Richard Hester

During his college years as a student in piano performance at Oberlin Conservatory, Richard Hester became aware of the fact that for all the many fine pianists, there was a sharply diminishing number of similarly motivated people working on the technical aspects of the instruments.

Following Oberlin, Hester worked for Lyon and Healy's piano rebuilding department in Chicago; he also spent a brief but important period (1969) at William Dowd's harpsichord-making shop in Boston. His attendance in the Master's course for European piano construction and design at the Fachschule für Musikinstrumenbau in Ludwigsburg, Germany proved useful for broader German keyboard research in many important European collections.

As Curator of Musical Instruments at the State University of New York at Albany, he developed a keyboard workshop facility in the Music Department with a special course sequence in the history and design of keyboard instruments and their special needs in conservation, restoration and documentation. He has been engaged in restoration work since 1968 and new fortepiano construction since 1979.

A frequent consultant and lecturer on historical piano topics, he has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Boston Early Music Festival since 1988. His workshop is in Coeymans Hollow, in the Hudson Valley area south of Albany, New York.