General Info

My name is Steve Winder and I’ve always had a keen interest in music and the piano. I had piano lessons until I was 18 primarily classical. There was a desire to go to college for piano in some fashion and I had the thought to look into apprenticing in piano service as a means to help pay for tuition. In junior year of high school I began working on pianos and did apprentice with a Baldwin dealer in the Philadelphia area my senior year. At that time school districts were laying off art and music teachers. Counselors were telling friends of mine already in college to change their major since the job market would be scarce. The dealership asked me to stay on fulltime with them after graduation so I did. I learned not only tuning aurally (by ear, no machines) and repairs but also the restoration of pianos as well. Soon I began to prepare pianos for concerts for this Baldwin concert center. It was a little scary at first to be working a piano that Liberace , Burt Bacharach and Dave Brubeck would be using but I guess you could say I got used to it. Helping budding young players of different ages in their homes to hear the piano as it should be always places a smile on my face ( not to mention the four-legged family members I also would meet ). Into the 80’s in conjunction with another shop I began a weekly schedule of half the week tuning and the other strictly restoring pianos. The oldest being an 1863 Steinway model B rosewood grand. My experience grew to the complete replacement of soundboards, bridges and pinblocks. The concert work continued at venues around Philadelphia including the Academy of Music, Temple University, Valley Forge Music Fair and the Robin Hood Dell East and West. My life’s journey took me to Florida where I began working with the Yamaha dealer in Orlando. Within 2 years representatives for Yamaha Corporation of America in California asked me to become an independent technical consultant for them. New worlds opened up and travel from coast to coast preparing pianos was very rewarding. I’ve had the pleasure of prepping pianos for the Chopin Piano Competition in Miami, the SuperBowl in Jacksonville for Sir Paul McCartney and Elton John here in Florida. Last year my travels took me to the Nashville Symphony and Elon University and others. It’s been great fun ! After 40 years now I can still say I truly love my job. It’s rewarding, it’s heartwarming and still fun!