Biography

Responsible for caring for the strung keyboard instruments.

Dave Conte completed his technical training at The University of North Texas College of Music, where he received his degree in Piano Technology. In 2020 he accepted an offer from The University of Tennessee for the resident Piano Technician position.

Prior to his arrival at UT School of Music, Conte owned and operated a respected private tuning, service and rebuilding concern where he was in practice for over 28 years. He has studied with Steinway and Sons, with Yamaha where he completed their training in the final, prestigious “Little Red Schoolhouse” class. At Baldwin Piano, he received their coveted Concert and Artist Certification and maintained the artist pool pianos for the south-central US region. He was also a Petrof Piano dealer and concert technician, and trained with Bösendorfer, Seiler, C. Bechstein, Kawai and other manufacturers, and was on call at various performance venues including The Dallas Opera, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, The Cliburn Piano Competition, Fort Worth Opera and for various artists, including among others: Vladimir Viardo, Michael Feinstein, Bruce Hornsby, Dongni Xie, Neil Diamond, Dino Kartsonakis, Dan Fogelberg, John Tesh and B.B. King.

Conte believes in making use of his considerable talents by also passing along what was so generously given him. To that end he worked to pass all the exams to become a Registered Piano Technician (RPT) with The Piano Technicians Guild (PTG) so that he could also become an instructor and a PTG certified examiner for the Registered Piano Technician exams.

Continuing his passion for teaching, Conte became an Instructor in Piano Technology at Tarrant County College which required developing the curriculum for the class he taught there. He also founded the North Texas School of Piano Technology which was operating as one of the last “brick-and-mortar” hands-on academies left in the USA until his departure to serve at UT.

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