George is known internationally as a piano technician of the highest standard. He studied piano building for 3 years at university in Vienna prior to joining Bösendorfer, to complete their apprentice programme. Here he specialised in all aspects of piano building, and ultimately became one of Bösendorfer’s most senior technicians, renowned for his superior abilities in troubleshooting, regulation and voicing.

During the 1980’s, George was a highly valued member of Bösendorfer’s small team of travelling technicians, servicing pianos in Norway, Sweden, Finland, France, Germany, Switzerland, UK, Spain, USA, Canada and North Africa. After leaving Bösendorfer, he worked in and around London alongside Peter Salisbury, rebuilding and servicing top class pianos including Steinway, Bechstein, Fazioli, Ibach and Yamaha. At this time, George also worked on pianos at London’s South Bank, the Royal Academy of Music, Wigmore Hall and Henry Wood Hall.

In 1990 George returned to his native Canada where he became the personal piano technician for many prestigious artists, venues and events. These included the late Oscar Peterson, Toronto’s Glenn Gould School of Music, CBC and EMI recordings in Toronto, the Universities of McMaster (Hamilton) and St Catherine’s (Brock). In addition, he has worked closely with various international piano competitions as well as Remenyi House of Music (Steinway dealership) and Merriam Music (Fazioli dealership). Some of the many names George has worked for include Maurizio Pollini, Leonard Bernstein, Radu Lupu, Andras Schiff, Vladimir Ashkenazy as well as Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, George Benson, Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis.

One of George’s favourite career moments was when working on Oscar Peterson’s personal Bösendorfer Imperial. On completing the work, Dr Peterson checked out ‘George’s genius with pianos’ and began to play. George also played a few notes, and when questioned why, he was able to say ‘now I have played with the great Oscar Peterson!’