A Forever Piano will inspire you for the rest of your life

I have been a professional pianist for over 50 years. 

I've played in banks, department stores, hotel lobbies, restaurants, Cabarets, cruise ships and even Howard Stern's daughters' Bat Mitzvah party, so I've mostly done it all and played on every type of piano or keyboard you can imagine. However recently, after over a half century of sitting behind a keyboard, I desperately yearned for my ”Forever” piano. Why? Well, for one, I remember being a piano performance major at the University of Maryland and every now and then, I'd have the privilege of playing on a quality concert grand and vividly remember how thrilled I was to hear those booming bass notes, the beautiful bell-tone quality of the high notes and the rich resonance of the mid-range. Unfortunately, those experiences are few and far between and playing on a formidable instrument in the real world can be elusive. Again, you may ask why? I can tell you that a premiere grand piano in today's market can cost as much as the home you live in and that's no exaggeration! So obtaining one at a young age can be an unattainable task and cause dismay upon a young prodigy with Steinway wishes and Bösendorfer dreams. 

With the passage of time, piano manufacturers have refined every aspect of the piano...

from mixing combinations of specialty woods to perfect a particular sound to reinventing the action of the instrument so that it responds seamlessly to the pianist's touch. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I'm not a technician, but from my research, there are a myriad number of new improvements in a constant state of enhancement and development, transforming the modern-day piano into a marvel of technology and evolution.

Many years ago, I was hired as one of the pianists at Abraham & Strauss department store in New York City. 

The piano was situated on the second floor next to the escalators and was heard throughout the whole store by an ingenious sound system. My shift varied, but could be as long as eight hours. I played on a Kawai GE-1 which was a small, five -foot one inch baby grand. After a few years, the department store was bought out by the company that ran Macy's a block away and Abraham & Strauss closed its doors, but not before having a fire sale on their pianos and I was lucky enough to scarf this one up for an affordable price.

However, after 9/11, living in New York became a very solemn place. 

Even worse, all my piano work at the hotels dried up because tourism to Manhattan ceased. Consequently, we made the decision to move to a quieter, more peaceful environment and that decision took us to New Mexico where I brought the Kawai with me. Fast forward twenty-two long years later, I just wasn't happy with the tone of this small, baby grand. So I started looking for a new piano. What an eye opener of sticker shock, dizzying so-called sales and an endless array of piano brands! Reality told me to see how much discretionary income I had in the bank and still be able to pay my bills. But that figure wasn't buying much of a piano. So I started looking at used, “For sale by owner” grand pianos and was pleasantly surprised that I might be able to afford a very good (not great) grand piano that was anywhere between seven and fifteen years old. And even though some of these used pianos were enticing, they were in different states where I'd have to fly out to wherever the piano was, play the piano, hire a technician to assess whether the asking price was fair and then, if all went well, pay thousands of dollars to ship the piano to New Mexico. Not going to work. Unfortunately, there is only one major piano dealer here in the state and they specialize in Yamaha, Schimmel and Bösendorfer, none of which, in a brand new, quality grand I could afford. Then I found a dealer in Oregon who had a Kawai GX-5, 6'7” chamber grand that an older client had consigned for sale and when I heard the piano played from a video, it sounded great. I was then ready to fly up there and purchase it when the dealer said the man decided not to sell it! Ugh! I then came across a beautiful Schimmel Intarsia 175 baby grand in Arizona with a gorgeous inlaid wood cabinet that looked and sounded great and was ready to purchase that when the dealer pulled it and said he had underpriced it and it was now $10,000 more! OMG! I was losing my mind, getting hyped about purchasing my ”Forever” piano, only to be disappointed yet again and I must say, the whole ordeal was making me quite depressed. 

At that point, I kind of gave up looking for a piano...

but continued researching when I came across a special type of Kawai piano. It's called a Shigeru Kawai and is made completely by hand, takes years to build and they even age their soundboards as long as five years! This intrigued me greatly, so I continued reading more about the Shigeru, but the more interested I became, the more I saw that the price tag for these “Special” Kawai pianos was out of reach as their prices ranged from $80K-$240K and even the lower, $80K was completely out of my budget. Again, I became saddened, desiring a Shigeru but not being able to afford one. But I didn't give up. I started looking at used Shigeru's, but only found a few because not many pianists give them up once they get their hands on one. I did find a dealer out in California who had a Shigeru SK-3, which was a six-foot, two-inch grand piano. It was priced at $45K which was still out of my price range, but I continued to pursue it. I had read about a gentleman named Don Mannino who was a longstanding and somewhat famous (in technician circles) piano technician who worked for Kawai for decades. I contacted him and asked if I could hire him to assess the Shigeru. He and I agreed on his fee and he graciously obliged. The piano was built in 2022, so it was only a few years old and after Don's thorough assessment, he told me “the piano is in almost new condition and it's a great price!” The dealer agreed to the sale with my Kawai GE-1 as trade, and with the help of my wife's IRA, I was able to finally obtain my “Forever” piano! And let me say, the inspiration I drew from this piano was astounding. The touch and tone was like none I had ever played and was a sheer joy to play. It opened my eyes, my heart and my soul to the perpetual beauty and sound of the piano, the peace that overcomes me when I play it and the overall ease in which I can create from such an instrument. In fact, now that my “Forever” piano has arrived, I experience the most vivid dreams where I hear distant melodies, somewhat like a soundtrack to a scene in a motion picture, and when I wake, I sit at the piano and the melodies flow effortlessly out of me like a cascading waterfall. This new instrument has caused an awakening of my senses that was seemingly lying dormant for decades until that ultimate light switch was turned on. In fact, I have composed enough new songs to fill at least four albums and have a new release out now entitled “Pianistically Speaking” that has received great notices from professionals and customers alike. And I owe it all to my “Forever,” Shigeru Kawai piano.

I even started studying the shape and form of the interior of the piano and began photographing areas from different perspectives using light and shadow and that proved such a revelation, that I've used my photography for all the graphics in my album packaging and the feedback on the visuals is just as positive as the music itself.

To me, being a great pianist means you must feel the music in every aspect of your being...

for playing the piano is an all-encompassing experience. You're given the task of conveying the deep emotion of a particular piece which entails intense, mental and physical concentration. At times, you move your body to the ebb and flow of the music, while at others, you need to stay perfectly still to elicit that final pianissimo. So if one day, that yearn for a “Forever” piano comes waltzing into your head to reawaken your passion, you need to follow your dreams and make that dream come true. For in the end, you will never regret it... 

Richard Atkins

Richard Atkins can be reached at: [email protected]