Our Staff
Rick Jones
Rick majored in Piano Technology at the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music in Winchester, Virginia. After working in several rebuilding shops and retail stores, he founded Rick Jones Pianos in 1983. Rick is very active as a piano technician and keeps his skills sharp by keeping our showroom inventory in tune and prepping sold pianos for delivery. When you visit Rick Jones Pianos, you will usually find Rick Jones in the workshop working on a piano rather than in his office sitting behind a desk. Rick is a native of Springfield, Virginia.
Sofia Rodriguez
Sofia (a.k.a. Sophie) joined Rick Jones Pianos in 2015 as the full-time Office Manager. Besides answering hundreds of phone calls each week, Sofia is responsible for bookkeeping, inventory management, coordinating deliveries with piano movers, and customer service. Sofia was born and raised in Annecy, France, and has been living in the US since 1994. She is fluent in English, French, and Spanish.
Kathleen Brandner
Kathleen joined Rick Jones Pianos front office in 2002. Kathleen is Sofia’s assistant and the weekend Office Manager. She is especially skilled at data entry, preparing sales reports, coordinating deliveries with piano movers, and customer service, which includes answering the hundreds of phone calls we receive each week. Kathleen is a native of Baltimore, Maryland.
Paul Yarish, RPT
Paul has been a piano technician since 1990. He joined Rick Jones Pianos in 1993 as a piano rebuilder. After becoming a Registered Piano Technician (RPT) with The Piano Technicians Guild in 1994, he transitioned to in-home piano tuning and service, serving a large clientele in the Baltimore-Washington region as an independent piano technician and subcontractor for Rick Jones Pianos. Paul returned to Rick Jones Pianos in 2006 as Sales Manager and manager of the company website. He has been an amateur pianist since 1977. Paul is a native of Baltimore, Maryland.
Melvin Reyes
Mel began working at Rick Jones Pianos in 1991 as an apprentice refinisher. He trained as a piano technician with Rick Jones and Dave Long, becoming a highly skilled piano technician. Mel is responsible for all upright piano work, as well as re-pinning, re-stringing, and drilling pinblocks for our vintage Steinways grands. Mel is also a piano climate control systems Field Expert, having installed over 100 Dampp-Chaser Piano Lifesaver Systems. Mel is a native of Guatemala and is fluent in Spanish and English.
Edgar Delgado
Edgar began working at Rick Jones Pianos in 1997. After training as a piano technician and QRS systems specialist, Edgar completed the necessary training to become a QRS Certified Technician in 2001. Since then, he has installed hundreds of QRS systems in our customers’ pianos, each one a labor-intensive and precision-oriented task requiring 8 hours to complete. Edgar is also a climate control systems Field Expert and recently received an award for having installed more Dampp-Chaser Piano Lifesaver Systems than anyone in the country. Edgar is also responsible for most of the heavy grand piano rebuilding, including drilling and fitting new pinblocks, re-pinning, and re-stringing grand pianos. Edgar is a native of Guatemala and is fluent in Spanish and English.
Sam Placanica
Sam joined the staff of Rick Jones Pianos as an apprentice piano technician in the summer of 2010 while still in high school. He returned each summer, further developing his skills with each year. Sam began working full-time at Rick Jones Pianos in 2015 after graduating from St. John’s College in Annapolis and is working towards becoming a Registered Piano Technician (RPT) with the Piano Technicians Guild. Sam began studying piano in 2000, after which his parents purchased a 1977 Yamaha G2 from Rick Jones Pianos in 2002, which is still Sam’s home practice instrument today. Sam is a native of Silver Spring, Maryland.
Jeremy Pedneau
Jeremy began working at Rick Jones Pianos in 2015 as an apprentice piano tuner. He graduated from the University of Maryland Baltimore County in 2020 with a Bachelor’s Degree in mechanical engineering and is now focusing on becoming a piano technician. He is also an amateur pianist, having played since 1998. Jeremy has perfect pitch and lots of additional talents and interests including drawing. He is a native of Olney, Maryland.
Please check out the website of our friend Deanna Bogart, a multi-talented blues performer and guest staff member at Rick Jones Pianos.
If you are in the greater DC area and are looking for private music lessons, string instruments, percussion instruments, or band instruments for rental or purchase, please check out our friends at Middle C Music.