Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today’s question is: Why are Steinways so expensive? Did you know that even a baby grand Steinway is over $80,000? Concert grands are over $200,000! What could possibly make pianos so expensive when you can get other baby grands for around $10,000? Is it all marketing? Well, here’s the truth. And everything I’m going to tell you today doesn’t just apply to Steinway. It applies to other American pianos, like Mason and Hamlin, as well as European pianos such as Blüthner, Bechstein, Fazioli in Italy, Bösendorfer in Austria, and even hand-built pianos from Yamaha and Shigeru Kawai in Japan.

Hand-built pianos have many different technologies.

In the case of Steinway, American pianos, and many European pianos, the way the plates are manufactured is a much more time-consuming task. Instead of using a simple vacuum mold process, which is quick and precise, they do it the old-school way of wet sand casting. The benefit is that the metal is denser. It takes a long time to cure the metal, so it’s much more labor-intensive and time-consuming. There’s also the choice of wood. It’s much more expensive to find fine hardwoods. Sourcing the finest soundboard material, which is the heart and soul of your piano, is no easy task. They search the world over for woods that have very fine grain, which is noted for the vibrancy and sustain of the sound. The craftsmanship of these instruments requires a great deal of handwork. All pianos require handwork, but when you’re talking about hand-built pianos, the meticulousness that it takes to craft these instruments is on a higher level. It can take a year to make each piano!

Hand-built pianos are not mass-produced.

You have companies like Pearl River, which is the number one piano producer in the world by volume. They make over 100,000 pianos a year! Contrast that with Steinway, who makes maybe ,2500 pianos a year. You can see how the economy of scale enters into this equation. So is there anything you can do to be able to get a piano of that quality and not have to pay such a fortune? I have another video about this. You can check out how you can get a Steinway for less money if that’s something you’re interested in. Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin, here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today, I’m going to talk about Steinway. What happened to Steinway? I’m going to give you 20 true or false statements, so get your pencil and paper ready! But first, I’m going to give a brief history of this venerable piano company. Of course, you all know Steinway, but I’m going to tell you some things you maybe don’t know about the company.

In 1850, Henry Steinweg, a German immigrant, witnessed a show put on by P.T. Barnum, and it featured a Chickering piano.

Chickering was a piano company going back to the 1820s in the United States. The show inspired him so much that they could barely drag him off the stage. A few years later, in 1853, he founded Steinway & Sons in New York, and the company remained under family ownership for generations. In 1880, Steinway opened a second factory in Hamburg, Germany. In 1931, the accelerated action was introduced, a new technology that caught the attention of many pianists. In 1936, Steinway introduced their patented diaphragmatic soundboard, which was a way of tapering the soundboard to produce the distinctive Steinway sound. Finally, in 1972, corporate ownership happened with CBS purchasing Steinway & Sons.

In 1992, Steinway introduced the Boston Piano brand. This is an OEM piano, designed by Steinway and produced in Japan by Kawai, with many Steinway elements—not the Steinway piano design, but many elements that Steinway specified in the pianos produced by Kawai in Japan. In 1995, Steinway merged with Selmer Industries, the makers of woodwind and brass instruments. Then, in 2001, Steinway introduced their Essex piano, made by Young Chang. But a few years later, in 2004, Young Chang suffered a bankruptcy. So in 2006, they started having the Essex produced in China by the world’s largest piano manufacturer, Pearl River, which is where they’re still made today.

In 2015, Steinway introduced Spirio, a player system that is only available in pianos that are built by Steinway and only in new Steinway pianos. This system introduced many innovative technologies. They took old recordings and digitized them so you can have your piano play Rubinstein when he was young, or things of that nature. And then, in 2019, they added a record function to Spirio.

Now get ready for the true or false statements!

A lot of these may be difficult, particularly this first one. And this is a very provocative statement:

1. Steinway makes a Mickey Mouse piano.

That sounds like blasphemy, doesn’t it? And some of you may wonder what I’m talking about here. Is it possibly true that Steinway makes a Mickey Mouse piano? This is TRUE This is a specially designed Steinway, and it is hand painted.

If you’ve got $375,000, you can get one of these ultra-limited edition Steinways for yourself. This isn’t the only limited edition Steinway they have, but it’s one of the more amusing ones. They have all sorts of different designer pianos that have extraordinarily high price tags. When you consider that even an entry-level Steinway baby grand is over $80,000, you can see how these limited runs would be expensive.

