In November 2019, John Watson and I spent two weeks at the Whitefield House Museum in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, examining what is widely considered to be the earliest piano made in North America. Our goal was to build a reproduction of the piano for the museum.

John began building the case in Williamsburg, Virginia, while I built the action in San Francisco. In July 2020 I shipped the action to John. The Covid-19 situation prevented me from flying to Williamsburg to assist with the final assembly of the instrument—that task was ably handled by John alone.

The finished piano had its debut performance in Williamsburg in October 2020 before being delivered to the Moravian Historical Society at Whitefield House.

Click here for photos and more information on this project.

Reproduction of the 18th Century Upright Piano in the Moravian Historical Society's Whitefield House Museum