Music was always an important part of Wendell Carpenter’s life. His first musical instrument was the accordion, starting lessons at the age of eight. At sixteen, he started teaching accordion and playing at conventions and banquets in the Idaho Falls, Idaho area. He was granted a music scholarship to attend Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, where he studied music basics and piano. At nineteen, he served a two and a half year mission to Germany for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

After his mission, he attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, graduating with a B.A. in music education in 1965. He worked at Wakefield’s Music in Provo and was in charge of overseeing the piano department. He became interested in piano tuning and repairs and was shown some of the basics in piano tuning.

In 1966 he was introduced to a property developer in Sparks, Nevada that had acquired a music store and was looking for someone to manage it with the option to purchase the business and become a tenant in the shopping center within a year. Everything worked out well, and Wendell and his brother in law, Calvin McBride, entered into a partnership and opened C and M Music Center on January 1, 1968.

This proved to be a very successful partnership for the next eighteen years. Calvin took care of the operational and financial aspects of the business, and Wendell applied his tuning and technical skills in servicing the pianos and teaching piano. During this time, he became expert in his tuning, servicing and rebuilding skills and mentored other tuner/technician hopefuls and consulted with other technicians.

In 1985, Wendell purchased Calvin’s share of the business and renamed it Carpenter’s Music World. He continued business operations as one of the premier music stores in Reno, Nevada, acquiring such prestigious piano franchises as Yamaha and Bluthner. He enriched the lives of thousands of individuals in northern Nevada and northern California during his fifty-two years in the music business. He also increased the life and improved the performance potential of thousands of pianos through tuning, repairs, rebuilding and complete restoration.

In 2023, Wendell retired, closed Carpenter’s Music World and moved to Queen Creek, Arizona, bringing all the knowledge, experience and expertise he  acquired during the last 52 years. Still healthy and active, a sedentary lifestyle is not in his near future plans. With all this knowledge, expertise and spare time, he thought, “why not start up a piano tuning and repair business”? That way he could delay feeling old and decrepit and also help the piano performance potential in this area. As “The Piano Medic”, he is sure he can help your piano sound and perform at its best and help you make good
decisions regarding your music experience, whether it’s buying another piano or improving the one you have.