2. Steinway has stopped producing their accelerated action.

This has been something many people look for in Steinways. Is it possible they stopped producing their accelerated action? This is TRUE! Why would they stop making the accelerated action, which so many people like? Well, a lot of it comes down to the fact that Steinway has made every effort to make the pianos that are made in Hamburg similar to the pianos that are made in New York. For example, for many decades, they had the 5′ 10 1/2″ grand piano Model L made in New York and the exact same size Model O made in Hamburg. Well, they discontinued the L, so the O is now made in both factories. Also, a few years ago, they reintroduced the Model A in New York. For decades, the A was only made in Hamburg. So they have made improvements in their action and felt the accelerated action is no longer necessary. Pianists and technicians, I’d love to hear from all of you in the comments. How do you feel about the discontinuation of the accelerated action?

3. Steinway stopped making the 1098 studio piano.

This is TRUE. You can no longer buy a Steinway studio piano. They do not make any studio pianos.

4. Steinway is discontinuing all uprights made in New York.

This is TRUE. The K-52, the full-size upright, will no longer be made in New York. The only upright piano available from Steinway will be the K-132, manufactured in Hamburg, Germany.

5. Steinway has stopped making the Model S baby grand.

At 5′ 1″, the Model S is almost as expensive as the 5′ 7″ Model M, which is one of their most popular models. People have been saying that Steinway is no longer making the Model S. Is this true? This one is FALSE. The S is still in production, just as before. My personal piano is a Model S that my grandfather got for my father in the 1930s. We rebuilt it a number of years ago, and it’s still going strong! It’s a wonderful little baby grand.

6. Steinway moved their rebuilding off-site to Iowa.

Is this possible? They’ve always done their rebuilding in their New York factory. Did they really move their rebuilding to Iowa? This is TRUE. They are doing all of their rebuilds in Iowa. They ship their pin blocks and sound boards. In fact, that’s the only place where sound boards and pin blocks made by Steinway are available other than on new Steinway pianos made in New York and Hamburg.

7. Steinway refinishes their pianos in New Jersey.

This is actually partially true, but I have to say this is FALSE. There is a facility in New Jersey where they ship very few pianos for refinishing if they have extremely intricate woodwork. Think about the nightmare of logistics involved if they had all their pianos refinished in New Jersey! At first, I thought maybe this was true because I had heard this rumor. I thought maybe environmental laws in New York prohibited the new polyester high-gloss finishes that Steinway is offering. But no, this is false. Only a select few pianos are actually refinished in New Jersey.

8. Steinway is going public.

This is actually FALSE. There were murmurs about this, but they withdrew their SEC filing recently. They may still go public in the future. It could happen. But as of right now, there are no immediate plans for going public. I know a lot of people would like to invest in Steinway. It’s one of the strongest brand names out there.

9. Half of Steinways made in New York have Spirio systems.

This is actually TRUE. Half of the New York pianos have Spirio systems in them, and they’re selling them like hotcakes! It’s actually helped them tremendously to increase their sales.

10. Spirio is available on all Steinway models.

When you hear that half of their pianos have these systems, this sounds very plausible. But this is FALSE. The spirio is only available on the Model M, Model B, and the Model D concert grands. And yet half the total number of pianos they sell have Spirio systems. So a lot of B’s, M’s, and D’s have Spirio systems in them.

11. Spirio adds $20,000 to the cost of a piano.

This is FALSE. It actually adds $29,000 to the cost of new Steinways! Can you imagine? So if you want it, the only way you can get it is on a new Steinway.

12. For $29,000, you get a piano that records and plays back.

This is FALSE. If you want to be able to record as well as playback, it adds $48,000 to the price of a Steinway! So the least expensive recording Spirio Steinway, the 5′ 7″ Model M, will set you back $124,800 now in 2024.

13. Spirio-Cast plays live on other Spirio pianos.

This is TRUE! Somebody can play a Spirio in one place, and other Spirios can play that performance at the same time. You can have Lang Lang or Yuja Wang play your piano! That’s what Spirio is all about. That’s why people pay the big bucks to get it. Since there are so many Steinway artists out there, being able to have a library of Steinway artists is a big selling point for the Spirio system.

14. Steinway owns Renner.

Renner is the company that makes the action that’s available on Bösendorfer, Fazioli, Petrof, and so many other pianos. This is actually TRUE. Steinway bought Renner a few years ago. They’ve been using Renner actions on their Hamburg Steinways for years.

