Bill Garlick, Piano Technician - A video tribute

Video Description

This slideshow is uploaded as a valedictory tribute to Bill Garlick, the well-respected piano technician and teacher, who died on April 28th., 2014, at Abbotswood Nursing Home, on the Isle of Man. . The flowers shown at the beginning were from Bill's family, in Canada and in England. . The images shown were sent by Bill's friends, or taken at the time this video was made. . The music which you hear (Chopin Nocturne in B major, Opus 32, no. 1) is performed by Stephen Malinowski, and used here with his kind permission. . . An obituary, written by Debbie Cyre (an instructor at North Bennett Street School) reads as follows: . WILLIAM E. GARLICK, JULY 5, 1931 -- APRIL 28, 2014 Few people make as vivid and lasting an impression on others as did Bill Garlick on the lives of those who crossed his path. He loved all things piano, from Cristofori to Falcone, and was himself an accomplished pianist. As a teacher Bill displayed rigor, intelligence, and passion. Countless lives were changed under Bill's influence. William E. Garlick was born in England July 5, 1931. He grew up in Lytham-St-Annes, a seaside town in Lancashire, England, with his two older sisters. At twenty he entered the Courtfield Catering College in Blackpool to study hotel and restaurant management. After completing the three year course, he spent twelve years traveling the world in the hospitality business. Owing to a decline in his father's health, Bill returned to England on a leave of absence. John Garlick was gradually losing his sight. Fearing the condition might be hereditary, Bill acted on his dad's suggestion that he pursue piano tuning as insurance against his own possible blindness. In 1965 Bill enrolled in the Piano Technology course at the London School of Furniture. He started in September, and by the end of October he had mastered the intricacies of equal temperament. Bill knew he wanted to emigrate to the United States, so his father encouraged him to enroll in the Piano Technology course at North Bennet Street Industrial School in Boston. A diploma from an American school, the senior Garlick felt, would be beneficial to his son. Bill packed up, went first to his favorite hotel, the Post Hotel at Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada, to help a friend in the hotel business and then went on to Boston in June 1967. Accepted for the eight-week course at North Bennet that fall, Bill studied piano repair and regulation with Ed Coghlan and tuning with Harold Marshman. In his spare time during the early 1970's, he worked in the William Dowd Harpsichord shop in Cambridge. Meanwhile, Harold Marshman became terminally ill with cancer. He died in May 1968, and Bill took over the department, expanding the course from eight weeks to five months, and in short order, to nine months. After teaching the course for one year, he hired David Betts in 1973 to assist him. In 1977, they expanded it into the two-year format that continues today. Bill remained at North Bennet until June 1983, when he accepted the position at Steinway & Sons in New York City as Administrator of Technical Training and Education, a post he filled for the next six years. In July 1989, he opened a new chapter in his life establishing a bed and breakfast at his home in Blue Point, New York, on Long Island, teaching one- and two-week private seminars in piano and harpsichord technology. In 1997, Bill sold his personal historic piano collection to the Cantos Music Museum, now the National Music Centre, in Calgary, Alberta. He spent two years there, from 1998-2000, working as a consultant, helping them document instruments and establish their museum. He was also very influential in establishing the museum's use of historic instruments for recording and performance. From Calgary, he returned to Blue Point for a while, where he continued to do occasional seminars, as well as teach piano technicians at conferences around the country. Bill retired to the Isle of Man in 2007, with fond memories of summers spent there as a child with his family. Within a few years he began to suffer the devastating effects of dementia. His friend Peter Jones, a nearby organ builder, took on himself the responsibility of seeing Bill through his last years to his final rest. He died peacefully of pneumonia on April 28, 2014. Eric Schandall, a North Bennet graduate and former Administrator of Technical Training and Education at Steinway, remembers, "What a legacy Bill left all of us who were his friends and students. There is not any real way to measure the extent of his influence, as he touched so many people. He set not only the course for individuals he met, but also he set the standards for the teaching and preservation of many elements of our work with pianos and musicians. We are so fortunate to have known Bill Garlick."