SVHS senior Alex Bityukov is a piano-tuning protégé

At 18 years old, Spokane Valley High School senior Alex Bityukov has learned to make all the strings of the piano sing together in harmony.

“A lot of people don’t think you can tune a piano when you’re 18, or even 17,” said Bityukov, who has been learning the trade from Dan Loibl, also known as Dan the Piano Man, for the past five years. “I actually started tuning in houses when I was 17.”

The seventh of eight siblings, Bityukov was born in Russia. There his grandfather spent four years in prison for not renouncing his faith. When he was almost 2, his family moved to the United States as part of a movement of Russian immigrants escaping Christian persecution.

“We grew up poor,” Bityukov said, who started earning money at age 11 picking fruit at area farms. “We always had to work for our things.”

Living out the hard work ethic instilled by his parents, at 13 he and two of his brothers began doing yard work to earn extra money.

Through a mutual acquaintance, the brothers began working for Loibl. Following his mother’s encouragement, he asked Loibl if he would teach him the piano business.

“I told him the minute he told me he was taking piano lessons was the first minute I’d start teaching him something about the business,” Loibl said of his response to Bityukov’s request. “I thought he should know how to play the piano if he was going to tune and fix them.”

Bityukov began taking lessons and, four months after his initial request, became Loibl’s protégé.

“I remember to this day what piano it was and what I did,” Bityukov said about the first piano he worked on. “It was a newer baby grand that was dropped accidentally.”

He learned to tune with a tuner Loibl gave him as well as by ear.

At one point, Bityukov was frustrated and ready to quit.

“Dan said after you tune 100 pianos you’ll be good,” Bityukov said. “I was at 30 back then.”

Perseverance paid off, and true to Loibl’s word, after tuning 100 pianos he experienced a breakthrough.

“He’s become quite an accomplished piano tuner,” Loibl said, who plans to eventually sell the business to Bityukov. “He can tune at least as good as I do.”

Bityukov is also adept at woodworking. For his senior project, he chose to learn an aspect of the business Loibl discontinued years ago: He is completely rebuilding a 99-year-old Vose & Sons grand piano. It was considered a “dumper piano” – one that would be cost-prohibitive to fix because of the labor.

Bityukov spent close to 100 hours on the project. He meticulously took apart the piano, refinished the sound board and carefully rebuilt each part of the instrument.

Bityukov fulfilled his graduation requirements early and began working full time for Loibl at the end of February. He hopes to take business and physics classes at SCC in the fall.