unique combination of modern technology with traditional listening techniques that allows me to offer the following advantages:
- Tuning at any imaginable pitch level, defined to resolutions of tenths or even hundredths of a Hertz
- Pitch level defined by any reference note: modern A reference; historically appropriate fixed C reference (much better for historical woodwinds in a multi-temperament environment); Bb, F, or D reference for wind players
- Absolute consistency of tuning over long periods of time (recording sessions)
- Tuning accuracy far beyond the limits of electronic meter devices
- Selection from a list of over 40 historical and hypothetical reconstructed temperaments
- Transposition of any temperament to any home key
- Design of custom temperaments based on historic principles for any specific literature
- Extensive experience with the challenges of multiple instrument combinations (2 harpsichords, harpsichord + organ, 2 organs + harpsichord, etc.) under demanding environmental conditions (stage lights, heating/air-conditioning, etc)
Over the past 28 years, I have tuned for: The Orchestra of the 18th Century, Netherlands Bach Society, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Arthur Schoonderwoerd, Jörg Demus, Malcolm Bilson, Stanley Hoogland and Trio d'Amsterdam, Melvin Tan, Aline Zylberajch, John Gibbons, Utrecht Early Music Festival, Amsterdam Bach Festival, La Caixa International Early Music Summer Course, and many others...