While Sharon Mok has a head for numbers, she definitely has an ear for music.
With a background in applied economics, Mok worked in social justice for a fair trade company. One day she met a piano tuner who charmed her with thoughts of taking up the profession.
“It seemed I was a perfect candidate for this,” says Mok. “I was trying to find a way to get back into music, but I didn’t really want to do another undergrad. But, I wanted to be around musicians.”
Sharon Mok recently completed Western’s Piano Technology program and is heading to Florida State University to complete a master’s degree in the field.
This chance encounter on the street restored Mok’s love for the piano and made her forgo a career crunching numbers to pursue a job working with her hands.
“I grew up playing piano,” she says. “I had put it aside. Ever since I graduated from high school and started studying economics, I dropped piano performance. I didn’t take any music classes in university, but I found that I missed it.”
Upon being accepted into the Piano Technology program in the Don Wright Faculty of Music, Mok knew she had made the right choice.
Established in 2000, Western’s Piano Technology program has attracted students from around the world, such Scotland, Ireland, Mexico, Asia, Australia, the U.S. and Germany. For some, the internationally-recognized program is the start of a second career.
“The common thing is their love for the piano and a desire to work with their hands,” says Anne Fleming, co-ordinator of the program.
Western’s program is the only one of its kind at a university in North America.
Students in the program learn tuning, regulation (aligning the parts so the geometry of the piano is working at its optimal level), intonation (how different factors can affect the sound of the piano) and rebuilding a piano.
Having direct contact with musicians at the Don Wright Faculty of Music “creates an environment that is ripe for learning,” adds Don Stephenson, Assistant to the Dean for Technology and Keyboards.
Now that she has completed the program at Western, Mok is moving to Tallahassee, Fla. to start a master’s degree in Piano Technology at Florida State University (FSU). It is the only master’s program in piano technology in North America.
Anne Garee, program director for Piano Technology at FSU, says the programs are compatible because they are both part of comprehensive music schools.