15. Hamburg and New York Steinways have the same hammers.

This is actually FALSE. There are unique hammers that are only available on New York Steinways, giving them a different sound from the Hamburg Steinways.

16. Steinway no longer makes their keyframes the way they traditionally have made them.

This is TRUE. They’re using what they say is a sturdier construction. Some technicians might find it a little harder to work on because it’s a heavier build, but they say that these are going to be more robust. So indeed, the keyframes are not made the same way they have always made them.

17. Steinway has sped up its manufacturing to meet demand.

According to Steinway, this is FALSE. They have added more workers to try to keep up with demand, but it still takes just as long to produce their pianos. It can take up to a year to produce a Steinway piano! There’s a lot involved in building pianos.

18. It is illegal to buy a Steinway decal.

This is actually TRUE. Steinway has made it illegal to buy their decals. So if you have a Steinway piano that you’ve had rebuilt and refinished, you might not be able to get a decal if your piano has been refinished unless you use all Steinway parts. But the catch is, you can’t buy Steinway pin blocks or soundboards. So if you rebuild your Steinway, you can’t buy the decals like you can for virtually every other piano brand in the world. Why does Steinway do this? Well, Steinway says it’s because they want to assure that anything that says Steinway on the front has the high quality associated with their name, so it doesn’t tarnish their reputation. Some people say it’s because used Steinways are actually the biggest competition Steinway has, because if somebody wants a Steinway, they’re probably not going to buy a Yamaha, Kawai, or any other piano. They want a Steinway. So they’re probably going to seek out a used Steinway if they can’t afford a new one. Who knows what the truth is. It could be elements of both.

19. 90% of concert artists play Steinway pianos.

This is actually FALSE. Over 97% of concert artists play Steinways! Why is this? Is Steinway that much better than every other piano brand? There are so many great piano companies. But the fact of the matter is, one by one, all the piano companies supporting the concert market have dropped out. The last holdout up until near the end of the 20th century was Baldwin. Baldwin had a good share of the concert market. But think of the daunting task of having concert grands ready in virtually every major city in the world. Even Yamaha tried to do that in the late 90s but couldn’t swing it. It was just too much of a burden to have these pianos prepped and ready for the concert stage in every major city. So any touring concert pianist really has no choice. They have to go with Steinway if they want to have pianos to play on in concerts all around the world.

20. The most expensive Steinway costs a million dollars.

A Steinway concert grand costs over $200,000. Are there any models that cost $1 million? Well, this is a misleading question because the answer is FALSE. The most expensive Steinway costs $2.5 million! What piano could possibly command $2.5 million? Well, this is the rare hand-painted Pictures at an Exhibition piano, named after the famous piece by Mussorgsky.

All of the movements of this magnificent work are painted on this one-of-a-kind piano that is just unbelievably intricate in its painting.

How well did you do with these 20 true or false questions?

Let us know in the comments here at LivingPianos.com how well you did with these 20 true or false questions! How many did you get right? How many of them surprised you? Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin, here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today, we’re going to discuss how to choose a piano. Different people are going to have markedly different criteria for choosing a piano. For example, if you’re an accomplished, seasoned concert pianist, you have very specific ideas of what you’re looking for, and you’ll want to try countless pianos to find exactly the touch and the tone that you’re after. But if you’re like most people, you haven’t had the opportunity to play a plethora of concert-level instruments, you might want to have a trusted person who knows a lot about pianos to help guide the process. I’m going to try to give you some pointers as to what to look for when you are after a piano.

Are you looking for an acoustic piano or a digital piano?

There are many reasons to choose one or the other. If you’re living in a place where sound is an issue, a digital piano might be necessary. There are also silent pianos that you can play with headphones digitally, but they can also be played acoustically. That’s one alternative for you. But you might want to just have a digital piano. Maybe you have a very limited budget, and an acoustic piano is just not in the cards for you. Maybe you’re living in a studio apartment, and you need to put the piano in the closet during the day. Maybe you do music composition and you want something that has a MIDI or USB interface so you can plug it into your computer. There are definitely good reasons to get a digital piano. But if you want the ultimate playing experience, an acoustic piano really offers that.

There are two main types of acoustic pianos: grands and uprights.

