Conservatory Piano Technician, Kent Swafford, RPT (Registered Piano Technician), who published a year-long series of articles in the Piano Technicians Journal, titled "Twenty-First Century Tuning Style," has won the Jack Greenfield Award from the Piano Technicians Journal for those articles.
Kent notes that, "Although the modern piano has existed since the late 19th century, tuning styles have continued to evolve to the present time. The use of sophisticated electronic tuning devices over the last four decades has given rise to new methods for those techs who tune aurally without electronic tuning devices. And in what has turned out to be a wonderfully synergistic feedback loop, aural piano tuners have continuously suggested ways to yet improve the ways electronic tuning devices are used."
Swafford has attempted to codify the new tuning techniques in one place and suggest the transformation of “stretch” piano tuning theory into mathematically defined multiple widths of equal temperament. The best known of these wide equal temperaments is pure 12th equal temperament which as of recently is being practiced around the world, from the United States, Canada, and Mexico, to Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland, to Australia and Japan. Part of the series is currently being translated into Japanese.
Congratulations, Kent!