David Andersen
David Andersen has been a professional musician, recording artist, and piano technician/consultant for nearly four decades. He has overseen the restoration and maintenance of hundreds of Steinway and Mason & Hamlin pianos during that time. Beginning in 1975 he apprenticed for two and a half years under Jack Cofer in Atlanta, Georgia; during the 1980s he studied at Steinway facilities both in New York and London.
After moving to Southern California in 1981, David worked extensively with Sherman Clay, the leading Steinway dealer in most of California, both as a concert preparation technician and as a quality control consultant/piano prep manager for Asian piano companies affiliated with Sherman Clay.
He took on Steve Bellieu as an apprentice in 1991, and the rebuilding/restoration part of the business soon accelerated and expanded. In the ’90’s, David began tuning for film composers and select performance venues and recording studios, still his pleasure and specialty. In late 1999 he began a 6-year association with David Abell Fine Pianos, the landmark Southern California piano store, preparing & maintaining new Fazioli, Bosendorfer, Yamaha, and Schimmel grand pianos.
He opened his own boutique piano sales showroom, the Atelier, in late 2005. He sells quality instruments at all price ranges, rents pianos for performances and recording, and presents intimate concerts and salons with some of the world’s finest pianists.
David continues to teach various aspects of his craft at Piano Technician’s Guild conferences on the local, regional, national and international level. He has held one-day seminars in New York City, Boston, Phoenix, Chicago, Calgary, Baltimore, and Albuquerque, teaching the finer, more subtle aspects of tuning, voicing, regulation, artisanal rebuilding, and diagnostics. His classes always examine how a technician is being as well as what he/she is doing. He taught eight full class periods at the 2012 national PTG convention.
Some of the classes David Andersen has taught in the last four years:
“The Ultimate Tool: using the brilliance of your body in high-end piano work”
“Follow the Fourths, Luke: a radically simple approach to Aural Tuning”
“The Art & Esthetics of Voicing”
“ Whole-Tone, Open-String Tuning: Advanced Listening Skills”
“Custom, Artist-centered Restoration: the Real Story”
David has six grown children and is now a grandfather; he lives in Los Angeles, California, with his wife and partner, the sculptor Tanya Ragir.
Welcome To David Andersen Pianos
