About Rose
Rose Winstanley-Trefz has been tuning pianos since 1976, while in the eleventh grade in high school. One day, during music class, Rose’s choir director gave a lecture on piano tuning. She knew at that moment, that tuning pianos is what she wanted for her career. Rose apprenticed with John Quitmeyer, owner of the Piano Shoppe in Rochester, Michigan. By the time she graduated from high school, Rose was busy tuning pianos in private homes and in a short time had expanded her business greatly.
Rose was an independent contractor with the Steinway, Yamaha, and the local Kawai piano dealers. Rose received training and became manufacturer certified by attending the Yamaha Piano, Little Red Schoolhouse, located in California and Kimball Piano School in Indiana.
One of Rose’s early career goals was to be a piano tuner for a local outdoor music theater, Pine Knob (now DTE Energy Music Theater) in Clarkston MI, where she attended concerts from the age of thirteen. By the age of twenty, Rose was tuning for famous groups, such as, The Moody Blues, Journey, Bette Midler, Pat Benatar, Peter Frampton, Donna Summer, Allman Brothers, Jefferson Starship, Lionel Richie and many others.
Being very active with the Piano Technicians Guild, Detroit/Windsor chapter in her early career, Rose attended a Piano Technician Guild conference in 1986 where she met her future husband John Trefz, who is fifth generation in the piano business. www.johntrefz.com. Rose moved to Pennsylvania in 1987 and was hired to do concert and in-store piano tunings for Jacob’s Music, the Steinway dealer in Philadelphia. Rose loved having the opportunity to tune pianos in some of Philadelphia’s most historic and prestigious places, such as the Academy of Music, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Franklin Institute. In 1989, Rose left Jacobs Music and became an independent contractor for Wilmington Piano Company until 1991.
Rose currently tunes pianos for her regular clients in Swarthmore, Media, and Wallingford, PA. She is no longer taking new clients.