tuning pianos s labor of love for local man tk1bune augusts 1989 c3 by bruce stapley as a teenager kent stallan members how he used to love jj watch as the blind piano tuner patiently brought the family upright back to perfect pitch today he has established eimself as one of the new breed of fiiano tuner college trained sighted and people oriented ybut his selftaught piano restoration skills and his love of music and his work make him a unique individual in his field born and raised in london on tario kent moved to toronto so fie could take george brown col leges piano technician pro- ram in 1982 x after several years spent work ing for piano stores in the toronto rea jobs that saw him tune pianos in roy thomson hall and r the cbc kent decided to ijtrike out on his own i but it was only last summer that he finally put the final piece 4nto place when he left the frenzy 5qf life in the big city and tftelocated jn stouffville s4 i wanted to get out of the rat irace he said i discovered stouffville one day last year stfhile on a piano tuning call it jvas basically love at first sight jjt after i finished my tuning i jbiarched into the nearest realty office and by the end of the day ve had put in an offer on a jbouse kent who studied piano and jhpe organ as a teen decided to nake a career of piano tuning hen he realized how difficult it jwjould be to make a living as a professional musician y i decided to find something in the middle he said i had rdecided it might be hard to sup- tport myself as a musician and while his tuning skills jcame from his schooling and a jfew years of application his restoration of pianos was an afterthought ij restoration came as a spinoff he added people svould come to me and ask if i can salvage their old piano 5 he spent some time with a cabinet maker in toronto but concedes he picked up the skills needed to rebuild the old models on his own ive learned a lot on my own like wood working cabinetry finishing etc his confidence is now at the point where hell tackle anything im just finishing a restora tion of an 1860 john broadwood grand piano made in england it wasnt working at all i restrung it and restored the action kent adds that the english piano has taken 130 hours of work and he maintains he went ahead with the job despite the warnings of some people that it was too risky to get involved with such a classic he is also restoring a 1913 west german grand and he recently purchased a vintage 1896 canadianmade upright it didnt work at all when i bought it it had been vandalized the restorations become a- matter of determination to see the job through says kent you get to the point where you just keep going because you want to see the project completed so you can stand back and look at it ive had several jobs where ive cut the bill at a certain point because i just wanted to get it done right for them kent says he thoroughly enjoys dealing with the public giving them advice and helping them choose the right piano his clients include concert pianists music teachers and even supreme court judges i get to see them at home on a saturday morning he said its so different from hearing about the same people during the week on the news involved in court cases or whatever and his his efforts are ap preciated by his customers i get a great kick out of mak ing a neglected piano sound good for the first time he said and then people are so grateful and they start becoming prouder of their pianos its all quite gratifying photo bruce stapley stouffville resident ken stallan says that tuning and restoring pianos is more than a business its a labor of love 1 new ski kesort- eloseby 3 frustrated want to quit smoking or overeating but cant do it on your o we can help quit for life laser therapists have helped hundreds of people deal with these serious problems a soft laser treatment eliminates craving associated with smoking overeating proven effective completely painless no side effects individual consultations 100 p 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