Pianos
G. Frank Emerson is a piano designer whose roots are firmly based in piano technician training and experiences he was involved with in the early part of his career. He became a well respected piano designer for the Baldwin Piano Company in the 1970s while continuing to support the Piano Technicians...
Wally Brooks grew up in the piano business. His father was a piano technician and Wally followed in his footsteps. Wally was 16 years old when he joined the Piano Technicians Guild in 1958. Since that time he has been a true leader within the PTG and the industry, forming life long friends and...
Jack Wyatt is well known in the piano industry as the historian of the Piano Technicians Guild. In fact, when the PTG opened a museum in their home office in Kansas City, MO, Jack was there to take on the project of telling the important story of the organization’s contribution to the industry....
Hal Cowan studied business administration while playing music all through school. He loved playing organ and found himself in the company of fellow organ buffs as well as employees of organ stores and manufacturers. Hal worked for the Jenkins Hammond Organ Studios as president under Paul Jenkins...
Taylor Mackinnon grew up in a very musical family and his father played a key role in introducing Taylor to a variety of instrumental music. Taylor was a choral music major and earned a masters degree in music before teaching for nearly a decade. In 1974 he moved to Oregon where he began working as...
Roger Willson takes great pride in his long association with the Bluthner Piano Company. The association extends to the Bluthner family who entrusted Roger with the position of Managing Director of the Bluthner UK store. During his career in the piano industry, Roger has also served on the boards...
Wally Evans grew up in Wales with music all around him. He played piano and sang in church. He later learned to play the guitar and worked in several bands at night and worked in a power plant by day. For two years he studied electronic musical instrument technology in London before being hired by...
Ulrich Sauter grew up in the middle of the Sauter Piano Company, as his great grandfather formed the factory in Spaichingen, Germany. In fact his family lived in a small house surrounded by piano factory buildings on all four sides. As he puts it, there was no other job he ever thought about doing...
Burkhard Stein grew up in a music retail family, which focused on selling pianos in Marburg, Germany. After school he wanted to learn about the manufacturing of pianos and began working for the Grotrian Piano Company. The company began in 1835 when Friedrich Grotrian opened his own factory after...
Frantisek Nemecek was born and raised in Czechoslovakia where he studied advertising and helped the more than 70 instrument makers in the area to sell their products. Frantisek began by exporting a large number of the instruments outside the area and into the Soviet Union, where the demand for hand...