Administration and Faculty
Directory:
- Oksana Revenko-Jones, Administrator
- Paul Revenko-Jones RPT, Director
- Donald F. Bee RPT, Fieldtrips Manager
- David Carpenter RPT, Research Director
- Robert Guenther RPT, Faculty
- Paul Revenko-Jones RPT, Faculty
- Jeff Cappelli RPT, Faculty
- Oksana Revenko-Jones, Faculty
- James Hudson RPT, Faculty
- David Carpenter RPT, Adjunct Faculty
- Steve Pearson RPT, Adjunct Faculty
Core Faculty:
Robert Guenther, RPT, Tuning Curriculum
Robert Guenther, RPT, started tuning pianos in 1976. Two years later, he began a course of study in piano tuning and technology with James McCormick in Lombard, IL, which he completed in 1979. That same year he established his own business, Guenther Piano Service, and has been tuning, repairing and servicing pianos full-time in the northern suburbs of Chicago ever since.
Robert joined the Piano Technicians Guild in 1985 and quickly passed the Guild exams to become a Registered Piano Technician (RPT). He has served his local Guild chapter as Chairman of the Tuning Examinations Committee since 1987. He has also held the posts of Chapter Secretary, Vice President, and Newsletter Editor at various times. Robert has taught classes for PTG at the local, regional and national levels on subjects ranging from Tuning to Music Theory to Business. He has been asked to administer the Tuning Exam program at Regional seminars, to Tutor in Aural Tuning at the PTG Annual Institute, and has served on various Tuning Exam committees over the years.
He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Millikin University (Decatur, IL, 1973) with an emphasis in Music Education, which included a course of study in the Physics of Sound and Acoustics. Before embarking on a career as a piano technician, he taught high school music (choral and orchestral) in the public schools. He sang professionally for nine seasons with His Majestie's Clerkes, an a cappella chamber ensemble in Chicago, and served on their Board of Directors for 10 years. He has toured, with various choirs, through parts of France, England, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Germany, as well as various regions of the United States.
Currently, Robert lives in Evanston, IL with his wife, Nancy, and their three children.
Paul Revenko-Jones, RPT, Director of the School, Repair and Regulation Curriculum
Paul grew up in the Washington, DC area, went to undergraduate school at Grinnell College in Iowa (BA, philosophy 1968), and did his graduate work at the University of Chicago (MA, English 1969). He was a dedicated brass player and played semi-professionally in the Midwest while gaining an interest in piano technology. After his return from the Peace Corps in 1971, he opened the first Music of the Spheres Pianoworks shop in Washington, DC. After joining the Piano Technicians Guild in 1987, he achieved RPT designation in 1989, and from 1987 served the PTG Chicago Chapter as editor of the newsletter, Secretary, Vice-president, and President. He tuned for the Lyric Opera briefly in the 1990's, and now, with his wife Oksana, operates a full piano restoration shop on Chicago's near west side as well
as servicing a substantial private tuning clientele. He has also been an editor of the Piano Technicians Journal from 2001-2005.
In June, 2005, Paul received the Piano Technician's Guild Jack Greenfield Award "in recognition of outstanding
research and writing of the best technical article for the Piano Technicians Journal."
His interests include writing, the martial arts (ranked black belt and an instructor in aikido), and
sailing their 28' sailboat Pianoforte on Lake Michigan.
Jeff Cappelli, RPT, Regulation and Repair Curriculum
Jeffrey L. Cappelli was born and raised in River Forest. He attended Oak Park River Forest High School, where he was a repeat winner of the Concerto Competition, and the recipient of the Frederick Chopin Outstanding Musician award. During that time he was also a repeat winner of the Society of American Musicians, Illinois State Music Teachers Association, Geneva competitions, and a winner in the Steinway Piano competition. Jeff also received a scholarship from the MacDowell Artist Society of Oak Park.
Prior to college, Jeffrey was a student of his parents, Dr. Amo and Nancy Cappelli of River Forest, Mr. Alex Joseffi of Chicago, and Dr. Donald Isaac of Northwestern University. Jeffrey attended Indiana University where he received Bachelor and Master's degrees in Piano Performance. There he studied with Dr. Karen Shaw and Michel Bloch. Jeffrey served as associate instructor of piano at both I.U. and IUPUI campus's during his graduate studies. Locally, Jeffrey has performed as soloist with the Oak Park and River Forest Symphony, at the Unity Temple, 19th Century Club & Cantigny and in Benefit Concerts sponsored by the Cappelli Institute of Music for Ronald McDonald House, Northwestern University Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Center and Misericordia.
