Instructors
The SCRC team has rounded up some of the best instructors you'll find. Click the links on the left to see bios, which are below.
Melanie Brooks , Uncasville, CT
Melanie Brooks is the owner of Brooks LTD Piano Products, a family-owned business. Melanie took on the role of General Manager in 2002, and in 2009 purchased Brooks LTD. She was raised in a rebuilding shop and is a third generation PTG member, actively participating since 1996. She continues to teach courses on wood, wood products and grand action replacements throughout North America. Committed to collaborating with technicians and rebuilders to create, service, and restore instruments with innovative and specialized products.
Kenny Brown - Hendersonville, NC
Kenny's journey has always blended creativity with precision. With over a decade of experience in engineering and quality roles for a leading company specializing in custom temperature and humidity control systems, Kenny honed his skills in design, technology, and client-focused solutions while gaining a deep understanding of the impacts of humidity.
Kenny brought his passion for great sound and expertise in humidity control together when he joined the Dampp-Chaser team in 2015. Since then, he has been instrumental in product development, customer support, and numerous technical and administrative initiatives. Kenny's unique perspective and dedication have consistently elevated the company's mission to deliver unparalleled service and quality to its customers.
Norman Cantrell, RPT - Oklahoma City, OK
Norman Cantrell began his career in musical instrument repair by working as an apprentice for B. L. McCrary Pipe Organ Service in Oklahoma City in the fall of 1978. After two and a half years with Mr. McCrary he left OKC and enrolled in Grayson County College in Dennison, TX to study piano tuning and repair. Upon completion of his studies at Grayson he returned to Oklahoma City and opened his own piano service business. Over the years he has specialized in the restoration of player pianos. He has been a member of the Piano Technicians Guild for several years and is currently a Registered Piano Technician and a Certified Tuning Examiner. He has been an instructor at regional and national PTG seminars. Norman is the current National PTG President.
Josi Davis - Brooks LTD, Uncasville, CT
Josi is a second generation piano technician specializing in upright hammers and action parts as part of the Brooks LTD team, where she has developed a method for full upright hammer and butt prehanging. As a performer and songwriter, the piano remains her primary writing instrument and her favorite curiosity. Josi represents the Brooks LTD team as an expert instructor in grand and upright hammer hanging methods and other skills at the PTG Annual Convention and for Regional Conferences and Chapter Technicals throughout the year. Check out Brooks LTD at www.brooksltdonline.com. Check her music out at www.josidavis.com/music.
Zachery Hardy
Zackery Hardy started out helping out in Dale Fox & Brett Dearing's rebuilding shop. There he was able to gain experience in many aspects of rebuilding including, soundboard replacement, regulation, hammer work, action geometry, and other skills. After that, he was hired by Burgett inc. to work with PianoDisc player piano systems, Wessell Nickel & Gross parts, and Mason & Hamlin Piano company. At Burgett Inc, he started as a PianoDisc installer, and Wessell Nickel & Gross parts quality control specialist. From there he graduated into other fields including design engineering, production engineering, and teaching. Zackery currently teaches the PianoDisc installation class and various WNG classes along with other members of the PianoDisc and Wessell Nickel & Gross team.
Nick Litterski, RPT - Austin, TX
Nick Litterski is a professional pianist and independent piano technician from Austin, TX. After pursuing a BA and MM in Music and Piano Pedagogy from UT Austin's Butler School, Litterski was gifted an old upright and took on the challenge of restoring it. At the same time a friend donated the course materials from the R. Potter course. This confluence of events led him to joining the PTG in 2010, just in time for the incredible SCRC at Canyon of the Eagles in Burnet, TX.
Nick maintains a busy schedule tuning for many venues, studios, piano stores, artists, and private clients. A second job sees him playing monthly gigs at Austin's legendary Broken Spoke, Parker Jazz Club, and leading music at St. Julian of Norwich Episcopal Church.
As chapter VP, Litterski is thrilled with the revival of chapter meetings and technicals. As a yoga practitioner, he wants to give back to the profession by sharing the physical and mental approaches he has cultivated over years of practice. He taught Piano Tuning Ergonomics at the national convention in Arlington in 2026. In his spare time he enjoys camping with his family in Texas's hill country, and attempting to keep up with his six-year-old.
Kerry Markin, RPT
Kerry Markin began playing piano at age 9, started serious classical study as a teenager, and went on to major in piano performance in college. That deep musical foundation shapes how she listens, tunes, and teaches today. At 22, she began her family, raising and homeschooling 5 children. With one still in high school and the others now in college or launching careers, she brings more than two decades of hands-on teaching experience, including years of breaking down complex subjects, adapting to different learning styles, and guiding students through high-stakes testing. Her path into piano technology began during the Covid shutdown. In 2021 she completed an online course and joined the Piano Technicians Guild. Kerry began the exams the following year and earned RPT status in 2023. By 2024 she had completed her training as a technical examiner and began leading exams, which gave her a firsthand understanding of both sides of the exam table: what it takes to prepare, and what examiners look for.
