The story of one piano's second chance

Three years ago, pianist Josiah Jackson had a flight connection through Chicago’s O'Hare International Airport when he spotted a baby grand in desperate need of repair. 

The piano was open to the public to play, but not the most pleasant to listen to: “It was absolutely the worst piano I have ever played,” said Jackson, 18 at the time. “It was embarrassingly bad – the keys were sticky and every note sounded terrible.”

Thankfully, Josiah had recently opened a piano tuning business near his home in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He had to run to catch his plane that day, but vowed to himself that he would get back to Chicago eventually to tune the instrument for free.

Last year, he finally got his chance.

As Josiah's church group began planning their summer trip to Guatemala last summer, he noticed they were going to have a layover in Chicago. His time to shine was finally here🙌.

Josiah called the airport in advance to ensure the piano was still there, and to inquire about getting the equipment he needed for the day to work on it. It was indeed in the same spot where he had left it three years ago, but the piano had since been roped off to the public – deemed unplayable by airport employees.

Josiah welcomed the challenge, and arranged with the airport to tune the piano during his eight-hour layover.

• “It was in very rough shape,” he shared with the Washington Post. “Dust was everywhere, and there was a gluey substance under the keys that prevented them from working. I’d never seen anything like it.”

🎹 It took him seven hours, but Josiah had the piano freshly tuned and good as new before running to catch his next flight. Months later, he’s just grateful the instrument will get a second life.

“I’m thrilled that people are playing the piano again,” he told WaPo. “Piano tuners are becoming more and more rare, and I’m one of the few people who could fix it. It was just a cool community thing to do.”