PianoForte venue offers A/V music recording rentals

Executive director / founder Thomas Zoells’ PianoForte Studios on Michigan Avenue is a place where serious professional musicians can rehearse, record audio and video, buy a quality piano and where music lovers can attend weekly concerts performed by notable artists.

Founded in 2004 by Swiss-born former banker Zoells, PianoForte’s 11,900-sq. ft. venue, called “a shrine to the piano,” spans the first three floors at 1335 S. Michigan, a building Zoells owns.

The centerpiece of PianoForte is the multi-purpose second floor 29×45-ft. Concert Hall, “totally geared up for video recording,” says Zoells, and offered for rent to artists taping promotional pieces for their tours or audio recordings of new performances for sale.

The Concert Hall / studio is equipped with three Sony robotic cameras, “which give the video a myriad of camera angles and close-ups,” he says. The cameras are controlled from the recording room and directed by company engineer, Victor LeJeune.

Thomas Zoells, PianoForte founder/executive director Since the Concert Hall is embedded within the center of the building surrounded by other rooms, “it is impervious to external noise, Zoells explains.

The Concert Hall’s 100 seats are usually filled to capacity for PianoForte’s free Friday Salon Series and 60 live radio broadcasts a year: The PianoForte Salon Series classical concerts air on WFMT and jazz concerts over WDCB.

The artists are booked by Zoells, a self-taught amateur pianist, serves as artistic director and coordinator of the PianoForte Foundation, working with Giovanna Jacques, a founding member of the Chicago Fringe Opera.

“We have our own Channel PianoForte Studios on YouTube, where 100 of our recordings may be viewed,” Zoells says.

The Foundation promotes the piano culture in many ways, such as holding amateur competitions, donating pianos to public school and arranging scholarship piano lessons, which are funded by individual donors, grant and ticket sales.

“Chicago is a vibrant contemporary music scene second, only to New York, that began 15 to 20 years ago and growing steadily ever since,” Zoells says.

“It’s a city where people come to be composers and play music that’s never been heard before,” he says. “And we are proud to be part of this community.”

For PianoForte’s reasonable rates for A/V recording and concert hall rentals, phone Zoells at 312/291-0000, or email info@pianofortefoundation.org.