Shane Ohlson, RPT
Having a family history of piano manufacturing and a fascination with tuning, Shane began servicing pianos 25 years ago at a college in northeastern Oklahoma. At that same institution, he taught music courses as a lecturer for 5 years while continuing to learn and shape his skills as a tuner. After moving to Wichita Falls, Shane began a deeper study of the technician side of the business. After much encouragement from his peers and Ft. Worth chapter mentors, he passed the RPT exams. Shane enjoys tuning, regulating, and repairing primarily vertical pianos in the rural areas surrounding Wichita Falls, as well as refurbishing and rebuilding in his shop. He serves as President of SCRC. Shane is a very active jazz pianist in Texas and Oklahoma. He is also seen frequently touring as keyboardist with country artist Bryan White. "I love to teach - it engages parts of my mind that rarely are engaged while in the field. In that way, I always learn so much from every teaching experience!"
Dean Reyburn, RPT - Kent City, MI
Dean Reyburn passed his RPT exams in 1978 and has 35+ years tuning experience. He has served on the PTG Examinations and Test Standards Committee since 1996 and acts as Advisor and CTE skill reviewer. Dean has 12 years experience as concert tuner for the Grand Rapids Symphony and DeVos Hall in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was the technician for the local Steinway and Yamaha dealers for many years and tuned for numerous concert and popular music artists. Dean attended Moody Bible Institute in Chicago from 1976 to 1978 where he majored in electronics and learned piano technology from Virgil Smith, RPT and Robert Carbaugh (and met his wife Marty). Dean is a self-taught Software Engineer with 30 years experience programming in more languages and computer platforms than he'll admit. He enjoys rollerblading, tennis and biking in his spare time.
Nate Reyburn, RPT - Kent City, MI
Nate has been having fun with pianos and obsessing over tuning tools for his entire career. He works with with Reyburn CyberTuner and piano tuners across the country, tunes pianos in the “real world”, and makes the Golden Hammer Award. His pet peeves are people who don’t use turn signals, delayed pop-up ads, bad kerning, and the 3/8-30 TPI thread. He loves spending time with his wife and three girls (10 and under) and fixing things that absolutely aren’t broken.
Darren Roos, RPT - Waco, TX
Darren Roos is the head piano technician for Baylor University in Waco, TX. Once he finished a music degree in 2000, he began working and training at the Steinway Piano Gallery in St. Louis, MO and passed his RPT exams in 2002. After later doing self-employed piano work for a decade in the Springfield/Branson, MO area, he joined Baylor in 2014 as a second technician and then became head piano technician in 2021. He makes use of Baylor’s campus Makerspace and its wonderful staff to benefit the piano work at Baylor in customized and innovative ways.
Darren is also an accomplished songwriter, enjoys the outdoors, and he and his family raise chickens at home.
Corbin Sturch, RPT - Houston, TX
Corbin Sturch is a Concert Piano Technician who currently works with the University of Houston as a Piano Technician and Technical Instructor and the Interlochen Center for the Arts as the Arts Festival Piano Technician. Corbin specializes in the Steinway & Sons methodology for the care and upkeep of concert grand pianos and performance instruments, and in the training of Apprentice Piano Technicians and semi-professional Piano Technicians who seek to expand their skill set. Corbin believes that it is the sole duty of the Piano Technician to make the instrument the best it can possibly be for a performer, and that the collaboration between the artist and technician allows for the perfect marriage of the performance capabilities and artistry of the piano in performance. Corbin has worked with several notable artists and groups as a technician including such pianists as Barry Snyder, Roman Rabinovich, Joseph Moog, Michael Coonrod, TJ Lymenstull, Jerome Lowenthal, Julie Cheek, Sarah Cahill and many others; the performers Steve Martin and Martin Short, Paula Robison, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, The Capitol Steps, Dorrance Dance, and Daniel Martin Moore; the World Youth Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Ars Lyrica Houston, Amarillo Symphony, and Oberlin Baroque Orchestra; and such festivals and series as the Interlochen Arts Festival, IPR's "In Studio A with," and "Live From IPR's Studio A." Corbin is a factory trained piano technician with training from Steinway & Sons New York, and with additional training concerning manufacturing practices on instruments from Steinway & Sons Hamburg, Shigeru Kawai, Kawai, Baldwin and Yamaha. Corbin has spent hundreds of hours studying professional tuning, regulation and voicing with such master technicians as John Cavanaugh, Robert Murphy, Jessica Masse, Kent Webb, Eric Schandall, Dan Harteau, Thomas Malone, Justin Holcombe and Ken Sloane; and additional training in historic instrument manufacture and tuning methods from Robert Murphy and Kathie Stewart.
Fred Sturm, RPT - University of New Mexico
Fred Sturm, RPT since 1981, was the piano technician at the University of New Mexico for 35 years, while serving a number of private and concert clientele as well. He has also been active as a performing pianist, and focused much attention on the ways in which our work affects what the pianist is able to do. He has published many articles in the PTG Journal, and has taught regularly at annual conventions, regionals, and chapter seminars across the country. In semi-retirement as a piano technician, he currently spends much of his time on Education Committee activities, currently working on an AI project to make the entire Journal archive (1910 to the present) searchable and accessible.