In my off-time from parenting, I generally occupy myself by spoiling my cats while reading books or talking about books. When I am not working on pianos or writing about pianos, I can generally be found chasing after my energetic daughter. John, Beirut, Vanessa Carlton, and Stevie Wonder. In my role as a concert tuner throughout the Portland area, I have been fortunate enough to tune for-among others-artists Michael Allen Harrison, Dr. In January 2013, I began assisting head technician Rick Zackery with semesterly tunings at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR, and moved into the head technician role in January 2022. I have been the piano technician for Clark College in Vancouver, WA since 2012, which includes regular tuning and service of all pianos in the music department, as well as concert tunings for choir and band concerts held every quarter and the annual Jazz Festival. I founded Andante Piano Works in 2012 for the opportunity to bring my philosophy of uniquely tailoring my service to my clients and their instruments, as well as meet the piano needs of the Portland, Oregon community on a more personal level.

In 2016, I was again invited to Yamaha to attend their intensive, phenomenal Performance Piano Service Seminar, where I acquired invaluable skills to apply to my piano work from their top technicians. To further my skills, I attended the Little Red Schoolhouse, YamahaвЂ™s famous week-long piano technology seminar, in 2011, where I received comprehensive, hands-on service training for YamahaвЂ™s traditional acoustic pianos, as well as Disklaviers, YamahaвЂ™s state-of-the-art line of player pianos. After completing my training and receiving my certificate in piano technology in 2006, I worked as a piano technician at Classic Pianos in Portland, Oregon, where I tuned, repaired, regulated, and whatever else the 300-plus pianos at the store needed, trained and supervised apprentice technicians, as well as coordinated with the sales department to ensure that the service department had the pianos, both sold and on the floor, in tip-top shape for over six years. Little did I know at the time that pianos would be responsible for my journey from Buffalo, New York (Go Bills!) to Ithaca College, where I studied music, to the (now defunct) Emil Fries School of Piano Tuning and Technology in Vancouver, Washington.ДЄt the Emil Fries school, I received a thorough education in aural (by ear) tuning, repair, regulation, rebuilding, and voicing of both upright and grand pianos. I began lessons at the age of 5, after my family and I had moved to a bigger home a couple miles down the road. One of my earliest memories involves unharmoniously banging on a piano when I was three, right after the walnut polish Steinway and Sons upright that my parents had just purchased was delivered and squeezed into our tiny apartment. Pianos have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.

But rather than any of my clients having to camp out overnight and wait in line for a certain piano a la Black Friday, we take care of any and all of the adjustments our clients need in the comfort of their own homes, on their own instruments. This is all to say that no two pianos are exactly the same, and no two clients are exactly the same as far as what they want and need out of their pianos. Everyone was looking for something different, yet equally important - perhaps one person liked the piano with a consistent touch, perhaps another loved the acoustics of a particular room, while yet another loved the rich tone of That One in room 1306.

The competition was so fierce that a couple of my classmates actually hid and stayed overnight in the music building to be first in line at one point.

Funny story: At the beginning of every semester back in college where I was a music major, there was a practice room sign-up day where the students could request to reserve certain practice rooms at certain times for the duration of the term.

Piano tuner portland oregon