The only man on fast demand for 50 years

Since the opening of the Sydney Opera House more than 50 years ago, countless musical stars, world leaders and amazing sponsors have visited its iconic halls.

The external easy hero was starred by thousands of bare bodies in the name of art, and at home, Arnold Schwarzenegger won a little bare. There were renovations, disputes, and protests that were organized and history.

And fixed, through all of this, is Terry Harper.

He was setting the piano for the building for half a century, working behind the scenes to ensure that Uber’s artistic machines are ready for the best musicians in the world.

It is a family legacy that his father started when the opera house was opened for the first time in 1973 – and ended this week, with Terry’s retirement.

The 69 -year -old is still remembered the first time that he entered the semi -transferred opera house, as a wide -eyed child.

“The sails were awake, but it was very naked,” he told BBC, referring to the edges of the Grand concert hall.

“There was nothing inside … You can see the port on both sides.”

At that time, he had no declaration that he was spending most of his life inside the iconic place. Terry says that his father, on the other hand, had great plans.

By that time, the Liverpool immigrant Ron Harper was famous for the Sydney’s music scene as the piano and performance.

“He would have taken me to these nightclubs as a child (a child) in the uniform of my little school. I will see all these world -class works,” Terry recalls. He calmed a list including Welsh songs, Mrs. Shirley Passi, the theater icon Lisa Mennelli, British TV and music, Habibi Sila Black – who traveled home after performing one night.

“It was an interesting childhood,” Terry sails, a muffled laugh.

But he instilled the love of music – even if he is not particularly interested in making it himself.

It is somewhat irony that Terry admits that he spent about a year learning the piano before abandoning it, and abandoning the drums and the choir of his school instead.

In 1973, shortly after the opening of the Opera House by Queen Elizabeth II, his father Ron obtained his fateful summons.

Terry says: “One day, Sydney was a symphony training on the basement, and the piano was not well seized by those who were in the morning,” Terry says. “One of the people working here knew my father.”

Three years later, 19 -year -old Terry will join Ron under the sails, after the end of the piano seizure course for one year when he left the school.

He started a rehearsal in the piano in the back room, while building his skills and confidence, before he finally took over when his father retired after a decade.

These days, he can walk to a room and know immediately whether the piano is inconsistent.

“I always had a very good feeling of the stadium,” he says. “But it is difficult to master.”

And all of this is done through the ear.

This explains one on the piano in front of him, and this explains one with 243 chains. For most keys, three separate steel wires are united to prove the observation.

“Once they start deviating from the same hesitation, they cause these things that we call rhythms, and this is what we listen to when we adhere to.”

“Can you hear this?” He asks, enthusiastically.

Unfortunately, I – Bulk Music – I cannot.

He says, “This is not the same as controlling guitar,” he says, offers me some condolences.

The process can take up to 90 minutes, and each piano 30 in the building must be set mainly at each time it is used.

“There are many strings there that can roam in the tone, especially when you play the role of concerts for the big piano,” explains Terry.

“I refer to this as F1 racing cars … they really call them.”

It can be an uncompromising demand.

“It does not stop. It is night times,” Terry says. “It is early morning, two and three times a day,” Terry says.

But the privileges-which include my shoulders with some most organized musicians in the world and easy access to the most popular tickets in the city-can’t make fun of them.

Terry also seized the piano in many other prominent sites – from Albert Royal Hall and Abbey Road Studios to BBC broadcast offices.

But no one occupies a place in his heart like the Opera House.

“For me, it’s a very happy place. It has been my life so much.”

Earlier this year, five decades, Terry decided that it was time to suspend the tools.

“I became completely comfortable through Covid, not having to work.”

His son cannot be seduced to take over the family – “he is in computer things, like all good young people” – so on Friday it was the end of Harper’s legacy inside the Sydney Opera House.

The place has opened a tender for a new contractor to set their piano – Terry says he heard rumors that he could replace him with many loyalties.

“I think someone owed me with some money … I was doing six people.”

Regardless of jokes, he admits that with his departure, a wave of emotions came.

“The piano ports, we are somewhat single.” “We would like to be in a room by ourselves calmly, because you have to focus and listen to what you are doing … (but) I always have friendship among all the people working here.”

“I will miss the place.”