The benefits of grands are many because, while a tall upright can rival the sound of a mid-size grand, the action is inferior on even the finest upright pianos. To get a Steinway or a hand-built German piano, an upright costs tens of thousands of dollars. But the hammers on an upright are striking sideways. So there’s a limit to the speed of repetition compared to a grand piano where the hammers have the benefit of gravity since they go up and down. So if you’re an advanced player, and you’re playing things with rapid repetition or trills on upright pianos, those sorts of things can be very difficult. Even the finest uprights don’t match what a fine grand piano action is capable of. Grand pianos also project sound into the room instead of into the wall, so you get a glorious sound! And they’re beautiful pieces of furniture as well. But there are good reasons to get an upright. Maybe you have space or budgetary limitations that make a grand unattainable. A good upright can have a nice sound. And if you’re not playing something with rapid repetition—a lot of trills and other ornaments that require really fast repetition—a good upright could be a great choice for you.

The size of the piano is another important criterion.

All things being equal, bigger is better on pianos. What do I mean by that? Well, if you ever look inside a concert grand piano, the strings in the treble are very short, and they get longer and longer throughout the entire range of the piano. On a nine-foot piano, those bass strings are really long, so you get an even sound from the top to the bottom. Every other piano is a compromise. If you look at a baby grand piano, by the time you get to the middle register, the strings are all about the same length to the lowest notes of the bass. They just get thicker, and they don’t have the same true sound you’ll get out of a larger piano. Plus, the soundboard area is larger on bigger pianos, so you get a richer sound.

Another thing to consider is the acoustics of the room.

You don’t want to overwhelm a room with a piano that has too much volume because it will affect the way the piano sounds and the way you play it. It can actually damage your hearing. I have a good friend who has a beautiful Steinway model C, a phenomenal scale design at over seven feet. It’s blowing him out of the room! So he has to practice with earplugs. What a shame to have this glorious piano and not be able to fully enjoy it because he’s got to stuff his ears in order to play it without causing ear damage. So make sure you choose the right size piano for your space. And it’s not just the size of the room you need to consider. If you have an open floor plan, it doesn’t matter if the room is small, so long as the air volume is large. If your room has a wood floor and if there is no soft furniture, drapes, carpet, or rugs, even a larger room can be pretty resonant. A room that has carpeting, drapes, and soft furniture will absorb a lot of sound. Also, odd shapes along the wall, such as bookshelves, will diffuse the sound so it bounces around, giving it a more pleasing tone. There’s nothing worse than what are called standing waves. Have you ever been talking in a hallway and it sounds robotic? It’s like two mirrors facing each other, creating an infinite reflection. That’s exactly what happens with sound waves in a small space with parallel walls. The frequency of the waveform will amplify itself, and you’ll get resonant frequencies that are really nasty. You can mitigate that by utilizing absorbent material in strategic places.

Of course, you have to think about your budget.

You don’t have an infinite amount of money to spend. There are basically two types of pianos: hand-built pianos and Asian production pianos. What’s the difference? Well, a piano factory like Pearl River makes over a hundred thousand pianos a year. That’s an astounding number of pianos! It’s more than triple the number of new acoustic pianos that are sold in the United States each year. They can’t make pianos the same way Steinway does. Steinway only makes about 2400 pianos a year. Fazioli only makes 140 pianos a year! Obviously, they can do things differently from a company like Pearl River, Yamaha, or Kawai that mass-produces pianos. There’s a different methodology in the way the plates are made, the woods that are used, and a plethora of other things that can enhance the way a piano sounds and plays.

The problem with hand-built pianos is cost.

A Rolls-Royce costs much more than a Toyota because it’s hand-built from beginning to end. The same is true of pianos. With a company like Steinway, each piano is hand-made instead of having pretty much an assembly line of parts that are mass-produced. You can get a wide range of Asian production pianos, and some of them are very good instruments. Nobody is going to scoff at a CX-series Yamaha. They’re really well-made pianos. But Yamaha has two levels of pianos above the popular C series, and those are indeed hand-built pianos that cost as much or more than Steinway! So you have to figure out your budget.

Should you get a new piano or a used piano?

