UA Piano Tuner’s Article Reaches Across the World

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Willem Blees, piano tuner/technician in The University of Alabama School of Music recently had an article on pianos published in China.

The editor of the magazine Musical Instruments of China asked Blees permission to translate his article “Low End Pianos, Dilemma or Opportunity” into Chinese and publish it in their magazine.

“To have an article of such a nature to be published in a huge country such as China is quite an honor,” Blees said.

Blees is a member of the Piano Technicians Guild, a professional organization for piano tuners. As a member, he writes technical articles for the organization’s magazine, the Piano Technicians Journal. This magazine is distributed to piano tuners around the world, including China. “From what I am told, this is the first time an article from our magazine is going to be translated into Chinese,” Blees said.

The Guild currently has 3,822 members who subscribe to the journal in the United States and 187 subscribers who are not members. They also offer their journal on cassette tape for those who are visually impaired. In addition, the Guild publishes its journal in 19 countries including: China, Canada, Australia, Bermuda, Brazil, Cyprus, Czech Republic, England, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Malaysia, South Africa, Sweden and Switzerland.