High Notes

Certainly some of the biggest hi-lites have come from tuning at various jazz festivals throughout the Caribbean including St. Lucia (every year since it began in 1992), Anguilla, Bermuda & Grand Cayman Island. My association with the jazz festival production arm of Black Entertainment Television (BET) has afforded me the opportunity to work with some great artists and experience many fine, live performances. 

One particularly memorable occasion was in April of 2003 when I was flown to Bermuda to tune for Jose Carreras’ pianist for his one-night-only solo performance. What a voice! 

Tuning for the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra for the last 12 years has also been a thrill. Sometimes a pianist doesn’t request anything different but I find the challenge of working with a pianist to help him/her create the shadings of sound, touch, and feel from the piano he/she is looking for, to be very rewarding.

In large part, due to the sheer number of hours and tunings that I logged, tuning for the entire Honens International Piano Competition in October/November 2009, on behalf of Steinway & Sons, was very memorable. For three and a half weeks, I looked after both 9’ Steinway competition pianos from the moment they were delivered to the Rosza Centre until they left the Jack Singer Concert Hall. What a diverse group of pianists and music.  Providing the 9′ FAZIOLI and tuning it for 2015 Honens Laureate, Luca Buratto was also a thrill.

I have volunteered to serve as President, Vice-President & Secretary of the Calgary Chapter of the Piano Technicians Guild (PTG) – an organization dedicated to promoting the highest possible standards of piano service, technical training, and professional development.

I teach “technicals” or classes on different topics not only here in Calgary for our local Chapter but also at annual PTG National Conventions. It’s so important to stay active within the technical community for an ongoing exchange of ideas and to keep current on industry happenings. 

Some of my favourite organizations I support either through the donation of piano tunings or my time, include The Calgary Performing Arts Festival (formerly the Kiwanis Music Festival, the Calgary Concerto Competition (C3) and the MountainView Festival Chamber Music Series. Please, check them out!