Here again, there are many different things to consider. If you’re buying an inexpensive Asian production piano, realize that there’s a limited lifespan. This is because you’re not going to rebuild a piano that’s not that costly to begin with. If you buy, for example, a $25,000 piano new, that might seem like a lot of money, but it can easily cost that much or more to rebuild a piano. So I hate to say it, but most Asian production pianos aren’t worth restoring because the cost of restoring them exceeds their potential value. So it makes sense to look for used Steinways, Mason & Hamlins, Bechsteins, and other top-tier hand-built pianos. Some of the best value pianos could be brands that are no longer made, like Chickering, Knabe, or Baldwin. These pianos were great in their day. Sadly, these American-produced pianos no longer exist. But you could find a good Baldwin used that maybe isn’t even that old. Maybe the piano is all original and still in good shape. The piano could be worth restoring because Baldwin cost as much as Steinway when they were originally made. And many of them are equal in quality to a new Steinway or Mason & Hamlin, which are the only companies still producing pianos in the United States. Some Mason & Hamlin models are made in China today, so be sure you notice the distinction there.

Every piano is unique.

If you play brand new pianos of the same make and model, each one has a different character of sound and touch. Hand-built pianos like Steinway are notably unique from one to the next, which can be a great thing if you find the one you’re looking for. You really have to try each one to make sure it suits you. Asian production pianos like Yamaha and Kawai are more consistent than other pianos because the manufacturing is very tightly controlled. A lot of robotics are used. But even then, no two trees are alike. So soundboards and bridges are going to have different sonic characteristics. There’s also a lot of handwork. Even on inexpensive Chinese pianos, the bridges are hand-notched. So there’s a lot of handwork, even on Asian production pianos. They’re not just all made in a factory by machines. There are a lot of people working in those factories. So each one is unique. You must try the specific piano because even pianos of the same make and model can vary quite a bit in sound and feel. So you really want to try, or at least listen to, the piano you are buying. We provide first-class recordings with excellent Neumann microphones of our pianos, so you can easily get a comparison from one to the next and hear what you like.

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. I am so pleased to have a special guest today, Bijan Taghavi! Bijan was a student of mine from the time he was eight years old until after high school, when he went to the Manhattan School of Music as a piano major. He studied classical music, played concertos, and accompanied metropolitan opera singers, but all along, he also played other styles of music. I’m proud to announce that:

He is coming out with his second album with his trio, TrioGram!

Robert: Welcome, Bijan!

Bijan: Thanks for having me, Bob. I’m so happy to be here.

Robert: So tell me the latest. What’s going on with you? Then we’ll start from the beginning and talk about your metamorphosis in music. I’m sure everybody’s interested in this.

Bijan: I’m actually in town visiting Cleveland now because I’m playing at the Treelawn, which is a new jazz club. They got their piano from you, actually. It’s literally a two-minute walk from here in the Waterloo Arts District in Cleveland. So I’m going to be playing here, and then we’re off to Europe for a tour for our first album, which came out a few months ago. And then, pretty soon thereafter, we’re going to be going to L.A. to do our second TrioGram album. It’s a jazz piano trio with myself, led by my friend, the great bassist Will Lyle. We’re going to have a special guest drummer who played with the Bill Evans Trio: Joe LaBarbera. So I’m so excited about that. It’s going to be great!

Robert: That’s really exciting! This is your second European tour, is that right?

Bijan: It’s my second international tour. I did a Bijan Taghavi Trio tour back in 2018 in Japan, which, by the way, has an incredibly vibrant… I was going to say music scene, but it’s actually a perfect situation where the musicians aren’t necessarily as great as they are here, but the audiences actually love jazz over there, so it’s a perfect problem. There’s more demand than supply! So when we go there, they absolutely love it. The venues are packed, and it’s a lot of fun.

Robert: Fantastic!

You’re teaching at Hillsdale College.

We could talk a little bit about your academic background, but I think people would be really interested in how you started off in classical, but from the very beginning, you’d come in with blues and Elton John tunes. I always worked with you on these other styles, but you were spearheading major concertos by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, and then suddenly you had a pivotal event that shifted everything. Talk about the difference between classical and jazz. What was it like for you to make that shift? How did this happen?

Bijan: When I switched to studying with you, that was really when I became serious with the piano. Before that, I had just gone to the Yamaha School of Music. I was there for maybe five years or something. I started when I was three and a half. Elton John was actually my inspiration, so that’s probably why later on, when I first started venturing outside of classical music, I started just exploring with some Elton John tunes. But then I went to a performance of yours, and do you remember where I sat in relation to you?

Robert: Yes, yes. This was very early on, and you were just a little kid. I was playing a private concert in a beautiful home in Huntington Beach, and this little kid came over and sat with his head right on the edge of the keyboard! I said, “Can you go to the other side?” Because you were blocking the audience!

Bijan: Completely blocking the audience!

