Ben Treuhaft, a 66 year old man who wanted peace and quiet after his marriage broke down is currently living in a tent on Portobello beach in Edinburgh along with his piano. The piano tuner actually sleeps in his tent, uses a nearby swimming pool to wash up and eats at a nearby local cafe.
“My wife and I had an argument and she booted me out of the house. We stay in Morningside with our two kids but I now prefer to live in Portobello. I stayed with friends and in a hotel for some time but it got quite expensive. I bought the tent for £500 and that’s basically all the expenses covered. I’m going to stay as long as possible, if the council doesn’t clear me out. Everybody loves it and people come down to play piano,” said Ben.
Ben actually honed his skills in New York at the very grand Steinway Concert Basement where he tuned pianos for stars such as Vladimir Horowitz and Glenn Gould back in the 1970s. Since then, he has went on to tune pianos in Carnegie Hall, the Philharmonic Hall in New York, the Paris Opera, the Teatro Nacional in Havana, Cuba, and Casa das Rosas in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Eventually, he shifted to Edinburgh. It was only last year when he set up his piano shop.
According to Ben’s 39-year-old wife, who refused to be named, Ben’s behaviour was “ridiculous” and “childish”. “He thinks it’s funny but I don’t agree with that. I have a job and I’m a responsible person. He gets very argumentative. At the end of last year I asked him to get a place, so he moved out. When he first told me that he wanted to live on the beach, I offered him to come back but he refused. We are in a difficult situation right now and I don’t support it,” explained his wife. For the full story, you can read it from here.
If you have a passion for something, no circumstances can stop you from continuing with it. Ben clearly has a passion for playing the piano and getting kicked out did not prevent him from stopping. At Awesome Piano, our teachers are all passionate about the same thing and that is to teach music and spread the knowledge they possess to others. Thus, piano lessons with us are bound to be fulfilling and meaningful.