WHAT will Christmas be without concerts?
Concerts are a dime a dozen this Yule season, and for events using a piano, this is going to be a busy month for piano tuners.
No one knows exactly when the first piano tuners arrived in the country.
When I was at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), I learned that the piano tuner of Rowena Arrieta, the first Filipino Tchaikovsky Laureate in Moscow, during her Baguio City concert, was Jun Jacela. When he passed away, his nephew Michael Jacela took over and serviced pianos owned by music teachers. (He, too, passed away two years ago.)
Moreover, the piano odyssey of pianist Cecile Licad is far more definitive and spectacular than those of the rest of her colleagues young and old.
In the case of Licad, she asks for many shades and nuances of sounds from her piano.
She may demand another piano good for Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky. She will also need a special unique sound for her Brahms. All of these sound requirements can only come with a good piano tuner.
When Licad performed at Santuario de San Antonio in Forbes Park one Friday night in October, she brought with her a 9-foot Hamburg Steinway from New York and piano tuner Ricard de la Rosa. He is president of the New York-based Pro Piano.
Big name
De la Rosa is a big name in piano business. It supplies—and tunes up—pianos for the world’s greatest pianists, such as Maurizio Pollini, Martha Argerich, Lang Lang, Daniel Barenboim, Yundi Li and Vladimir Ashkenazy.
When Licad borrowed the Steinway grand of presidential daughter Irene M. Araneta (the piano was a gift to her by the eminent pianist Van Cliburn), the piano was tuned up by Raymond Lim, who is in the league of another much sought-after tuner, Iggy Tuazon. Tuazon services piano owners in exclusive subdivisions.
In some earlier performances in the provinces, she required the services of Danny Lumabi, who’s also connected with Lyric Piano and Organ Corporation.
In her outreach concerts in the ’90s, Licad’s piano-tuning needs were met by Pablo Umali, for a time official tuner of the CCP.
When Licad performed with Brazilian cellist Antonio Meneses (a gold medalist in the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow) in Zambales, the late Romy Comoda tuned up the piano, which used to stay at the Manila Metropolitan Theater.
Comoda’s son, Alexander, has taken over his father’s work and owns the Comoda Piano Service Center in Las Piñas.
When the Licad-Meneses duo performed in Bacolod, the piano tuning was provided by Ricardo Garcia, who’s also the tuner of Raul Sunico.
Stable of tuners
For now, Manila Pianos—the biggest piano dealer in Manila at the moment—keeps a stable of piano tuners at its beck and call.
Ray Sison of ROS Music Center also has a stable of piano tuners, some of whom trained in Germany when Sison became distributor of Bösendorfer pianos in Manila.
In his book, there are no more than 20 good piano tuners in the country. Among them are Raymond Lim, Marios Petsas, Danny Lumabi, Iggy Tuazon, Arnel Umali and Ivan Yegorov of Manila Pianos.
Sison’s stable of piano technicians go beyond tuning.
One of them, Umali, is a certified piano tuner and technician who trained in the Bösendorfer factory in Vienna, Austria.
Said Sison: “Good tuning lasts longer through careful repetition and special technique. We also offer good regulation, which restores factory settings of all moving parts of the piano. These results in a piano that responds easily with bigger sound.”
Alexander Comoda, who learned how to tune from his late father Romy, started tuning piano since 2003 and went full-time in 2010 after finishing a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.
Said he: “Piano tuning allows you to meet music-loving families whose pianos have rich history from one generation to another. Of course I went full-time into piano tuning to preserve the little legacy my father left.”
The need for piano tuners varies for concerts big and small and in genres from pop to classical.
Outside the concert circuit, piano dealers remind you that you need piano tuners to preserve your instrument and—according to a Manila Pianos briefing—to avoid costly repairs in the future.
Connected with the world’s greatest pianists, Pro Piano’s De la Rosa remains the most trusted name in business of piano supply and tuning in the last 45 years.
Indeed, it is unthinkable to have a good piano performance without a good piano tuner.