Thomas Wolf (9)

Thomas Wolf (b. September 1947) is an American piano tuner, technician, researcher, and maker of clavichords, harpsichords, early fortepianos, and other types of stringed keyboard instruments. With his wife, Barbara Wolf, they began building historical reproductions in 1969 and established Wolf Instruments company in 1975; it has operated in The Plains, Virginia (near Washington, DC) since 1992. They offer an extensive range of historical fortepiano designs, from Bartolomeo Cristofori and Gottfried Silbermann to J.D. Dulcken, Anton Walter (2), and Nannette Streicher. Besides keyboards, Wolfs make violones and basses and provide tuning, setups, repairs, and maintenance of antique instruments for concerts and studio recordings. Initially trained as musicians at the Interlochen Arts Academy and New England Conservatory Of Music, Thomas and Barbara apprenticed as instrument-makers in Boston with Eric Herz and later with renowned maker and scholar Frank Hubbard (1920—1976). They further undertook conservation training at the Smithsonian Institution, establishing a long-lasting collaboration with the NMAH's musical instruments collection. In 1975, Thomas and Barbara launched their private workshop; when a veteran harpsichord maker, William Dowd (1922—2008), closed his Boston firm in 1988, he joined Wolfs and spent the next five years at their atelier in semi-retirement. In 2002, Tom Wolf was a "James Smithson Fellow" at the National Museum Of American History, researching early decades of fortepiano development. Following his extensive study and documentation of the 1722 Cristofori piano from Rome, Thomas and Barbara created the first modern copy. Some notable institutions and musicians who own Wolf's instruments include the John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts, the Juilliard School, The Oberlin Conservatory Of Music, Harvard, Stanford, and Duke University, the National Music Museum in South Dakota, Malcolm Bilson, Christopher Hogwood, Katia Et Marielle Labèque, Robert Levin, Nicholas McGegan, Jacques Ogg and Kenneth Slowik.