Roger Taylor       Biography

Coming from a musical family, my interest in pianos stretches back to my childhood. Aside from an interest in music, I have long been fascinated by all things mechanical so wishing to understand how a piano worked was a natural extension of this. My first opportunity to discover more of the workings of pianos came during a period in which I lived in Amsterdam where I befriended and subsequently worked for a restorer of antique pianos. On returning to Australia, I was accepted into the Sydney Conservatorium School of Piano Tuning and Technology. After graduating from the Conservatorium I began immediately to work on a contractual basis for the well renowned firm of W.H. Palings which proved invaluable for gaining practical experience. I continued to have a connection with W. H. Palings until the unfortunate demise of this illustrious business which was first established in 1853. In addition to my regular work at this time, I was recruited by the Conservatorium to visit a number of towns in rural N.S.W. where no piano tuner visited regularly. I still continue to do a number of trips to country towns each year to this day travelling even well west of Bourke on occasions with the result that I have met many interesting people, I have had some challenging encounters with country pianos and done some exiting driving at times particularly in rainy weather. Most of the time though I am Sydney based serving both private clients and a considerable number of institutions both large and small. As well as the more routine servicing of pianos, I have enjoyed doing major overhauls and complete restorations of a considerable number of instruments over the years. My interest in playing the piano also continues to this day. I still take a regular weekly piano lesson and on average I play the piano for at least an hour each day.