About Don and Smokeshire Piano Service ...

I studied at the Piano Technician Academy, a curriculum of piano tuning, regulation, and repair. Upon completion of coursework I was certified as a Piano Technician by the Piano Technician Academy. I went on to take additional courses in vertical piano regulation, grand piano regulation, and piano voicing from Jim Busby, Master Piano Technician.  In 2018 I completed an intensive three-day workshop in grand piano regulation at the Piano Technicians Guild headquarters in Kansas City, Kansas, called “Grand Action Regulation in 37-Steps.” This in-depth workshop was hands-on instruction in optimizing the playing action of grand pianos to achieve the best performance possible. In 2020, I completed a three-day workshop at the Piano Technician’s Guild headquarters (Kansas City) on piano tone regulation.

I'm an Associate Member of the Piano Technicians Guild and a Certified Dampp-Chaser installer.

Prior to becoming a piano technician I earned a Bachelor's degree in philosophy and was elected to the nation's highest academic honor society, Phi Beta Kappa.  I then became a chef in restaurants in Colorado, on Cape Cod and in New York City, learning French cooking on-the-job, and eventually became a sous chef and a head chef.  After my cooking career I studied for a Master's in Landscape Architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design, taking watercolor courses at RISD along the way.  After receiving my Master's degree, I became a design project manager for an engineering firm and worked on large residential and campus developments on the east coast, from Vermont to Florida. I’m also an award-winning watercolor artist.

My musical training includes college-level courses in beginning piano, music theory, and the history of classical music. I played guitar in my younger years and today I’m a (very) amateur pianist who gravitates towards jazz classics, with an occasional Bach thrown in for good measure(s).

"Smokeshire" is the name of an area close to where I live in Andover, Vermont.  Smokeshire Road is a picturesque dirt road running along a branch of the Williams River.