Ford Piano Reviews

The Journal News – September 2003

John Ford, the owner of Ford Piano at 15 S. Division St., is passing on the skills his father and grandfather taught him to his sons John (far left) and Mike (middle) at the family business in the heart of Peekskill, a site that Ford moved his company to from his riverfront shop on Water street in 1999 [...]

The Journal News – November 2002

John Ford, a businessman with a local piano refurbishing business who is finalizing a deal to purchase the property at 15-27 South Division Street, plans to convert the building into performance space for recitals concerts and dances [...]

Westchester Magazine – November 2002

Discussing Piano Rebuilding with Peekskill’s John P. Ford Jr. is like talking to Bill Gates about computers. Ford seems to know everything about the instrument. After all, pianos are his passion. He loves them – how they look, how they sound and, most of all, he loves to fix them. ”The process of rebuilding pianos is meditative,” says Ford. ”Plus it’s art. When you’re done you have a thing of great beauty and great sound.”

The Star – August 2002

Ford owns Ford Piano, a piano rebuilding business on Division Street, and lists John Lennon, Stephen Sondheim, and Madison Square Garden among his clients. He reached a tentative agreement last week to buy the historic Hermax building next door for $325,000. The deal would clear the way for a music hall at the corner of Division and Brown streets [...]

New York Times – June 2001

In the piano-rebuilding business, most of the work is done by specialists. Belly experts fix cracks in the soundboard and repair the pinblock, which holds the tuning pegs of the piano. Refinishers are the trade’s cosmetic surgeons. Action masters ensure that each key lines up straight and that the hammers hit the strings at the proper angle with the right amount of force. Tuners add the final touch, turning discord into harmony [...]

Westchester Business Journal – April 2001

John Fekete, who emigrated to the United States from Hungary in the 1890s, opened Fekete Pianos about 1912 or 1913 in Manhattan. Fekete ran the shop until his death in 1957, passing on the business to his son, John, who changed his family name to Ford and the name of the business to Ford Piano Co. He died in 1999 and his son, John Jr., who was “pretty much born in the piano shop,” continued the business in 1985 to keep alive the family tradition [...]

The Star – January 2001

John Ford has rebuilt pianos for any number of famous professional musicians, including John Lennon, Roberta Flack and Stephen Soundheim. He has also restored pianos for the rich amateur musician, including Middle Eastern Sheik whose malachite grand piano needed resuscitation. But when Ford chose new quarters last year for his workshop and showroom, he landed at the site of the old McCrory’s in downtown Peekskill [...]

The Journal News – February 1999

John Ford, owner of Ford Piano Rebuilding in Peekskill, plays a 1909 small grand Steinway piano that he rebuilt in his shop. Not shown, his son Michael Ford reattaches the lyre and pedal assembly on the vintage piano [...]

Peekskill Herald – February 1996

Piano rebuilder John Ford stood in the midst of over 30 pianos in various stages of assembly, as picturesque in his old-fashioned apron as his Main Street shop overlooking the Hudson [...]

The Journal News – September 2003

The company’s ebullient owner, John Ford, is the third generation to run this piano repair and sales shop, which his Hungarian immigrant grandfather founded during the height of the late 19th-century piano boom [...]