Rafael Viñoly and master piano maker Chris Maene have developed the Maene-Viñoly Concert Grand – a unique 21st Century evolution of the grand piano. The instrument’s curved ergonomic keyboard matches the natural sweep of a pianist’s arms rotating from the shoulders and facilitates effortless playing across all registers. The keyboard’s radial arrangement is extended to strings that fan out over a much larger soundboard augmenting the instrument’s capacity for nuance, clarity, and power.
Viñoly, an avid amateur pianist whose own experience and close friendships with master pianists, has sharpened his awareness of the instrument’s biomechanical demands and inspired his idea to curve the keyboard. In a 2016 conversation with legendary artists Maestro Daniel Barenboim and Martha Argerich, he was encouraged to develop the concept. Soon after, Viñoly sought out a partnership with Chris Maene, who had previously developed a straight-strung grand piano for Maestro Barenboim.
First, the team collaborated with noted piano kinematics researcher Renzo Pozzo, professor at the Department of Medical and Biological Sciences at the University of Udine (Italy), and German pianist and researcher Dr. Henriette Gärtner to determine the keyboard’s ideal arc. The further technical and aesthetic development leveraged time-honored piano-building traditions, computer-aided design and acoustic modeling, and the generous feedback and support of some of the world’s most prominent piano technicians and artists including Emanuel Ax, Daniel Barenboim, Kirill Gerstein, and Stephen Hough, among others.
After six years of development, we are proud to present a grand piano that exceeds our team’s expectations of sound quality, ergonomics, construction, and aesthetics.
More information available here.
