Franz Mohr, Piano Tuner to the Stars, Is Dead at 94

His curiosity in music started not with pianos however with the viola and the violin. He studied at academies in Cologne and Detmold and, in his 20s, performed guitar and mandolin in German dance bands.

He was enjoying Dixieland music one evening when he noticed a lady on the dance flooring. “I fell in love together with her as quickly as I noticed her and mentioned to my pals, ‘That’s the lady I’m going to marry,’” he recalled in his memoir. Her identify was Elisabeth Zillikens, they usually married in 1954. In addition to his son Michael, she survives him, as does a daughter, Ellen; seven grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. One other son, Peter, died in 2019.

Tendinitis compelled Mr. Mohr to surrender performing when he was in his 20s, his son mentioned, and he turned to pianos, answering a need advert from the piano producer Ibach that led to an apprenticeship. One other commercial, in 1962, despatched him to america.

It mentioned that Steinway was in search of piano technicians — in New York. A religious churchgoer, he had made a reference to a German-speaking Baptist church in Elmhurst, Queens, that confirmed him the advert. He contacted Steinway and was quickly employed as an assistant to William Hupfer, the corporate’s chief live performance technician.

Earlier than lengthy, he was tuning for stars just like the famously eccentric Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, who got here to New York to make recordings. (In Toronto Gould relied on one other tuner, Verne Edquist, who died in 2020.)

Mr. Mohr not solely labored on the piano on the recording studio, he additionally rode round New York with Gould. “He cherished Lincoln City vehicles,” Mr. Mohr wrote in his memoir. “That’s all he would drive. He as soon as mentioned to me: ‘Franz, I came upon that subsequent yr’s mannequin can be two inches shorter. So, you understand what I did? I purchased two City Vehicles this yr.”