I have played piano since childhood and have a lifelong fascination with the instrument. I first had a go tuning a piano (with help) aged about twelve, and then as a teenager I attempted to tune and service the family piano (it took me several months!)
After a few more years of intermittent piano tinkering with varying success, in 2016 I decided to pursue piano tuning and repair as a trade and enrolled on a three-year course in Piano Tuning, Restoration and Repair at Newark College. The course at Newark has been running since the 1970s; it is internationally respected and taught by tuners and technicians working in the piano trade. I graduated from Newark Piano School in June 2019 and was awarded the H.J. Fletcher & Newman Prize for outstanding achievement.
During my time at Newark I worked at John Broadwood & Sons, the oldest remaining piano manufacturer in the U.K., and at Hampstead Pianos in London. I also joined the Pianoforte Tuner’s Association as a student member, enabling me to benefit from technical classes and training days.
In addition to my work on modern pianos, I have done work on square pianos both at Broadwoods and under the tutelage of Lucy Coad, the UK’s foremost expert in square piano restoration, whom I assisted in the documentation and restoration of a 1777 Beyer square piano as part of a project funded by the Horniman Museum in London.
In my first year out of Newark I worked with piano restorer Geoff Tinniswood, whose services I highly recommend.
I currently work regularly as a technician at Mark Goodwin Pianos and as a tuner for Forsyths in Manchester.
The ethos I try to bring to my work is “do the best job you possibly can” and “never stop learning”! One of the reasons I love piano work is that it is so varied and there are always different ways of finding solutions to problems and new things to discover. I stay in regular contact with colleagues and news in the piano trade, and I undertake continued professional development to stay informed of differing techniques and developments in piano technology.