Dear Steemit Community,
The headline may surprise you a bit – or a lot, but should you have the patience to read on, you will see my point.
My name is David Klavins, I am building pianos of my own concept and design, also engaging as a partner with piano building projects of other folks who are bold enough to question the status quo in this industry. Below you see a picture of the Una Corda Piano, one example of my work, which I introduced to this planet in June 2014, cooperating with the fantastic German artist Nils Frahm.
Only recently, another new invention of mine became reality – the Model 450i, a Vertical Concert Grand piano that stands 4,50 m tall, which also came true due to the great support of my friend Nils. On May 7 this year we installed it at his studio at the Funkhaus Berlin, where it will be used for concerts and music recordings.
As these two examples show, my approach to piano design differs significantly from what everybody is familiar with as the musical instrument ‘piano’. The primary reason for this is my quest for the maximum best in piano sound, regardless of traditions and conventions – which also reflects my attitude towards life in general. I don’t accept any statements of absolute truth or unchangeable reality, except the divine truth of the Creator of the Universe, as much as there is a chance to grasp it, or rather, a part of it.
Which brings me to the reason why I’ve joined Steemit: it appears to be a platform where people get engaged who are not satisfied with the standards offered by the main-stream media, with the stream-lining ‘politics’ of the vastly corrupted governmental systems of our days, and with the ‘fast-food’ solutions that are dominating the public realm on most of the major social networks. It appeals to me that the main intention of Steemit is adding value, which also happens to correspond with the main motive of my life. :-)
Dtube Video - Hania Rani playing the M450i
Now, why are piano builders an ‘endangered species’?
First and foremost, because the piano industry has been building these instruments since nearly 150 years essentially unchanged, claiming and teaching, that the development of the piano as such has been completed by the end of the 19th century. Throughout the 20th century, until today, the entire education of piano builders (still named as such) focuses solely on maintenance of pianos, tuning, adjusting actions, at the max, rebuilding the existing piano by exchange of it’s broken parts with new ones.
Down and along this historic road, the knowledge and approach that would enable piano technicians to become real piano builders, has gone lost. Logically, in a way – if there’s no need to improve, or significantly change any of the elements of today’s piano, why would anyone bother indulging deeper into factors that determine the design of pianos? Naturally, the industry has no need of actual piano builders, since their concept is to repeat and copy all the principles and processes that have been established throughout more than a century, to preserve the heritage of the traditional piano.
In the light of this, it seems rather strange, how little David happens to be factually the only one on this well established field who dared to chose the path of radical challenge, while being told and taught the same as all his peers, that actually, ‘there’s nothing to improve’ with the piano. There’s hardly any final answer to this question, but in essence, it may be grounded in a strange genetic constellation that enabled him to understand, quite early in his life, that almost nothing is what it appears to be; that indeed wisdom and knowledge are the highest values to strive for, and that constant progress – in every regard – is the most essential driving force in this world, in order for it to evolve into the place that it is meant to be, for all of us.
If you’re curious to learn about my personal take not only on piano design, but also on different other, relevant life’s topics of our days, you may tune in here now and then. Though I’ve got the best of intentions to contribute to the Steemit community on a hopefully regular basis, it’s also pretty sure that at times the piano building duties occupy my time completely, so I may be missing out now and then.
Anyway, I’ll do my best – as always..! :-)
Warmest regards to all of you,
David
Website of my piano building company in Hungary