Meet Una Corda’s Team of Volunteer Tuners
MEET THE UNA CORDA TUNERS
The core of the Una Corda project is our team of tuners. With more that 100 years of experience between them, and strong connections with all the leading piano manufacturers, they represent the very best piano tuners and technicians in Ireland, and share between them a client list that includes most of Ireland’s leading orchestras, recording studios, concert halls, arts organisations and third level institutions.
The Una Corda tuners are responsible for implementing the Una Corda education programme, which is training the next generation of Cuban piano tuners and technicians. That means they are the hosts and principal tutors when the Cuban trainees visit Ireland, and each works closely with us and with the National Workshop of Instrument Repair in Havana to maintain the highest possible standards and to ensure that our trainees in Cuba have the tools and supplies they need to carry out their work.
All Una Corda tuners are volunteers. As well was giving their time and expertise to the project, all Una Corda tuners pay their own flights, accommodation and living expenses while in Cuba.
Alex Jeffers
Alex was born and bred in Bandon, West Cork, where the Jeffers family have been at the heart of the town’s business community for the last 4 generations. After training as a piano tuner/technician during the 1980s, Alex took over the piano department of the family business – Jeffers of Bandon – and developed it into what is now one of the leading piano companies in Ireland.
Not content with this, in 2000 Alex took up flying as a hobby. He is now a fully qualified commercial pilot and when he’s not tuning pianos, he works as a captain with Aer Arann, Ireland’s regional airline. Alex enjoys competing in triathlons, playing squash and learning Spanish. Although not a fluent Gaelgoir, he enjoys improving his Irish, and he is very involved in his local church. He lives in Bandon with his wife, two daughters, one dog and two cats.
Feena Lynch
Born in Dublin, Feena is one of only a handful of women tuning pianos in Irleand. She began her piano studies in Edinburgh before going to London where she worked as a concert tuner for Bosendorfer pianos. In 2001 she was appointed as the in-house piano tuner at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, one of Ireland’s leading third level music conservatories, where she is responsible for the maintainance of the Academy’s many Steinways and Yamahas.
Away from the Academy, Feena is usually to be found sailing in Dublin bay or attending Spanish classes. She is, by common assent, the best Salsa dancer in the Una Corda project (though the competition, it must be said, is not exactly fierce).
Ciarán Ryan
Founder and coordinator of the Una Corda project, Ciarán was born in Dublin but grew up in New Zealand, where he acquired his antipodean accent. He returned to Ireland in the 1990s and began his training as a piano tuner, with regular working visits to London, where he learned at the elbows of some of the finest tuners and technicians in Europe. Based in Galway, in the West of Ireland, Ciarán is now one of the leading piano providers for concert and recital work throughout the country, and works out of a small (but perfectly formed) workshop overlooking Galway bay, where he undertakes everything from minor repairs to full restoration.
With his New Zealand upbringing, it’s not suprising that much of Ciarán’s spare time is taken up with rugby, and when he’s not on the road with one of his precious Steinways, he can be found shouting himself hoarse from the touchline at one of the youth teams he coaches in Galway.
Paul Wade
Dubliner Paul Wade trained in the leading Irish piano shop, McCullough-Piggots during the 1970s. Since then, Paul has risen steadily through the ranks and is now regarded as one of Ireland’s top tuners, in constant demand at concert venues and recording studios. His main responsibility is for the pianos in Ireland’s foremost classical concert venue, the National Concert Hall in Dublin.
When he’s not tuning pianos, Paul may be found with his family on the beach in Wexford, working on his tan.
