PROFILE

Peter Salisbury

I started my career as an apprentice piano technician at Steinway London in 1975 when I was 16. Now at the age of nearly 63, I can say that I’m starting to appreciate the wise words of the master technicians who would speak quietly between themselves. I’d occasionally be privy to conversations where names like Arrau, Curzon, Gilels, Horowitz, Kempff and Rubinstein were regular conversation pieces. They knew it would be a long time before someone like me would realise what they were talking about and pointing to, but clues were left hanging that one day they might be of use.

After 10 years training at Steinway, I chose to specialise as a concert piano technician.

I loved working with musicians and after leaving Steinway gained new experience and learning at Bösendorfer in Vienna.

It was a major turning point for me to learn the techniques of the Bösendorfer master technicians which I found fascinating and invaluable. A totally different musical language came from their instruments and was very significant in appreciating musical and cultural difference in regard to the piano.

I represented their concert activities in London for a number of years in a freelance capacity. 

​

For a brief while I was also fortunate to represent Fazioli sales and technical services with a shop I owned just outside London. This gave me the opportunity to learn and appreciate yet another tonal concept. With the piano industry being very traditional, it was fascinating to see Fazioli taking bold new steps in design and manufacturing.

My experience gained in those former years, from domestic tunings to servicing the teaching pianos at the Royal Academy of Music, or working alongside concert pianists, that they have one thing in common - there is no ultimate brand of piano. There are just instruments in different conditions of service offering great possibility when set up correctly. No piano is quite what it seems and that’s where the fascination for finding the secret potential became an obsession.

​

For nearly thirty years I have been fortunate enough to have been Senior Concert Piano Technician at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre London. This close working relationship with the world’s finest concert pianists ensures a continual opportunity for learning which is a wonderful aspect of this profession. 

I’ve been actively involved in many recording projects of classical piano from outstanding artists. Many artists have received international awards from leading music magazines. I find this aspect of work very interesting and rewarding as a creative project.

​

The last five years I’d been privileged to teach a new generation of piano tuners as guest lecturer in Poland at the Szymanowski Academy of Music Katowice. 

I am equally at home helping an adult amateur enthusiast, a music student or a seasoned professional in a concert hall.

Music is a universal gift and touches us all. 

​

​