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You have entered the Stuart & Sons Handcrafted Grand Pianos ‘Extended Information’
section of the site. For rich interactive ‘Audio Visual’ experience, return to Main Site.
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ABOUT WAYNE STUART
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Designer and builder Wayne Stuart believes that if the piano is to remain a vital musical force it must continue to evolve. This concept is the driving force that inspired him to choose as his life’s work the redefinition of the limits of the piano. The dream was to create an instrument that would offer a broader palette of musical expression through greater clarity and tonal richness.
The story of the Stuart & Sons piano started when Wayne Stuart was living in northern Tasmania. Stuart’s fascination with the acoustic piano was evident early on and he showed considerable effort in his endeavours to master its keyboard. By his early teens he had formed an old-time dance band and was playing the country hall circuit. This valuable experience opened his mind and ears to a large number of different brands of piano from all over the world. This stimulated his other talents and interests in technical and mechanical structures.
By the time he was ready to leave school it was very clear in his mind what he wanted to do – become a piano maker. After commencing the third year of a cabinet making apprenticeship, his big break came. The Sydney Conservatorium of Music, in arrangement with Yamaha, Japan, offered an intensive training program for piano technicians. This rigorous study course was based on the now famous training programs developed by Yamaha in Japan over 50 years ago. Stuart was one of six students selected to undertake the first course and was sent to Japan to the main factories in Hamamatsu for a further year of intensive postgraduate training. He returned to Australia in 1976 and assumed the responsibility of running the training program at the Sydney Conservatorium where he spent a further three years training technicians. In 1979 he travelled to Europe to study with five of the old companies that built the full concert grand.
After his return Stuart developed and implemented a national training course for piano technicians at the Northern Institute of TAFE in Melbourne from 1983 to 1994. During this time detailed research and development was pursued which led to the building of the upright and concert grand prototypes. The prototypes were designed to embrace the musical and technological advances of the twentieth century whilst retaining all that was good in the traditional acoustic piano.
The research project was re-located to the University of Newcastle in 1995 and was run as a major research and development initiative of the Faculty of Music.
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