The piano at Episcopal Church of the Redeemer was beautifully refinished and carefully restrung. That is something any 125 year old piano would need. That said, any piano will “settle into” its new home after moving, changing the tonal qualities. Sometimes those tonal changes are not desirable. That is what happened to Chickering & Sons number 87530 here at Redeemer.
The fix is replacing the hammers. The parts and labor price to replace the hammers is about $1500. Tuning would be another $200-250.
The problem
Choir members have had issues singing with the piano. The instrument produces a very brittle sound.
Some of you know Don Vollema, spouse of our choir director, Bob Chapman. Don is music supervisor for the Pacific Northwest Ballet School. When he played this piano at a wedding at Redeemer sometime before the COVID-19 pandemic, Don had to completely replan his music because of sound of the piano.
The solution
The piano needed “voicing” to restore its beautiful sound.
Because of Nathan Jensen’s work at the Pacific Northwest Ballet School with the pianos at the Francia Russell Center when it first opened in Bellevue, your choir director thought to contact Nathan when he found out that the funeral for the late Canon John Fergueson was going to be at Redeemer. The purchase of the piano came from money donated by Fergueson family. Bob wanted the instrument to sound good for the funeral. With permission from the Rev. Theresa Newell, Bob asked Nathan to look at our instrument.
To start, Nathan gave us some good news. Whoever did the previous restoration work on the piano did an excellent job with the refinishing and restringing. Mechanically and structurally, the piano is in very good shape. Pianists and restorers consider Chickering pianos from around 1900 among the best pianos ever made.
However, as is common for people who refinish pianos, the hammers were not touched. You need a different skill set to voice the hammers than to restring a piano. Structurally and mechanically, Nathan said the piano is in very good shape. The only remaining restoration item is the hammers.
While about two-thirds of the hammers could be revoiced using pins, the top third did not have enough felt on the hammers. The solution requires new hammers.
Implement the solution
Nathan proposed and the Vestry agreed to replacing the current hammers with new Abel hammers. These hammers will make our piano performance grade and allow proper voicing.
Abel hammers typically have a warm and rich “European” sound, which we need in our live acoustic. These hammers are about a third of the price of the best performance grade hammers.
Nathan ordered the new hammers March 20, 2026, when he removed six representative hammers to send to the supplier in New York City. It takes four weeks to receive the new hammers, ready for installation. Nathan said ordering the hammers then gave him time to have the piano ready for Canon Fergueson’s funeral.
We need your help to finish the piano restoration
To have the piano ready for Canon Fergueson’s funeral, we couldn’t wait to start the repairs. It had to start before Palm Sunday.
Nathan did not request any payment or deposit before starting. We need contributions to pay him when finishing the work. This year’s budget did not cover this expense.
Please consider making a donation earmarked for piano repairs. Make an earmarked donation using this link to the “music fund” to pay for the repairs. Checks need to have “music fund” on the memo line.
Church of the Redeemer
Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County. We welcome you be with us as we walk the way of Jesus.
Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. We are a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.
The Episcopal Church welcomes you.