Robert: The entire performance, you were just riveted! For such a young kid, that was really pretty shocking! Then I heard you play, and I could hear that, you know, even though you were elementary, you had a lot of talent and so much enthusiasm. I always enjoyed working with you. The interesting thing was that, from the very beginning, you’d spend your allowance money on sheet music. Not many kids do that!

Bijan: At the time, I remember you weren’t taking students, or at least that’s what you said. Maybe you just didn’t want to take the elementary level first. But then, once you heard that I was spending my allowance on sheet music, that showed you that I was really committed to doing something with the piano, whether it was professional or not, and that I was taking it seriously. You know,

Studying with you—it’s not hyperbole to say it really changed my life in terms of my trajectory.

First of all, with the piano, I figured out how to practice, which I’m sure people who watch your YouTube channel know is a big concept that you emphasize in your lessons and everything. I learned everything I know about how to play the piano, piano technique, how to get a good sound out of the piano, piano tone, etc., from you. I did all those main classical works, as far as even playing solo piano concerts at your old Art District Concert series.

You even prepared me to play the Grieg Piano Concerto with the South Coast Symphony.

But then I made the transition. It was really sort of two main catalyst events for me that made me switch. The first thing was that I had a concert with a Latin jazz flutist, Néstor Torres. That was the first true sort of jazz experience that I ever had. At that time, even though I had spent, like you said, some allowance money on rock songs, Billy Joel, Elton John, and a little bit of blues, I didn’t really know how to read chord charts. So that was the craziest thing for me to look at. They were looking for a jazz pianist out of the high school group because he came to our high school, and I just said I could play jazz piano. Then I was handed, over the summer, this stack of like 20 lead sheets. Now it might be easy for me because I’m so used to that, but at the time, reading a lead sheet was like the craziest thing. I didn’t even know what I was looking at!

Robert: I remember you coming into your lesson with this book. We had done some theory, but to realize an entire concert’s worth of lead sheets? There’s no way there would be time during a lesson! We just scratched the surface, but somehow you assimilated all those scores! And that was when you were still in high school.

Bijan: Yeah, I was still in high school. My guitar teacher, who also helped me a lot in making the transition, gave me this sort of cheat sheet that had every single chord on it. And there were unnecessary chords too. It was like maybe a stack of like 25 chords written on this page. It had the chord, and then it had the formula. I didn’t really understand how there are only four chord families, and you don’t need that list of 25, but I went through each chord methodically in the lead sheet and figured out what the chords are. So it was a lot of work. But I sort of temporarily quit my foray into jazz after that. In retrospect, Néstor was right. He told me something that sort of depressed me a little bit about the possibility. He said, “Look, kid, you’ve got a long way to go.” Particularly with my improvisation and things like that, because I didn’t have much jazz language then, even though I was experimenting with things. That’s an area where you were really encouraging to me. I’m indebted to you forever for that. You encouraged me to keep going and to explore more and more.

The second catalyst for me was when I heard the great late pianist Oscar Peterson. When I first transitioned to jazz, I didn’t have a jazz teacher for the longest time. You would help me out a lot, but:

I didn’t study with a jazz teacher until I went to the Manhattan School of Music later.

So I had sort of a year-long period where it was really just Oscar Peterson. I actually didn’t like jazz, which is the funniest thing. Some of the greatest jazz pianists like Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner, for me, my ears weren’t even ready for that. But I was lucky enough that Oscar was able to draw me in. Now I can appreciate all those artists, and I’ve taken so much from those other pianists as well. But those were the main two catalysts for me.

Robert: With all my students, I give a solid background in the three macro skills of memorization, sight reading, and improvisation. One of the things I do from the earliest stages is just have students play a very simple chord progression. First, I will go on one side of the piano and comp and let the student play all white keys. I’ll do a Dorian mode. Then I’ll switch it and let the student comp (and I solo). Then I say, “Okay, now the hard part. See if you can comp with your left hand and solo with the right hand.” And there are varying degrees of success. Sometimes people just start playing methodically up the keyboard, one note at a time. I’ll say, “Hold some notes longer than others,” to try to get some variety. But right from the very first time you did it; I couldn’t believe you were able to do it the first time you tried! That’s when I realized that you had an incredible affinity for this. The other thing was your sense of rhythm with popular styles. You had a great groove, even as the youngest kid, in addition to being able to play Beethoven and Chopin scherzos and all of that.

But getting back to TrioGram, what is the whole concept of TrioGram? On your albums, It’s all original music. How much of it is yours? Tell us a bit more about your trio.

