This year in sunny Anaheim, California, the NAMM show once again had a fantastic display of beautiful pianos. From inexpensive to opulent, there are pianos for everyone to see and enjoy. 
Present this year (in alphabetical order of brand): Baldwin, Bluthner, Bösendorfer, Brodmann, Emerson, Fazioli, Geyer, Grotrian, Hailun, Hallet Davis, Hardman, Irmler, Kawai, Kayserburg, Knabe, Mason & Hamlin, Mendelssohn, Niendorf, Pearl River, Perzina, Ravenscroft, Ritmuller, Samick, Sauter, Schimmel, Schulze Pollmann, Schumann, Seiler, Wilh. Steinberg, Steinway, Weber, Yamaha and Young Chang. In the eye candy department, there were incredibly artistic grand pianos from both Sauter and Fazioli. And these spectacular instruments are as beautiful to play as they are to look at. Speaking of cosmetics, Samick 
displayed a bird’s eye maple red Johannes Seiler piano which was visually striking. And where credit is due, again, Sauter’s upright took the prize for fashion statement, designed by Peter Maly. Both Steinway and Grotrian companies presented satin pianos with high gloss fallboards. The contrast is beautiful. Grotrian’s textured matt finish is a welcome alternative to the myriad of gloss finishes today. New at the show this year was a company called Niendorf – a re-established name and company located in Germany. The Schumann piano line (formerly part of Sejung and later Welkin Sound) also was released under new American ownership and distribution. Hailun Piano debuted their first Emerson grand piano – soon to be released as a full line of pianos this year. Pearl River has expanded their upper end piano line Kayserburg with several new models and have included Renner options.
Grotrian, in 2017 debuted Friedrich Grotrian, a piano line whose frame, cabinet and strings are built in China and then finished in Germany. This year, they displayed Wilhelm Grotrian, a piano completely made with Grotrian specifications in China. An aside: Grotrian has the coolest slow-close “button” fallboard in the industry. Similarly, Wilhelm Steinberg has followed suit with instruments built in Germany and separate models built in China but also with Renner options.
In technology as it relates to pianos, QRS unveiled a tiny but incredibly powerful device simply called Connect which allows you to record, upload to a cloud and connect for purposes of teaching evaluation or collaboration. Hailun presented their first iPiano with interactivity. Connected by bluetooth, the piano features teaching tools and exercises in hopes that there’s more BOB effect… I have to admit, I hadn’t heard of it either… it stands for Butts On Benches. In other words, the hope is that with technology, kids will experiment, will play and engage with the piano and spend more time on the bench.
In other news, Pearl River is finishing their expansion to complete the largest piano factory in the world, exceeding 140,000 pianos annually. ETA will hopefully be some time in May. Boutique maker, Ravenscroft is also forging ahead with new plans but I’m sworn to secrecy 🙂 This year, the Piano Technician’s Guild (PTG) also displayed historic pianos and tools as well. At first glance, the Chickering piano on the right seemed like just another old piano until Shawn Bruce of the PTG told me to read the historic significance. It was the piano on stage present at the Ford Theatre when Lincoln was assassinated. Incredible.
Steinway, Story & Clark (QRS) as well as Yamaha presented digital player pianos. I’ll leave you with a piano that Yamaha displayed – an interesting and interactive piano. The purpose? Just to connect sound with visual. You can actually see the amplitude waves as you play. Such fun!
MORE PIANO ARTICLES
The term “art case” refers to a piano cabinet that has been visually enhanced. Historically, pianos were often owned by aristocrats and royalty, their appearance mirrored the opulence of a palace or echoed the trends of the day. They often featured exotic cuts of wood or intricate carvings. But as the piano has become more mainstream, so the cabinetry, more simplified. Today, when we think of a modern piano, we perhaps think of a shiny ...
Read More
It’s inevitable that chips will happen and pianos will become damaged. In my estimation, the majority of accidents happen because of sloppy piano moving practices. Regardless of the cause, however, the repair needs to be done. Contrary to surface scratch repair that we learned about last month, chips have a different process. As we learned, “if you can feel it, you’ll see it”, meaning that if you run your finger over the damaged part and ...
Read More
It's inevitable that pianos will get bumped, scratched and scuffed. High polish finishes are like mirrors and when something unfortunate happens, it can be not only disappointing but daunting to know how to remedy the situation. In this 2-part series we are first going to investigate removing scuffs and hairline scratches and then in the second part, we'll look into chip and deeper scratch repairs. Disclaimer: while this presents one solution to repairs, this is ...
Read More
I've heard this statement many times. In fact it happened when I was a young. The piano teacher states, "Your children are at a level now where it would be helpful to have them practice on a grand piano". But is there any substance to this statement? Is there validity in upgrading to a grand piano? Is there empirical data that proves the advantages of a grand piano? In short, the answer is yes. Let's ...
Read More
Like many industries, piano retail and manufacturing have had challenges during the 2021/2022 years. Demand remains strong for purchasing pianos but piano makers have faced difficulties supplying product. When Covid struck in 2020, the general public spent a lot of time at home and there seemed to be a collective thought, "I should take up the piano again". Thus, the sales boomed. But in recent months, several companies have been finding it difficult to fulfill ...
Read More
Aside from tuning the piano, there’s one question that gets asked more than any other. “Can you fix a sticking key?” The term ‘sticking key’ refers to a mechanical failure where a piano key is depressed and it doesn’t return to its normal position in a timely manner. It can happen on new pianos and old pianos alike and today we’re going to examine the main reason why piano keys stick.
F stands for Friction ...
Read More
