Pianos from / in vietnam?

J Patrick Draine draine@comcast.net
Mon, 17 Nov 2003 15:13:08 -0500


On Monday, November 17, 2003, at 01:31  PM, Gregor W wrote:

> Hi List,
>
> iīm a german piano-technician and perhaps my girlfriend and me are 
> going to live in Vietnam (Ho Chi Min City/Saigon) as she applied for a 
> good job there for next year.
>
> Is anybody out there from vietnam? Does anybody know the situation for 
> technicians in vietnam? Are there manufacturer? If i go there i will 
> think about setting up my own business, just tuning and maintenance  
> (only field service). In Saigon live 8 million people, i am sure there 
> are some pianos too. I tried to find information about shops or tuners 
> there, but i couldnīt find anything.

Well I don't want to rain on your parade but -- be prepared for a steep 
drop in your wage, unless you line things up first. Twenty-five years 
ago I moved to Taiwan for five months. I was just out of tuning school, 
and my Mandarin quite rusty, *but* a couple of my friends were teaching 
music at a college and got me the "contract" for maintaining the music 
school's pianos. I was earning much less than in the US, but a fair bit 
more than the local technicians. Given the local economy it was quite 
adequate, and a good opportunity for me to tune Yamahas and Kawais.
See if you can make some contacts with concert venues through German 
manufacturers (eg Steinway) -- concert service to European pianos might 
be a viable, well paying niche.
Good luck,
Patrick Draine


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