Bijan: Yeah, it’s a lot of original music. TrioGram is an association of myself and one of my best friends, Will Lyle, a great bass player. We’re both from Southern California, actually, although we never met there. We met afterwards when we were both in college, and we found out we’re both from there. But he and I had worked a lot together in the past, and we always meant to do a project together. We thought, what better way than to do a piano trio? First of all, as a pianist, a piano trio is one of the premier settings to feature a jazz pianist because you’re in control of everything. You’re playing the melodies; you’re the main soloist instrument, although the bassist can solo as well. So it really features the pianist. It’s a lot of fun, but it’s also kind of intimidating at the same time. But it was this project that he and I put together. Basically, it was just the end of last summer in 2022. We were both incredibly busy, but we thought, let’s do a record together at the end of a month. So we only gave ourselves a month. Naturally, he and I both got busy. I’m doing a lot of work in Michigan, and he’s doing a lot of work in New York. But our drummer mistakenly thought we were still going on with the project even though we had decided to stop it. He just did this little post on Facebook. He said, “Hey guys, I’m going to be in town doing this recording session.” I was like, “Hey, Will, did you not tell Kofi that we’re not going to be doing this anymore?” Then we talked about it and decided that maybe we should go ahead and do it. So it was really put together at the last minute. We decided the tunes last minute, and we wrote the tunes last minute, but it turned out a lot better than we expected. It was great. We did a lot of original music. He did some original tunes, and

I did some original tunes, one of which was dedicated to you, actually. It’s called “Changes.”

Robert: A great tune, by the way. We’ll have links for you so you can check out some of Bijan’s music.

The last thing I want to ask about is your upcoming album. You’ve got another drummer featuring on this album. Tell us about that, because that’s a really exciting development.

Bijan: After we did the first record, Will and I did a series of tours. We did one on the West Coast, where we went to Mexico and did a series of shows there with incredible audiences. They were so supportive of our music. Then we went to California and Arizona. In California, we had featured special guest drummers with us, and in L.A., we played with the great drummer Joe LaBarbera, who was one of the drummers for the iconic Bill Evans trio. We had the rehearsal, and I’m really picky with musicians and drummers because there’s a very particular thing that I want, and Will is the same way. But after the rehearsal, he and I went outside, and we just started dancing like a bunch of old Iranian women! We were celebrating! It was the most incredible thing. I had never played with a drummer where I felt so good and comfortable. He knew how to support you and play under you, and the sound he gets out of the instrument, I could go on forever. His time feel is just so incredible! We have another tour coming up.

We’re going to be playing with Joe LaBarbera in California, in
San Francisco on July 26 at the Black Cat and on July 27th at Campus Jack’s Jazz Club in Orange County.

And we thought, since we’re doing these gigs with them and we’re going to be in California, let’s do another record with him. So we’re going to be doing another album with Joe LaBarbera, and I’m so excited for it.

Robert: Well, we’ll have links to your website, and once again, it’s great having you here! I know you’ve got to get to your gig up the street in about 5 minutes.

Bijan: I’m going to change and run over there!

Robert: Thanks again for coming. And once again, I’m Robert Estrin, this is LivingPianos.com.

Bijan: Thank you, Bob.

It’s true that an older U1 might not have the same sound and quality as a newer one. It depends upon how much it’s been played, how much wear, the degree of restoration, and many other factors. But since there are so many of them out there, you could probably go to a number of piano stores and find used U1s. Technicians know how to work on them. They are dependable pianos. It’s easy to go with a good Yamaha if you’re looking for a mid-range upright that’s going to do the job for you without breaking the bank.

I’m a real lover of Baldwin pianos.

I grew up with Baldwin pianos. My father, Morton Estrin, was a Baldwin artist. We had Baldwin Grands in our home. In fact, my sister has my father’s seven foot Baldwin, which we restored for her. And I have his Steinway here, which is a whole other story we’re going to get to next. Baldwin, particularly the Artist Series Baldwins, represent tremendous value. Baldwin suffered a bankruptcy in the early 2000s. There was some quality decline towards the end. Worse than that, now there are Chinese pianos bearing the Baldwin name. It has cheapened the brand. Because of that, you can get a piano that’s on a top-tier level for closer to a mid-range price. Once again, it’s all about the condition and which particular years the pianos were manufactured. There are some deals on Artist Series Baldwins that are worth your attention.

