<html> <body> Jack, Master Piano Artisan is a title given by Kawai to the technicians who do all of the final assembly, regulation, tuning and voicing of the Shigeru Kawai pianos.  The title is bestowed on the technicians after a very extensive training and experience-building process.  These technicians are trained in the Kawai schools, then work as an apprentice in the Kawai R&D laboratory building EX pianos.  They are given concert service experience in Japan, then are sent to Europe for 2 years to work on all types of pianos - not just Kawai or Shigeru Kawai pianos.  The are assigned to at least one piano competition during this time to gain experience in a very demanding situation.  Later they spend time in the US and Canada learning about pianists' tastes here, and finally return to Japan to take a very stringent final exam.  If they pass this exam, they then can build the Shigeru Kawai pianos, and can begin to service them in the field. There are only about 20 of these technicians, so they could not possibly provide all service to all of the Shigeru Kawai pianos sold!  They are sent to each Shigeru Kawai owner's home once for a full day in-home service to ensure that the piano is well regulated and voiced to the customer's tastes.  From there it is up to the local technician to keep the piano up. The MPAs are not the only people who should work on a Shigeru Kawai piano.  There is nothing special about these pianos which would keep any technician from servicing them, although it is true that the MPAs, since they are the ones making the pianos, are especially good at getting the Shigeru Kawai pianos to play and sound their best. Kawai does have a training program in place for technicians to learn the special methods of the MPAs.  The program is still in it's infancy, though, so it is not possible for large numbers of technicians to participate yet.  It is mainly open to Shigeru Kawai dealer technicians for now. Don Mannino RPT Kawai America At 10:16 PM 2/23/2004, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Hello What is a Master Piano Artisan? I have heard this in past postings and want to know what qualifies one for using this term? Is there schools or tests to become a MPA?  Just curious.   Jack Houweling Beautiful British Columbia    </blockquote></body> </html>