John Schaldach has 21 years of experience as a piano technician.  He first trained at the San Francisco School of Piano Tuning and Repair and subsequently apprenticed with two master piano re-builders.  John has worked with pianos in a broad range of settings, including preparing pianos for performance on concert stages for a fine arts college and a regional orchestra, restoring Steinway grands, maintaining a large piano inventory for a state university, readying pianos for sale in retail settings, and providing complete in-home piano services for professional musicians and beginning students alike.  John has taught classes on piano history and technology and on basic harpsichord tuning and maintenance for piano performance students.  He has also offered a workshop for young people on how the piano works.

John is uniquely capable of bridging the divide between the technical aspects that determine how well a piano plays and the demands of playing music.  His training as a musician allows him to understand the language of music and to translate the needs of musicians into a concrete approach to improving the way a piano sounds and plays.  John sees the piano technician's role as a process of creating alignment between the capacities of a piano and the needs of the piano player:  First, he talks with and listens to the musician to assess their needs.  With those needs in mind, he helps the player understand the technical capacities and limits of a given instrument and explains the possible approaches to extending those limits.  Then, John collaborates with the musician to create a specific plan to bring the technical capacity of an instrument into alignment with the needs of the musician.

Whether you are looking for a simple in-home tuning or would like to make significant changes in the way your piano plays and sounds, John will work with you to understand your needs and to help you better know and enjoy your instrument.