Steinway pianos can be a tremendous investment if they’re rebuilt well.

There are a lot of people who just do what I call cosmetic rebuilds because there are so many people looking for Steinways. The smallest baby grand Steinway costs over $80,000 new! So obviously to get a used one in good condition for less than that can be a tremendous investment. So that’s a great used piano to look for. They are very popular. There are a lot of good used Steinways out there. But there also are a lot of questionable used Steinways out there. Once again, if you have questions, you can always hire a piano technician to check the piano for you.

I mentioned Baldwin and Steinway, I must also mention Mason and Hamlin.

Mason & Hamlin still build pianos outside of Boston. You can sometimes find deals on older Mason and Hamlin pianos. Again, some years were better than others, and condition is of paramount importance. But Mason & Hamlins are built so tough that they tend to last longer than a lot of other pianos. They have the tension resonator bracing underneath which supports the soundboard and the rim of the piano. So a lot of older Mason and Hamlins still have a lot of potential, as long as the worn parts are replaced.

One of the great uprights of all time were Baldwin Hamiltons.

The Baldwin Hamilton used to be the most popular upright in America. In fact, that was a piano I grew up with! My father bought my sister and me a Baldwin Hamilton as our practice piano. They were workhorse pianos. They were in schools and churches and homes. You can still find some of them out there. The furniture style isn’t quite as modern as pianos today. Often, they are in oak or other lighter woods. They are kind of industrial, but they were great practice pianos. If you find one that isn’t worn out, and if the furniture doesn’t bother you, it could be a tremendous piano to get.

Those are five pianos that are worth looking for on the used market.

I mentioned those five pianos, but honestly, any American made piano that’s not worn out, that has been well cared for, could be worth your while. Whether it’s a Knabe, a Chickering or a host of other brands, the methodology of many of these pianos is very similar to what Steinway and Mason & Hamlin make today. But because some of these brands are lesser known, you can get them for so much less money. If they’re not in bad shape, they could be worth putting some money into to get them on a high level. They can last a very long time.

What about other Asian pianos?

Asian pianos tend to not age as gracefully. More than that, let’s say you want to rebuild the action on a low end Chinese piano, for example. Well, maybe that piano only costs $10,000 new. Are you going to spend $5,000 to rebuild the action? It’s kind of questionable. However, sometimes you can find Asian pianos, whether they’re made in Indonesia, Korea, China, or even a Japanese piano that sat in somebody’s home as a furniture piece, rarely played, and everything’s in good shape. It probably needs tuning, regulation, lubrication, and a host of refinements. But maybe it’ll cost you less than $1,000 to do the work on it. If the piano has never been played, you can have a perfectly good instrument for a fraction of what it costs new. So you can’t leave out Asian pianos completely, as long as they don’t need much work. They can be worthwhile for you for the right price!

Welcome to Living Pianos. The subject today is about what college piano sales are all about. You’ve probably seen them at your local college or university, and then the next year they have them again. And you wonder how they have so many pianos to sell! Also, you wonder, if these are college pianos, what kind of condition could they possibly be in. (We’ve all seen school pianos!) Well, I’m going to tell you what these sales are all about so you can determine if it’s something of interest to you so you can decide if you’d like to investigate them for yourself.

This is a very common practice. They are events held at colleges, universities and also in conjunction with arts organizations. The way they work is with an arrangement among a piano dealer, a piano manufacturer, a finance company, and an institution, typically a school. The arrangement is made to loan several new pianos (perhaps 6-8 pianos) for a year at no charge. In exchange, the institution agrees to open up their facility (and more importantly their mailing list) to have a limited time piano sale which is marketed with tens of thousands of dollars of advertising. The piano store then engages piano movers to move dozens of other pianos from the piano store into the school, performance venue, or other facility for the sale.

If you research this online, “What is a College Piano Sale”, you will find a lot of opinions on this practice.

These sales are generally held in conjunction with Yamaha, Steinway, or Kawai. If it is a Yamaha event, there will be mostly Yamaha pianos there. If there is a specific model of Yamaha piano you are after, it can be a good place to get a decent price on the piano without the hassle of negotiation which is typical in new piano stores. However, the expense of moving the pianos in and out, along with the heavy promotional costs precludes spectacular deals at these events. It is also not a place where you have much time to try out instruments. They try to create a buying frenzy by limiting time, and fostering an urgency for a buying decision before the pianos are sold (even though most of them go back to the store after the sale is over).