Giovanni Skilan
Giovanni was born in Trieste, Italy in 1934. His ancestors
originally came from Czechoslovakia and settle in Trieste in the 1890's.
His great-grandfather was a musician and inventor, with interests in
early photography, but especially in musical instruments. His experiments
even included the construction of an early design style piano.
Giovanni's mentor and teacher was his uncle Ernesto. At an early
age, Ernesto paid for Giovanni's piano lessons, and kept
him close to the art of piano building. Ernesto worked
for the Anton Pecar Piano Company building upright pianos,
until World War II where he was drafted and sent to Africa
where he was promptly captured by the British. In the
prison camps, he was able to tune and maintain the pianos
that happened to be in the officer's clubs. This afforded
him a bit more comfort during his captivity, and a place
to keep his skills as a Piano Technician fresh. Upon
the end of the war, and his release, Ernesto emigrated
to Argentina, but first, convinced Giovanni to seek employment
at the Pecar Piano Company.
Throughout the 1950's, Giovanni worked at the company building
upright pianos, replacing soundboards, and general restoration
work involved with all sorts of instruments. In his spare
time, he played in a band at night clubs and ballrooms,
and even had one of their performances broadcast on Italian
TV.
In 1960, Giovanni married his wife Vittorina. They are still
together after 45 years! In 1961, he emigrated to the United
States and settled in Kansas City, Missouri where he promptly
found work with Jenkins Music Co. His skills were unknown
to the company at first, but they immediately found out
Giovanni was capable of high-end piano restoration work.
His duties included restringing, pinblock installation
and soundboard work. After a couple of typical mid-west
winters, Giovanni moved the family to Los Angeles. He found
work with Manning Piano Co, well known at the time for selling new and
used pianos, and eventually became manager of the piano repair department.
In 1968, Music City Co. acquired Mannings, and Giovanni remained head
of the Piano Repair department until 1974. That is when he started his
own Piano Restoration business together with his new-found friend, Lafayette
Nunley. Giovanni and Lafayette worked together rebuilding and refinishing
pianos for over 16 years until Lafayette retired in 1990. At that time,
Franco had just begun establishing Precision Piano Services, so it was
the perfect opportunity for a new union to be formed. Giovanni and Franco
have been working together restoring pianos ever since.
Read about Franco Skilan
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