Walter Michael Bittner
Walter Bittner is a fanatical music lover – his religion is music from T. Albinoni to Frank Zappa – and became a piano technician and tuner almost against his will. For many years, he rescued old family heirlooms from being scrapped and made pianos playable again, before becoming increasingly active in the concert business. Shortly before his retirement, Walter Bittner finally became a university lecturer in “Piano Technology and Maintenance”.
Walter Bittner received his first lessons at kindergarten age in his father’s piano workshop: using tweezers—which he still owns and uses today—he would remove moth-eaten balance wheels from a Viennese mechanical grand piano and replace them with new ones. Their colour: red!
After finishing primary and secondary school and briefly attending university, Walter Bittner earned his pocket money by helping out in his father’s business. For family reasons, he applied for a business licence as a piano tuner in 1982. That same year, he met master piano builder Werner Fuchs and deepened his knowledge through their collaboration.
He has worked as a piano and harpsichord tuner at the Mozarteum University Salzburg since May 2018.