Peter Sumner is a highly regarded concert piano technician based in Northern California and the western states.  He has been the piano technician for major festivals and concert halls throughout the world including Sitka Alaska; and Cartajena, Columbia. This past year, he was appointed as head piano technician for the Aspen Music Festival and School.  In 2012, Sumner was appointed ‘Curator of Pianos’ for the department of music at Stanford University and also tunes and maintains the pianos for the newly built Bing Concert Hall on campus.  In January 25, he will be working in Brazil for the São Paulo State Orchestra.

Born in 1950 in Yorkshire, England, he later moved to the island of Bermuda to work for the offshore banking industry in the mid-1970’s, returning to UK in 1983. Determined to have his own business, he bought a small music store that failed in the poor economic climate of that era. With the encouragement of the local piano tuner, he enrolled at Newark Technical School for a three-year piano tuning and maintenance course.  In 1998, California beckoned due to a chance meeting and the opportunity to study in the New York factory of Steinway and Sons. This connection helped Sumner develop a solid business in the Bay Area, which continues to grow.

In 2007, Dr. Aileen James heard about Peter Sumner and referred him to InConcert Sierra. At the time, InConcert’s Grotrian concert grand piano was being very temperamental and unstable.  Sumner revitalized the piano changing its condition from an older “Cadillac” to a hot new “Ferrari.”  Since then, pianists such as Spencer Myer, Joel Fan, Emanuel Ax, Garrick Ohlsson, and Nikolaï Lugansky have reported their approval of its performance. Hence, Sumner and his local protégé Al Owens, are the only technicians who work on the InConcert Grotrian piano.