| Let’s start with what this event actually was: what motivated you to organize such a high-
level professional gathering and training?

David Stanwood brought a major breakthrough to our profession when he figured out how action balancing works back in the 1990s. Even though his method is now used by hundreds - if not thousands - of technicians around the world, he never really benefited from it. Organizing this workshop with him in Switzerland was my way of thanking him for everything he’s contributed to our field.

| Am I right that this was essentially the first exclusive European training personally led by
David on the SNAP (Stanwood New Action Protocol) method?

As far as I know, yes! David has already published articles on SNAP, but this is the first time he’s come to Europe to teach his new method. No one else is offering this training on our continent at the moment, but that should change very soon with the new Stanwood Precision Touch Design International academy, led by Taffijn Piano Supply.

| The venue was incredibly high-end, with top world-brand pianos - how did you manage to
organize that?

My goal was simple: a workshop in the best possible facility, with the finest instruments available, and a group of participants among the most highly qualified professionals I know. But none of this would have been possible without the commitment and close collaboration of my colleague Matthias Maurer and his team at Piano Workshop in Puidoux, who generously provided their workshop and three of their finest concert grand pianos. He and his team are leaders in French-speaking Switzerland when it comes to concert pianos rental and the
rebuilding of high-end pianos. I’m very proud to have been able to carry out this project with them.
 

| Are you satisfied with the results? Did you achieve what you set out to do?

Yes, we did some very good work on pianos that will be played regularly in concerts across Switzerland, which is very rewarding. At the same time, I can see there’s still room for improvement - especially through the development of tools that would be essential to take the precision and quality of our work even further.
David and I are going to collaborate even more closely to help move our profession forward and continue improving our respective techniques and knowledge. That’s very motivating. This Swiss workshop was truly international. Outstanding technicians came from Hong Kong, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, France, Hungary… The level was extremely high, and the exchanges were fascinating.
In addition, my partner Louise and I did everything we could to make sure David and his wife Eleanor had the best possible experience in our country. I made a point of introducing them to our local heritage - both culinary and architectural.

| Although you’re well known in the field, based on my personal experience you’re involved
in much more than most of our readers know. Could you briefly describe your professional
areas?

Although trained as a tuner and technician, I became interested in piano design and manufacturing very early on. Today, this has led me to devote 90% of my work to designing modern pianos for major brands. I work remotely, independently, helping factories bring their projects to life. This includes not only designing instruments, but also machines and other tools.
I also continue to work as a piano technician, and just this past Saturday I was at the music hall in La Chaux-de-Fonds for a concert service. I choose the projects that interest me most so as not to interfere with my consulting work, but it still excites me as much as ever. I often design and optimize actions for fellow technicians. They carry out the work while I provide the plans, the design, and some action parts (such as action rails made by CNC, brackets, etc.). For example, we recently completed an FJV action with Piano Sigrist for a Steinway M. Increasingly, I am being asked to visit companies to teach my own techniques, especially
regarding action design and replacement.
 

| So, do you also teach?

I have already been invited by various technician associations, but now I am being asked to go directly into workshops to teach my own techniques - for example, soon in Geneva, and also in France. When conditions allow, we invite other technicians, which spreads the cost and becomes very advantageous for the companies, who also have their pianos improved by the end of the day. My business is not focused on training, so these sessions remains occasional.
 

| I saw some very high-quality tools at the training that you developed yourself, do you
have anything new in the works that we could hint at to readers?

I started my consulting work by helping fellow technicians design piano actions. I quickly realized that we were missing certain tools to take precise measurements. That’s how I ended up designing and producing a kit for measuring hammers angle of boring, which is now available worldwide and has been very successful.
New tools are currently in development. I am finishing a new tool for hammer tapering (to lighten them) while keeping the shanks glued - or not. The prototype works even better than I had imagined. For anyone who wants to use the Stanwood method and adjust the Strike Weight on pre-hanged hammers, this tool will allow for perfectly clean and very fast work. It will be available for sale from mid-April on my website, and later through my usual distributors. A new Stanwood-FJV metrology kit will also be designed soon by me and distributed by Taffijn.

| And finally: we talked a lot about your experiments, for example the ones you recently conducted in the U.S. - can you promise our readers that you’ll share these in a series in the future?

Part of my work is dedicated to research, which I fund myself. In February, I went to the Juilliard School in New York City, where I conducted a series of experiments with my colleague, technician Scott Murphy, from Juilliard. We recorded slow-motion videos of a piano action model that also allowed repeated notes using a cam and a motor. This is a project we plan to continue, and I would love to share these results with your readers in
future articles!