Destiny, Pianos and the Trefz Legacy
Do you believe in destiny? I have often pondered the question of destiny due to my own personal life experiences. Little did I know as I headed from my home in Michigan toward Cleveland, Ohio in 1986 for a Piano Technician Guild conference how dramatically my life was about to change. One class that I attended was being taught by piano technician from the Philadelphia area. When John Trefz and I met, it was a case of love at first sight. Shortly after meeting John, we decided to get married, and the rest is history.
At the point in my career when I had met John Trefz, I had been tuning pianos for ten years. I began my piano tuning apprenticeship in 1976, at the age of 17. I was in eleventh grade when I heard a lecture on piano tuning from my wonderful High School music director, Mr. Mel Rookus. As soon as I heard about piano tuning, I knew immediately that this was what I wanted to do for my career. Since we didn’t even have a piano in our home, it seemed an odd choice, but luckily my father, Sid Winstanley, made the a couple of phone calls, and ended up finding the person I would serve my piano tuning apprenticeship with, Mr. John Quitmeyer, in Rochester, MI. All my family members had a love for music and being the youngest of four kids, I was greatly influenced by all the different styles of music of the 1960’s and 1970’s. I love to sing, and always sang in choirs all through school, which is one of the ways I developed my ear for piano tuning.
One of my earliest career goals was to be a concert technician for a local outdoor music theater, Pine Knob Music Theater, where I had been attending concerts since the age of thirteen. At the age of twenty-years-old, I was tuning pianos for groups such as: The Moody Blues, Journey, Beach Boys, Chicago, Bette Midler, Pat Benatar and many others. I was also working with the Steinway/Yamaha dealer in the Detroit area and was very active with the Detroit/Windsor chapter of the Piano Technicians Guild. I also attended Yamaha’s Little Red Schoolhouse in California and Kimball Piano School in Indiana. I must say that after more than thirty years, I still love my work, my clients and making pianos sound beautiful.
Within a year of meeting John Trefz I moved to the Philadelphia area, I did in-store and concert tuning for Jacob’s Music, the Steinway/Yamaha dealer in Philadelphia. It was a real challenge starting over, but well worth it!
When I met my future husband that day in Cleveland, Ohio, I had yet to learn the history of this wonderful man who had come into my life. John Trefz is a 5th generation piano craftsman. His family history goes back to 1835. Conrad Wittig, the Trefz’ maternal grandparent was supplying actions and keyboards to the early piano industry. In a comparison between a photo of my husband John Trefz to his great-great-grandfather John Trefz, there is an amazing resemblance that crosses generations. In 1870, John Trefz, this forebear to my husband won a prestigious first prize for his woodworking in an exhibition in London. www.johntrefz.com
John’s grandfather, Otto Trefz and family had a huge piano rebuilding facility in North Philadelphia from which they also sold supplies to technician’s in the piano industry. Also manufactured were Trefz pianos, of which only about 400 were built. In 1978 tragedy stuck when an arsonist set fire to the Trefz facility. Rare tools, fine pianos, all the supplies, everything was gone. But all was not lost. My husband’s father, Edwin Trefz started his own custom piano parts duplication business, which is where my husband John learned this fine trade.
In a book published by a piano rebuilder and friend of the family, entitled, Another One of Riley’s Pianos, John Riley writes: “A little known fact is the Trefz name is one of the oldest continuous 5-generation names in the piano industry. The only other name is Steinway. The Trefz family was in the piano industry 22 years before the Steinway Company was founded in 1853. I do not think in all the years I spent in this business I have ever known a family more dedicated to the piano business. John Trefz, the 5th generation, continues this great legacy of the family. Like all the Trefz before him, his tuning pin blocks, bridges, soundboards and all around piano work are the best to be had in the industry. What is more important, John is a fine professional and genial man, a pleasure to do business with.”
Due to a challenging economy and the flooding of electronic keyboards into the market, we cannot help but see tremendous changes happening in the piano business. With this in mind John and I are broadening and diversifying our businesses. John is duplicating soundboards to add to his piano parts duplication business, as well as his latest endeavor, which is doing guitar and other stringed instrument repair. A wonderful new calling for me, is life coaching. Life coaching utilizes my listening skills in a new way and focuses on helping people seeking to be inspired, fulfill goals, find purpose, meaning and direction in life. I also spent two years learning skills in public speaking with Toastmasters International and was a mentor for the Delaware County Chapter of Toastmasters.
Will destiny play a part in continuing the Trefz legacy? Only time will tell.