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Patricia Colosimo
Patricia Colosimo
Bentley University alumnus Scott Sheeser '74 tunes pianos for artists like Bruce Springsteen and restores instruments worth upward of $100,000 for the concert stage.

Mary K. Pratt

Scott Sheeser ’74 started down his musical career path while an Accounting major at Bentley University. The Falcon’s Nest Coffeehouse, which he co-founded as a sophomore, drew well-known musicians and sizeable audiences to campus. Today he owns a piano service and restoration business: Enchanted Mountain Music LLC, based in Olean, N.Y. The lifelong music lover also plays five-string banjo, guitar, upright bass and hammered dulcimer with a variety of musicians and bands.

 

Opening Notes

I was intrigued by music from an early age. It was musicians performing at The Falcon’s Nest that inspired me to pick up the guitar and banjo. After Bentley, I worked briefly for my father’s accounting firm. I wanted to work in the music field and, shortly after leaving the firm, I bought a piano-tuning business. I knew virtually nothing about the trade and spent every spare minute learning.

 

Two-Part Harmony  

The service part of my business involves tuning, concert preparation, regulating and repairing pianos. The second part, restoration, entails taking the piano completely apart and reassembling it with new or rebuilt parts. I work alone and the process takes months to complete. It’s a costly investment, but restoration can increase the value of a fine instrument by two or three times. It’s not unusual for me to work on concert pianos worth $100,000 or more.

 

Striking Gold 

I’m a Registered Piano Technician member in the Piano Technicians Guild. Registered technicians are examined in every phase of piano technology. They are the gold standard in the piano service industry. Many performance contracts require using a Registered Piano Technician to prepare the concert instrument. I’ve worked with many, many artists over the years, from Bruce Springsteen to piano soloists to symphony orchestras.

 

In the Key of Business 

Bentley was a great experience. Accounting requires patience and meticulous attention to detail. My work requires the same. Being self-employed in a business with an artistic component can be demanding and calls for a great amount of discipline. I’m in my office by six-thirty in the morning and on the road or in my shop until four or five p.m.

 

Grand Achievement 

One career highlight was restoring a 9-foot Steinway concert grand piano from the Victorian era. Many of its parts were missing; there was no soundboard, strings or bridges. It took five months and was one of the hardest projects I’ve ever done. This piano ended up at a prestigious international performing arts center and was eventually purchased by a concert pianist from Canada. It’s very rewarding: taking something that looked like it could go into a landfill to the concert stage. Hearing how beautiful it sounds in the hands of an artist is icing on the cake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mary K. Pratt is a freelance journalist who writes on business and IT topics for The Boston Globe, Computerworld and others.