My background is solidly in music; I started formal piano lessons,
when I was five years old, with Mirta Balado in Miami, Florida and
studied with her for many years. In 1975, I was invited to study with
Peggy Neighbors Erwin in Coral Gables, Florida. Peggy was on the piano
faculties of Florida International University
in Miami and Barry University
in Miami Shores. Her studio turned out pianists who have become well
known in the fields of piano performance and pedagogy; Alan
and Alvin Chow,
Charles Asche,
Patricia
Tao, Julie
Bees, Philip Bush, and
Emily White
are just a few examples. Peggy passed away on August 21, 1999.
My professional technical training began at Interlochen National Music Camp (now called Interlochen Arts Camp) in June of 1985 with my very good friend, Steve Manley. In 1985, I enrolled in a piano technology program that, at the time, was offered by Michigan State University School of Music. I studied with Owen Jorgensen for three years. My first paying jobs, as a piano technician, were in the Lansing area. I worked part-time as a staff tuner at Marshall Music where I had the dubious honor of tuning pianos fresh out of the crate.
For a brief period, a former classmate from Michigan State, David Chown, and I ran a summer tuning business that we dubbed "Torch Lake Piano Service" in Alden, Michigan. That venture was short-lived.
In August 1986, I was hired as Director of Keyboard Technology at The Wichita State University School of Music, a post I held for a year before getting married and moving back to Michigan.
In March 1987, I earned the title "Registered Tuner-Technician" in the Piano Technicians Guild at a convention in Oklahoma. I had joined the Guild in 1986 as a student apprentice. While I was a member of the Guild, I helped to rewrite the organization's Disciplinary Code. I also served as Editor-in-Chief of The Bridge, the Detroit-Windsor PTG Chapter newsletter, gave several technical presentations on how being a pianist and a piano technician has been beneficial, served on the PTG Bylaws Committee, chaired and co-chaired the PTG Ethics Committee, and was a presenter at the 40th Annual PTG Convention & Technical Institute of the Piano Technicians Guild in Orlando, Florida (1997). Believing that it was time to move on, I resigned my membership in the Guild in February 2002.
I taught, briefly, at Our Lady Queen of Peace Elementary School in
Harper Woods (Detroit) as a K-8 music teacher, but that soon gave way
to a staff technician job at Hammell Music in Livonia. (That school
has, since, been closed.)
My association with Hammell Music continues.
In August 1988, I moved to Illinois to work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Music. My employment there led a promotion from Associate Piano Technician to Head Piano Technician at the School of Music and Chief Concert Technician for Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. While I was at Illinois, I had the privilege of traveling to New York to participate in a week-long training seminar at the Steinway & Sons factory on Long Island.
In September 1995, I returned to Michigan, accepting a piano technician position at the University of Michigan School of Music, also serving as a Steinway Concert and Artist Technician, through Hammell Music, around southeast Michigan.
Throughout my career as a piano technician, I have strived to remain active as a pianist. While in Illinois, I gave solo recitals including several collaborative efforts with my then-boss and colleague, Steve Manley.
Since returning to Michigan, in addition to giving numerous public and private recitals in and around Michigan, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Naples, Florida, I have been a guest artist with the Summer Symphony of Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan Museum of Art's First Thursday Performance Series.
I currently live in Pittsfield Township, just
outside of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti with my wife, Kathleen, and two
children, Sarah and Christopher. In my leisure time I enjoy running,
biking, canoeing, building bat houses, building and flying remote
control aircraft, and more recently, Geocaching.
I have participated in the Ann Arbor
Turkey Trot at Hudson Mills Metro Park, for several years, I
ran in the Detroit
Free Press Marathon Relay as part of St. Mary's A2 Hares in
2005, taking 10th place, and 2006,
taking 5th place. I also have run in the Dexter-Ann Arbor
Half Marathon and the Martian
Marathon (half marathon in 2005, completed the full marathon in
2006). My personal best 5K took place in 2007 at the Kensington
Challenge, where I finished in 23:48! (If you follow the link to
the online results, search for "Torrezia." I think that's the most
creative misspelling of my name yet!)
Anticipating the possibility of changing career paths within the
University of Michigan, I returned to school and graduated, magna cum
laude, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Legal Assistant studies
from Eastern Michigan University in May 2006. In October 2004, I was
asked to assist with founding a record label at the University of
Michigan (Block M Records) and wound up becoming a paralegal specialist
in copyright law for the University. My current title at Michigan is
Administrative Assistant to the Associate Dean for Research and
Planning. I also serve as the School of Music, Theatre & Dance's Wellness Representative.
Outside of the University of Michigan, I continue my private piano tuning practice.