88 Keys in Cuba

Filmmaker: Elizabeth Jones

88 Keys in Cuba is a film about a group of piano tuners who try to change the world in their own small way.

At the centre of the story is Ciaran Ryan, an Irish piano tuner who, by chance, learns that Cuba has a lot of old pianos but that few are playable.

As a lover of pianos and Cuban music, Ciaran raises 30,000 euros to send a small team of Irish piano tuners to Havana on a “teach and rescue” mission.

Part two

In Havana he meets Alexei Sanchez, a young Cuban man who shares his passion for pianos. As the son of two blind piano tuners, Alexei wants to carry on in the family trade but has neither the tools, piano parts nor the proper training to do so.

Ciaran takes Alexei on as an apprentice and through their work the film explores Cuba’s love of music and the devastating state of the country’s instruments, while at the same time exposing the hardship of ordinary life in modern Cuba.

88 Keys in Cuba aired from Thursday, February 18, 2010.