Name: Mark Dierauf
Piano restorer and tuner
How did you get into restoring old instruments? What was the first instrument you restored? I was a pianist. I took lessons as a kid, and when I went to college, I found out about the possibility of helping with piano technician stuff for work study and I found I had a real aptitude and enjoyment for it. So I wound up spending all my time down in the piano room instead of upstairs in the practice room.
And the first instrument I restored was an auto piano, an old upright player piano that another technician I was working with gave to me to work on. He gave me the piano and not a lot of input as far as what I should do with it.
Do you restore things for yourself or for others who are interested? Both. I’ve done a couple of our own pianos here, and (my wife) Jayne’s piano in Washington. And I’m going to an auction on Fourth of July weekend to try to pick up another one.
How long does it take to fully restore a piano? It can take a couple of years, but if you’re working on it more or less nonstop, you can go through it in three or four months. I send them out to a shop that does all the refinishing and all the interior work, the restringing, and I basically do the action mechanism. There are all these fussy little things, and often each one gets done 88 times because there are 88 keys.
Some of it can become tedious, but at same time, it’s not like I have to do that every day. Another nice thing about my job is sometimes I’m on the road just tuning and then other times I’m in the shop, and if I’m in the shop I can be doing any one of a thousand different jobs. It’s not like going to the same cubicle or filling out the same reports every day.
Are you better at restoring or playing instruments? Can you do both at the same time? I’m definitely better at restoring. One of the things that I found when I went to music school is that old saying, “a small fish in a big pond.” Before I had gone there, I thought a lot more highly of my abilities. Play and restore at the same time? No. But one of the things that playing does for me is it gives me the ability to discern what is good and what is bad about an inpidual instrument. Having the ability to play and listen and feel the response of the instrument gives me kind of a leg up in making these things perform the best as possible.
What would be the holy grail of instruments to refurbish? Why? Steinways. There are other wonderful instruments out there, but in this country especially, Steinways are at something like 98 percent of concert venues.
What are the most common things you restore? Most common problems? It used to be pianos in general, but these days it’s more and more Steinways and a couple of other high-end brands, simply because nobody will pay to restore an old piano otherwise. It’s just not worth it.
(As for problems), it’s really the same thing over and over again. I always compare it to automobiles – you drive your car, the tires and the brakes wear out and the battery dies eventually. The more you use it, the sooner you’ll have to replace that stuff. But I can restore something like this 1910 Steinway for probably a little more than half of the cost of a new instrument.
What is your greatest accomplishment as a restorer? I sold a piano to a concert venue on the island of Vinalhaven, Maine, and they were doing a nationwide search using a concert pianist and he traveled a lot and was looking at pianos all over the country, and he picked mine. It was just a wonderful experience, they were wonderful people. Everything about it was just a lot of fun.
What are you working on right now? A piano from St. James Church over in Keene, and a Steinway restoration of a piano from 1910.
If you weren’t doing this, what would you be doing? When I was a kid, I wanted to be a motorcycle racer. That’s what my guidance councilor asked me when I was in junior high, what do you want to do, and she looked askance at me when I told her I wanted to be a motorcycle racer.
Hidden talent? I like to cook. I don’t do it often, but I do enjoy it. I like to eat is basically why. So that forces me to have to cook.
Guilty pleasure? Computer gaming.
