Piano product manager tunes into opportunities

Yichang is located in the southwest of Hubei province and lies on the northern bank of the Yangtze River. The city is known for its beautiful natural scenery and is home to the Three Gorges Dam. It also has a nickname, "the city of pianos", since it's believed that one out of every seven pianos in the world is made in Yichang.

Barnabas Fekete has been living and working in Yichang since 2011. As a product manager of an automatic piano performance system, he works with the Parsons Music Corp in the city, which has a production output of over 70,000 pianos every year and is one of the largest piano manufacturers in China.

"China's embracement of piano is fascinating. Considering that, historically, the piano is a 'newcomer' to China, its popularity is amazing," says Fekete, 75. Born and raised in Hungary, he moved to the United States, where he lived for 35 years, before relocating to China in 2008.

"The sheer number of children learning to play piano is unmatched by any other country. I am happy to see the growing interest in music. Young people are forming groups and playing their own music. As well as the inspiration, the creativity and the social advantages of this phenomenon are so positive and important," he says.

Fekete learned to play piano at the age of 5 and after high school, he studied music in a Hungarian conservatory. With his interest in jazz and popular music, he also studied arrangement and orchestration at a school in the United Kingdom.

As a musician, he spent seven years traveling all over Europe, including Finland, Denmark and Germany, before he moved to the US to work with a piano manufacturing company.

In 2011, Fekete came to Yichang with a product — an automated piano. According to Lei Jianjun, a senior manager with Parsons Music, the company acquired the system developed in Europe and the US and Fekete was invited to work with the company, as he had been involved with the system for many years.

"I can still recall the first day that I arrived in Yichang. I am a person who loves nature. The greenery, the trees and the lazy hills spoke to me, and the ride from the airport to the city had already filled my heart with warmth," he says.

In 2014, when Parsons Music launched its music education center, Fekete fulfilled his dream of being a music educator by developing and managing music educational content for the company's new project.

Fekete has worked on arranging more than 800 songs for the music course, which is designed for primary school students, as well as compiling teaching materials, says Lei, adding that Fekete is one of eight foreign experts currently working for the company.

"Not every child will be a concert pianist, but having music in their life makes them happier and more confident," Fekete says.

Every day, Fekete gets up at 6:30 am and, after having breakfast with his family, he drives his son to school. He works until 5 pm, at which time he will go for a swim, before working on more music.

"Though I am 75, I have no plans to retire. As I have learned, 'if you rest, you rust'. I don't rest enough to rust," he says. "I want to enjoy my life here and to further share what I know with the young generation."