If you’ve heard a piano played on the East End in the past seven years, chances are you’re hearing the work of Josh Kessler. But he doesn’t know how to play the piano. He can “fake it for 15 minutes,” but his real passion is tuning and restoration.
He tunes for Guild Hall, the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, Hamptons JazzFest, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and LongHouse Reserve, among others.
At age 50, Josh Kessler is the region’s leading piano tuner, having ended up in Sagaponack after a journey that took him from Arkansas to Austin, Tex., and Nashville to Iceland. A resident since 2017, he owns Hamptons Piano, a shop that handles piano sales and restoration as well as tuning. In addition to working with concert venues, he also works with a number of private clients, both regulars and one-offs.
“I have been playing guitar since I was 8,” he said the other day. “My dad got tickets for my mother to take my brother and me to see Kiss when I was 5, front row, dead center, at the Garden.” After three years of begging, Mr. Kessler’s parents bought him his first guitar: an electric Castilla knockoff of a Les Paul. His first performance was in a school concert when he was 10.
After completing an electrical engineering degree at Vanderbilt, he moved to Austin, where he played in a number of bands. “Music was the focus of my life,” he said. “I played guitar in different types of groups: from 10-piece R&B revue bands, light jazz — no bop for me — my own blues power trio, etc.”
During this period, a roommate asked him to cover his shift at an antiques restoration shop that specialized in stained glass. He fell in love with the practice of restoration and stayed on to become the head of the shop, picking up a variety of small-scale woodworking skills while there. “My old boss was named Jim Zollo. It’s funny how I still hear his voice chirping at me when I’m doing something I picked up from him,” Mr. Kessler said.
Having opened a Brooklyn recording studio as an extension of his passion for music, Mr. Kessler’s interest in the piano came from a need: “I had repeatedly dreadful experiences finding great tuners or techs. In 12 years of running the studio, I had two absolutely fantastic folks and about 12 or 14 bewilderingly bad experiences.”
He developed a love of figuring out the inner workings of anything, so he resolved to solve his own problem. “I bought a cheapo tuning kit, and, to my dismay, I wasn’t very good at it either, not at first. But that inspired curiosity that never dimmed, and my love for and interest in pianos deepened well past tuning into the mechanics.”
He is now a full-time piano restorer, a practice that includes tuning. He never planned to travel, but clients here appreciate his work so much they ask him to take over piano work at their main or off-season residences, from New York City to Palm Beach.
There’s a lot to appreciate: Mr. Kessler has developed deep, comprehensive technical knowledge of the instrument. He points out that the piano has been in a constant state of development since its inception in the 1700s, and he uses modern technology to save pianos from the humid climate of the East End.
Fluctuating humidity levels wreak havoc on the sensitive wooden components of the instrument, but Mr. Kessler has a solution. “I have transitioned almost entirely to carbon fiber action parts,” he said. “The
initial challenges are vastly offset by the extreme durability and their immutability in humid conditions, a very big problem as close as we are to the water. Unlike wood, there is no warping and no friction change when the humidity goes up or down.”
He also specializes in rebuilding older pianos to suit a client’s needs. He can fashion one that suits tonal preferences or playing style. Think a rock-and-roll instrument with a clear, bright tone, or a more gentle, intimate sound. Operating on a small scale allows him to pay attention to every tiny detail of the piano in a way major manufacturers can’t. Every piece can be customized, from the hammer weight to the strings to the entire action system itself.
Tuning and restoration go beyond physical repair, requiring an artistic touch. “Every piano is different, and pianos are all imperfect. They often ‘feel’ alive and tell a story when I’m sitting in front of them to work,” he said. “There are many levels on which pianos trigger feelings.”
The art of piano restoration is the niche he feels most comfortable in. He strives to live by the Japanese concept of ikigai, from iki, “to live,” and gai, “reason.” To Mr. Kessler, ikigai is “finding what you love to do, what the world needs, what you are good at, and what you can get paid for,” he said. “There are many things I could have chosen to do, but piano restoration meets all the criteria of ikigai, and it came to me unexpectedly and unforced.”
He may not have set out to restore pianos for a living, but Josh Kessler became a master of the craft.
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Henry Koepp was a participant in The Star’s Summer Academy, a journalism program for high school students.
