Meet the four technicians who keep the keyboards in tune at Symphony Center

Four elite technicians take care of the 21 pianos at Symphony Center: Christa Andrepoint, Richard Beebe, Wes Owen and Josh Younger. Here is a look at each of the four, who discuss how they got into this specialized line of work: 

Christa Andrepont

A Louisiana native, Christa Andrepont grew up in Baton Rouge and began taking piano lessons when she was 16, later than most of her peers. But with the help of her teacher, she managed to win an audition and continue her studies at the nearby University of Louisiana at Lafayette. “I just didn’t know what I was doing when I finally got there,” said Andrepont, now 40. “As soon as I had to perform, I was scared.”

Andrepont wound up switching her major to architecture, which she enjoyed. “But I knew I couldn’t be an architect and I knew I couldn’t be a pianist, but I knew I needed to finish my degree,” she said. She continued her piano lessons, and one day while practicing, she accidentally dropped a pencil into the piano, Andrepont realized she had no idea how to retrieve it, and it struck her as “ridiculous” that she knew so little about the workings of the instrument. After hearing the story, her teacher put her hand on Andrepont’s shoulder and suggested she look up what a piano technician does. She did just that and was captivated by the tools such a profession involves. “I was like, ‘That’s what I want to do,’” she said.

In 2008, she moved to Chicago to attend the now-defunct Chicago School for Piano Technology and became a piano tuner soon after. She became acquainted with the technicians at the CSO, who all work on a contract basis. When Jim Houston decided to retire, he called her and said, “We think you would be a good fit to replace me.” She began in 2016/17 and is now the CSO’s longest-tenured tuner.

In 2021, she moved to Houston to be closer to her family in Louisiana and she got a job as the piano tuner for the Houston Symphony. Because that orchestra’s schedule is less rigorous, she has managed to keep working for the CSO and commute back and forth between the two cities. In the summer, she serves as the head piano tuner for the acclaimed Aspen Music Festival in Colorado.

Richard Beebe

In addition to running his own business, BB Piano Service since 2010, Beebe serves as the lead piano technician for Steinway Chicago and DePaul University of School of Music. He also works for other organizations such as Guarneri Hall and Cedille Records.

After earning a degree in the early 1980s in piano performance at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, the Chicago native performed for a short time as a concert pianist. He then went worked in corporate America for 20 years before returning to his early interest in how a piano worked. His high-school piano teacher had encouraged him to take a piano technology class so he could talk intelligently to a piano tuner.

He then enrolled in the Chicago School for Piano Technology and began work as technician upon his graduation. “Since my performance days are over,” said Beebe, now in his early 60s, “another way I can contribute to nurturing young artists is by giving them best the piano experience that I can through regulation, tuning and voicing.”

Beebe began working as a piano tuner for the CSO in fall 2023. One of the CSO’s previous piano technicians had retired, and the other three recommended him. Beebe received an email from the CSO inviting him to join the team, and he seized the opportunity. 

Wes Owen

A little more than a year ago, Wes Owen became Northwestern University’s supervisor of keyboard maintenance, after three or so previous years on the staff, overseeing the care of a group of keyboards that includes more than 250 pianos and five harpsichords. “So, it’s busy,” he said.

The North Carolina native, 48, tried his hand a few other jobs after high school before attending the North Bennet Street School in Boston, which has one of the oldest accredited piano technology programs in the United States. “It’s weird,” he said. “I didn’t get into this business on purpose. Somebody showed me a few things, and it was like, I can do this. I love working with hand tools. I’m a woodworking hobbyist and a music enthusiast, so it just turned out to be a good fit.”

Soon after leaving the school in 1998, he moved to Chicago and began work here as a piano tuner. Owen was the chief piano technician at Roosevelt University for 10 years, and because of his proximity to Symphony Center, the CSO occasionally asked him to help out if one of its regular tuners was unavailable. “Over time, they had me do more and more things,” he said. That experience led the CSO to add him to its tuning team in 2020/21.

Josh Younger

He spent much of his childhood in St. Paul, Minnesota, before moving with his family to the Chicago suburb of Lincolnshire for his high-school years. He was not interested in performing, but he wanted to have a career in the arts, so he pursued a music-industry degree at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, studying subjects such as the recording industry, music publishing, music supervision, artist marketing and concert promotion. After later connecting with a University of Illinois piano technician and shadowing him, Younger pursued studies at the Chicago School for Piano Technology in 2009/10 — in the same class as Andrepoint.

In addition to the repairs and maintenance he does for private clients at his home shop in Pilsen, Younger, 42, works at concert venues around the city. He became one of the tuners for the CSO in 2022 after a former technician retired. “There is a lot of respect for the career that I get from both my clients and the musicians at the symphony, so it’s well-valued,” he said. “It’s a little bit like voodoo. The magician is coming to make the piano sound good somehow.”