The Journal News – February 1999 Below, John Ford, owner of Ford Piano Rebuilding in Peekskill, plays a 1909 small grand Steinway piano that he rebuilt in his shop. Not shown, Chris Gonzalez, an employee, reattaches the lyre and pedal assembly on the vintage piano,......
Jazz artist and Lincoln Center Director Antonio Ciacca and his quintet celebrated Italian-American month with a concert at Ford Piano. By Liz Giegerich – October 3, 2011 World class musicians filled the Ford Piano Factory with the smooth sounds of classical jazz Saturday night when......
A former department store known as the Hermax building is due to become home to an estimated 200- seat music hall. 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,......
Signs tentative deal to acquire Hermax building. By Brian J. Howard John Ford has grand plans for downtown Peekskill, and he’s hopeful a deal he swung last week with the city will make them real. Ford owns Ford Piano, a piano rebuilding business on......
North County News By Jim Roberts When Janos Fekete crossed the Atlantic in the late 1880′s, he couldn’t have known that more than 100 years later his grandson John Ford would play a role in redeveloping downtown Peekskill. Today, a fourth generation of Fords (it......
Step into the confines of Ford Piano in Peekskill, and the trip from the sidewalk to repair shop is like stepping into a past century. It’s a world of wood, wires, varnish, hand tools and manual labor — 18th-century technology and craftsmanship at its finest.......
Westchester County Business Journal – April 2001 John Ford started Ford Piano Co. in 1985 in Peekskill to carry on a century-old family tradition that his grandfather brought to America from Hungary. John Fekete, who emigrated to the United States from Hungary in......
The Star – January 2001 By Susan Chitwood 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......
The New York Times – June 2001 By: Mark Ferris John Ford Jr. Can Rebuild an Instrument From the Bottom Up… Like people, pianos decay over time. The instruments seem to be static, but the strings exert 20 tons of pressure on the......
A worker puts down plywood at the F-Sharp Restaurant and Music Hall in Peekskill. / Photos by Ricky Flores/The Journal News PEEKSKILL — John Ford has spent the past few decades refurbishing pianos. Now, at 61, the Ford Piano owner said he wants to spend......
The third annual Italian Jazz Days will feature the Antonio Ciacca Quintet and a workshop led by world-class musician Ciacca this Saturday at the Ford Piano factory. By Liz Giegerich – September 29, 2011 When you enter the Ford Piano factory and encounter a beautiful Steinway and Sons......
Keys to third-generation shop owner’s passion are all in the music Abigail Klingbeil Kim Papa sits near the back of Ford Piano tapping the keys on one of the shop’s shiny black instruments. Boom. Boom. Bing.The untrained ear can differentiate the low booms from the......
Music is eternal. Pianos, not so much. “Essentially, pianos are not immortal,” John P. Ford says. “They have a life span of about a half a century to three-quarters of a century.” That’s where he comes in. Ford is owner and president of Ford Piano......
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,......
Peekskill Herald – February 1996 By Mary Judith Conklin 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. One piano he was in......