Jeffrey began teaching privately in the Chicago area in 1980, and soon after founded the Cappelli Institute of Music in Oak Park where he is director. The Cappelli Institute (www.cappellimusic.com) now has 18 instructors and offers private music instruction for piano, violin, viola, guitar, harp, bass, drums and voice. He operates Renaissance Craftsmen Restoration (http://rcraftsmen.com/), a piano rebuilding business in Forest Park, Illinois. He also is the current president of the Chicago Chapter of the Piano Technicians Guild. Jeffrey resides in River Forest with his wife Elizabeth, sons Jonathan and Paul and daughter Julia.
James Hudson, RPT, Regulation Curriculum and Consultant to Advanced Curriculum
Jim began his career with a Bachelor's of Music in violin from the American Conservatory of Chicago in 1976. He apprenticed himself in 1978 in a piano rebuilding shop, and passed his (then) Craftsman level standardized exams for the Piano Technicians Guild in 1984. While at the same time developing and servicing a wide clientele in the Chicago area, he attended many PTG seminars and studied with Steinway in New York. From 1990 to the present, he has been responsible for the concert venues at Ravinia in the suburban Chicago area, and from 1992 through 2002 was also the chief technician for Orchestra Hall and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Adjunct Faculty:
David Carpenter, RPT, Tuning Instructor (Acoustics), and Research Director
Dave, a Chicago native, earned a computer engineering degree from the University of Illinois and engaged in a successful first career in software design and development. A lifelong pianist, Dave began tuning in 1995 as a hobby, but by 1998 his pursuits had grown more serious. He joined the Piano Technicians Guild by way of the very welcoming Chicago Chapter and launched his neighborhood piano service business. Dave earned the Guild's RPT status a year later.
In the course of using the available electronic tuning devices (ETDs) in his work, Dave was confronted with their limitations, and, convinced that the prior methods could be significantly improved, he capitalized on his technology skills and embarked on the development of a successful new tuning device (go to www.veritune.com). Since then he has enjoyed spending the majority of his time supporting and improving the product as well as researching various acoustics topics and related measurement and analysis techniques. At CSPT, he will have the opportunity to pursue other piano-related acoustic research as well.
Dave is a frequent instructor at PTG conventions and seminars, and an active member and past president of the PTG Chicago Chapter. He has been issued three patents, a research grant award, and is a Ph.D. Candidate in Acoustics at Penn State University. Dave is a piano accompanist for various theatre productions and his church choir. He lives with his wife Laura in Chicago where he dabbles in endurance sports with what little free time he has.
Steve Pearson, RPT, Adjunct Faculty, Regulation
Trained in viola performance and choral conducting at California State University, Long Beach, Steve Pearson decided to become a piano technician after a year teaching high school music. Steve apprenticed with a piano tuner from California State Long Beach for two years, while tuning for the local piano dealer. He appreciated the need for both mechanical aptitude and musical ability that piano technology required. Steve joined the Piano Technicians Guild (PTG) in 1978 and attained craftsman level at that time.
Steve worked in Southern California tuning for professional teachers, performers, and several orchestras, including the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra as concert technician from 1985 to 1996, tuning for some of the world's great pianists. From 1996 to 1999, he was technical consultant for Yamaha Corporation in Buena Park, California. He met his wife, Pat at a PTG convention in Providence, RI in 1998 and moved to Crete, IL in 1999. He served as Director of Technical Services for Chicagoland's Steinway dealer from 1999 to 2003-traveling to New York for extensive training at the Steinway factory. Steve is also certified to oversee the tuning examinations for the PTG.
In May 2004 Steve and Pat opened Pearson's Piano Shop. Pearson also plays viola in the Kankakee Valley Symphony Orchestra.
Steve lives in Crete with his wife, Pat, and their dog, Winston.
Administration:
Oksana Revenko-Jones, Administrator (Instructor--selected Repair topics)
Oksana was born in France, came to the United States in 1956, and grew up in Chicago. She received a BA in French from Illinois College in 1971, and MA in Human Services from National College of Education in 1989. She worked for 12 years for a retail/catalog company in a variety of positions from buying to management, and then variously in the social services before developing an interest in piano work. She joined Music of the Spheres Pianoworks in 1991 and has become a fine bench technician and tuner, with her own tuning clientele in the Chicago area. Her interests include Jazzercise, music, and sailing.
Donald F. Bee, RPT, Fieldtrips Manager
Don grew up in Pennsylvania, studied at the University of Pittsburgh, and completed his BS in marketing at DePaul University in Chicago. He worked for most of his life in the steel industry with stints at LTV, a variety of steel warehouse companies in the Chicago area, and finally self-employed in the steel business for seven years. In the meantime, he developed an interest in piano technology and began his studies with several technicians and small schools in Chicago. He has been a technician for 25 years, and member of the Piano Technicians Guild since 1983, having achieved RPT status in 1991. He is a past president of the PTG Chicago chapter, was host chairman for the 2002 National Institute, and is currently Program Director of the Chicago PTG's piano donation program, A Gift of Pianos, as well as managing a well-developed tuning and repair clientele in south suburban Chicago.