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The New York City Piano Store Tour
Saturday, January 15, 2000
Updated: February 24, 2000
I set out to do something rather ambitious; to tour the piano stores in New York City in order to find out what pianos they had, how they displayed and sold them and also to find out how they viewed rebuilding or restoring pianos.
This is only the opening page, there will be others that follow on each of the five stores I have decided to review from the tour. I didn't make it to two other stores that I had on my list. I will try and get to them in the next few months and there are others that I will be adding to another tour. I'm going to include a link to one of these that I missed and once you've seen what kinds of pianos they have, you'll want to visit them too. There were over sixty pictures taken and these will begin to show up as the articles appear.
But first I want to introduce the five stores I will be reviewing. I recommend ALL of them to you as together providing you with more than you will need to find the piano of your dreams, and moreover one that you will be able to afford, if you have the means to come to New York and find it. The stores are listed in the order I visited them. I didn't get to Maximiliaan's. Next time.
37 West 20th Street, CHELSEA New York, NY 10011 (888)-456-4300 |
Steinways, Yamahas, Baldwins, rebuilding. Basically a very small piano rebuilding outfit on the 11th floor of an old industrial building. Frank La Piana, and others. Joan Crossett (owner). |
2. Faust Harrison Pianos205 West 58th Street, MIDTOWN New York, NY 10019 (212) 489-0666 |
Mason & Hamlin, Schulze-Pollmann, Steinway and other restorations. A beautiful showroom full of some of the finest pianos you'll ever see. John Fisher, Irving Faust & Michael Harrison (owners) |
3. Beethoven Pianos232 West 58th Street, MIDTOWN New York, NY 10019 (212) 765-7300 |
Steve Golemboski, Carl Demler (owner) Three floors of everything from the merely interesting to the simply astounding. Weber, Estonia, Sauter, many others... |
158 West 55th Street, MIDTOWN New York, NY 10019 (212) 581-8410 (212) 247-4873 |
Bruce Nidd, (sales manager) Mr. Binder (owner) A large roomy store full of pianos. Samick, Petrof, Kawai, and many others... |
433 West 45th Street, CLINTON "Hell's Kitchen" New York, NY 10036 (212) 279-6683 |
Peter Bondy (owner) A tiny store run by a man who believes in his product and can prove it. Yamaha, Kawai, Baldwin and more... |
MAXIMILIAAN's HOUSE OF GRAND PIANOS 200 Lexington Avenue between 32nd and 33rd. Main Floor, MIDTOWN New York, NY 10016 1-800-742-6607 Fax: 1-212-689-2178 |
Maximiliaan Rutten (owner) Said to be a piano museum, full of astounding art case pianos and restorations of early keyboard instruments. Art case grands, Bosendorfer, Fazioli and others... |
If you're planning a trip to New York and you're interested in pianos, you should definitely call ahead and plan to visit one or more of these fine piano businesses. I guarantee that among them you will most likely find at least one piano that will completely astound you. You may return home never being able to forget the experience. I have gathered a few experiences like this from this whirlwind three day tour that shall shortly appear at this site. Stay tuned.....