Mark, The dealer's response seems very normal to me. As far as I know the new reference guide and the CDROM are the same. Kent Webb was in charge of it. I would email David Kirkland for details, he is the best resource over there since he and Kent are our technical liasons for the factory. dkirkland at steinway.com The guide does not cover restoration or concert work..those must be learned over years of practice! It covers the regulation and voicing of Steinway grands and uprights. In order to attend a course in New York you need to apply and there is a waiting list. Dealer technicians and university techs usually have priority over independents. I think it is only open to technicians working in North America with a few exceptions being made for concert technicians abroad. Also the NY courses primarily cover the servicing of New York Steinways. In your case South Africa has Hamburg Steinways, which are different from NY. I was told that until 2006 South Africa was technically a part of Steinway UK and Steinway Hall London...must have been colonial legacy. I think after that the Steinway agents became independent. They still report to the home office in Hamburg, which manages the rest of the world outside N. America. It is very, very difficult to go to the Hamburg factory course if you are not employed by a Steinway dealer or by Steinway directly. Even if you are it may take a long time. One may be invited to the concert prep course as an independent a little more easily, but you need many years experience first in concert work and in action rebuilding, at least in new hammers. I am still on the waiting list for that, and I have ten years experience. I completed the first course, the factory training course, in 2006. Generally most people need to complete the factory course first before going to the concert prep course. Here is a case of how hard it is: One of my colleagues in the course, who is now a friend, is a Greek tech named Antonis Karavelis. He is an excellent technician who started tuning just out of his teens. He is an independent like yourself but does some work for the dealer in Athens - but not as a direct employee. They did put a word in for him and he waited. He and I are the same age, so when we went to Hamburg we were both 32. He first applied when he was 20. So Antonis had waited 12 years. He was by far the best voicer in the class, probably because he had the longest experience. There were only 3 of us. The courses are designed to be quite small so there is always a multi-year list. Also they are only given in English at certain times, otherwise German. I got lucky - the dealer I worked for really wanted me to go. He and I wrote letters to the factory for a full year to secure a space for me. Even then I was prepared to wait for a few years as it was a big career goal. I think it was luck that got me in - maybe someone canceled? I had only been a technician for 5 years a that point. Another thing was the fact that I was American - the first ever to attend the factory course, since most American techs a) don't live abroad and b) usually go to New York because Steinway does not make it possible for them to go to Hamburg. I lived in Sydney Australia at the time. I moved back to the U.S. in 2006 but I will never forget the experience and the fact that the dealer helped me go. The point is - try to get hooked in with a dealer if you can. But first, learn as much as you can and practice. It may take you many years....and I am still learning.....but if it is your goal to be a Steinway technician, as it was for me, just be driven. Regards, *Boaz Kirschenbaum, RPT* | Concert Piano Tuner *Cherry Tree Piano* PO Box 1304 West Tisbury, MA 02575 508-939-0629 | Cell & Office info at cherrytreepiano.com <pianotuner at gmail.com> | email www.cherrytreepiano.com | web -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20110209/58fa8694/attachment.htm>
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