![]() “I have electronic devices, I find it slow and cumbersome to use. This interview has been edited and condensed.Without his vision, Mike has very finely tuned hearing, which is perfect for his profession, which he still does the old fashioned, analog way. It’s just a nice way to appreciate my own work. On occasion I take the opportunity to relax and hear a couple of sets of music, after I tune a piano. I’m sure that Toronto is one of most diverse cities for music in the world. Do you get satisfaction with the role that you play in the scene? Toronto is such a great city for music, with its venues and players. She made the moment important.Īre there any pianos in town that you don’t tune, but would like to?Ī piano I would love to work on would be the one at Jazz Bistro. After being introduced to Tori, she asked me: “How is she feeling this morning?” After unscrambling my thoughts, I realized she was referring to the piano as a person, and I responded: “She’ll feel better now that you’re here.” From our brief exchange I was impressed by her gracious and kind personality. I had just finished tuning the piano in the studio and was on my way out. She was on her way in to perform on the morning show for CTV. Mark Blinch/The Globe and Mailĭo you often talk to the pianists? Anyone famous? Mark Zillmann, a blind piano tuner, tunes the piano at the N'awlins Jazz Bar in Toronto, Wednesday February 9, 2016. She’s a sweet girl and a talented musician, but she plays the hell out of that piano at the Cameron. Oh, I bet I know who’s responsible for that. For example, because the piano at the Cameron House is old and because of the environment it’s in, it’s prone to broken strings. Do you have a relationship with the instruments, where you know the idiosyncrasies of the individual pianos? You tune pianos on a regular basis all over town, at the Robert Lowrey Piano Experts store, at the University of Toronto and at different bars and music rooms. It takes 1,000 tunings before you become a competent piano tuner. But there is still a huge amount of training, practising and experience required. And, generally speaking, hearing is more highly developed in a blind person. Traditionally, it was something blind people could do. Why do so many blind people work as piano tuners? Mark Zillmann tunes many pianos around town, including the upright at N’awlins Jazz Bar on King Street West. I still play a little, just chord patterns that I made up and like to hear. After, I took the piano-technology course at George Brown College. When I was older, I took a piano-tuning course there. Piano lessons were part of the curriculum for children. ![]() Ross Macdonald School, which is a boarding school for the blind, in Brantford. My first exposure to music would have been German folk music, at home. We spoke to him at the King Street West jazz bar and restaurant N’Awlins, one of his clients.Ĭan you talk about your musical and educational background, growing up? Blind since he was 2, the 37-year-old native of Zephyr, Ont., tunes and maintains pianos across the city. If the piano is a monster that screams when you touch its teeth, as has been said, then Mark Zillmann is a sort of dentist. ![]() Mark Zillmann, a blind piano tuner, plays notes as he tunes the piano at the N'awlins Jazz Bar in Toronto, Wednesday February 9, 2016.
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