The one man on speed dial for 50 years

Because the Sydney Opera Home opened over 50 years in the past, numerous musical stars, world leaders and awestruck patrons have visited its iconic halls.

The surface forecourt has been blanketed by 1000’s of naked our bodies within the title of artwork and, inside, an solely barely much less bare Arnold Schwarzenegger even received a body-building title. There have been renovations and controversies, protests staged and historical past made.

And the fixed, via all of it, is Terry Harper.

He is been tuning the constructing’s pianos for half a century, working behind the scenes to ensure the uber-technical devices are prepared for the world’s finest musicians.

It is a household legacy began by his father when the Opera Home first opened in 1973 – and one which ended this week, with Terry’s retirement.

The 69-year-old nonetheless remembers the primary time he stepped into the half-finished Opera Home, as a wide-eyed little one.

“The sails have been up, nevertheless it was all very naked,” he tells the BBC, gesturing to the perimeters of the grand Live performance Corridor.

“There was nothing inside… You may see out to the harbour on either side.”

On the time, he had no inkling he’d spend most of his life inside the enduring venue. His dad, alternatively, little question had grand plans, Terry says.

By then, Liverpool emigrant Ron Harper was famend on the Sydney music scene as each a piano tuner and a performer.

“He would take me to those nightclubs as a [kid] in my little college uniform. And I’d be seeing all of those world-class acts,” Terry recollects. He rattles off a listing together with Welsh songstress Dame Shirley Bassey, stage icon Liza Minelli, and British TV and music darling Cilla Black – whom they even drove dwelling after her efficiency one evening.

“It was an attention-grabbing childhood,” Terry surmises, with a chuckle.

However it’s one which instilled in him a love of music – even when he wasn’t notably concerned about making it himself.

Considerably satirically, Terry admits he spent a couple of yr studying piano earlier than giving it up, dabbling with the drums and his college choir as an alternative.

It was in 1973, shortly after the Opera Home was formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II, that his father Ron received his fateful call-up.

“In the future, the Sydney Symphony was rehearsing downstairs, and the piano hadn’t been tuned notably nicely by whoever had been in within the morning,” Terry says. “One of many folks working right here knew my dad.”

Three years later, a 19-year-old Terry would be part of Ron underneath the sails, after finishing a one-year piano tuning course when he left college.

He began on rehearsal pianos within the backroom, whereas increase his abilities and confidence, earlier than lastly taking up when his dad retired a decade later.

Today, he can stroll right into a room and instantly know if the piano is out of tune.

“I at all times had an excellent sense of pitch,” he says, “[but] it is troublesome to grasp.”

And it is all performed by ear.

Tinkling on the piano in entrance of him, he explains this one has 243 strings. For a lot of the keys, three separate metal wires mix to make the be aware.

“As soon as they begin to deviate from the identical frequency, they trigger these items which we name beats, and that is what we’re listening for after we’re tuning.”

“Are you able to hear this?” he asks, enthusiastically.

Alas, I – a music pleb – can not.

“It is not like tuning a guitar,” he says, providing me some solace.

The method can take as much as 90 minutes, and every of the 30 pianos within the constructing have to be tuned mainly each time they’re used.

“There’s so many strings in there that may wander out of tune, particularly once you’re enjoying massive piano concertos,” Terry explains.

“I refer to those as being F1 racing vehicles… They’re actually gunning them.”

It may be a demanding and relentless job.

“It does not cease. And it is evening instances, it is early mornings, it is two and thrice a day,” Terry says.

However the perks – which embrace brushing shoulders with a few of the globe’s most-decorated musicians and easy accessibility to probably the most sought-after tickets on the town – aren’t to be scoffed at, he hastens so as to add.

Terry has additionally tuned pianos in lots of different notable places – from the Royal Albert Corridor and Abbey Street Studios to the BBC broadcast places of work.

However none occupy a spot in his coronary heart just like the Opera Home.

“For me, it is a very joyful place. It is just about been my life.”

Earlier this yr, after 5 many years, Terry determined it was time to hold up the instruments.

“I received fairly cozy throughout Covid, not having to work,” he quips.

His son could not be tempted to take up the household enterprise – “he is into pc stuff, like all good younger males are” – and so Friday additionally marked the top of the Harper legacy contained in the Sydney Opera Home.

The venue has opened a young for a brand new contractor to tune their pianos – and Terry says he is heard a hearsay they could possibly be changing him with a number of tuners.

“I believe any individual owes me some cash… I have been doing the work of six folks,” he teases.

Jokes apart, he admits that as his departure has crept nearer, a wave of feelings got here with it.

“Piano tuners, we’re pretty solitary,” he says. “We prefer to be in a room by ourselves with quiet, as a result of it’s important to focus and take heed to what you are doing… [but] I’ve at all times had the camaraderie of all of the people who work right here.”

“I will miss the place.”