1. Revolutionary Boganyi piano to make North American debut
Musician discusses his radically redesigned instrument, which he will play Thursday at 11 a.m. at The Elms
 By Sandra Matuschka | Special to The Daily News

Jul 13, 2016
Gergely Boganyi and his radically redesigned grand piano.

2. Gergely Boganyi sits at his piano, which is making its North American debut at the Newport Music Festival.
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NEWPORT — Pianist Gergely Boganyi of Hungary, one of Europe’s leading pianists, wanted a piano to sound the way he heard it in his head for so
long — so he invented it.
The Boganyi piano — a radical redesign of a grand piano — is making its North American debut at the Newport Music Festival, and Thursday at 11
a.m. at The Elms will mark its second performance of the season as Boganyi plays an all-Chopin concert. He will play the futuristic piano again at
the festival’s gala on Friday evening.
A special reception was held Tuesday night to introduce the piano to media representatives and others, though its first performance at the festival
was Saturday night.
Mark Malkovich IV, general manager of the festival, told the audience that although there are a lot of “firsts” associated with Newport, and although
the music festival itself has debuted about 130 artists, this is the first time it has ever debuted a piano.
In an earlier interview, Malkovich told The Newport Daily News, “We moved mountains to bring this piano over from Hungary.” The Boganyi piano is
a little over 8 feet long, a little over 7 feet wide, mostly on a pedestal, and has to be moved upright. Malkovich said, “We were freaking out about
how to get over 7 feet through 3½-foot doorways. We are lucky to have the Newport mansions built not to any scale but their own.”
Boganyi told Tuesday night’s audience that he’d had the vision of a new piano for the ages in his mind since his 20s. The desire grew, and about 10
years ago he embarked on his personal grail quest — a musical instrument that would mirror the greatness of the music it played. He didn’t even tell
his parents what he was doing, and they wondered where all his money was going.
Back in 2010 when The Newport Daily News interviewed him, Boganyi was already well into the process of creating his piano. He said then,
presaging the instrument’s creation: “As long ago as 2,000 or 3,000 years ago, people knew good resonance from bad. Now science can help us
with both the good and the bad resonance.”
The piano is impressive both visually and acoustically. Sculpturally, the shining black piano seems almost ready to be airborne — in fact, the base is
lifted off the floor. There is movement in its very architecture; the gleaming black aerodynamic cover is elegant, and the sweeping lines are befitting
the music emanating from it. The traditional back leg of the piano is entirely absent and it uses carbon composites instead of wood. Wide, curved
legs double as sound deflectors, helping project sound to the audience.
The piano almost sounds like stereo; you can hear the full spectrum of notes simultaneously, and the quietest note is as resonant as the full vibrato
notes. Boganyi said the “singing tone is the most difficult to make, and the piano is 99 percent singing quality; the sound clarity is one of the most
innovative parts of the piano.”
Boganyi reiterated several times that the building of a musical instrument is really a spiritual work. “It was never a sudden decision, but a long,
painful, spiritual journey I needed to go on. I worked very hard, but I have the relentless, Hungarian soul searching for something new and better.”
The soundboard is “the soul of the piano,” Boganyi said. The soundboard is comprised of carbon fiber to contribute to the sound clarity, and also is
therefore not subject to the kinds of conditions from which wood can suffer. The hybrid stringing is comprised of various new-age materials as well.
The piano was built by a German company, Louis Renner, which notes that “the communicative link between a pianist and his instrument is the
action with its hammer heads in the heart of the grand or upright piano.” Renner specializes in producing piano actions and hammer heads that
“largely influence the sound and touch of the pianist.”
“What is the message of an instrument — a piano?” Boganyi asked. “It is the symbol of a culture. It is an icon. An instrument is functional art, but it
bears a spiritual message. In Hungary it is very important for children to have a piano there; it invites you to play.”

3. Boganyi’s partner Francois Bandura, owner of the Mono Group, is a wood craftsman and sculptor who channeled his artistic energies into a state-
of-the-art luxury automotive interior decoration. The combination of his unique skills proved just the ticket to create the Boganyi piano, which has as
its motto: “Sound Beyond Time.” The piano also has the capability of recording and automatic playing as an add-on.
Taking a decade to create, costing 8,000 hours in time and more than $1 million in funding — much of it from the Hungarian government —
Boganyi’s team redesigned the piano’s 18,000 parts both inside and out. The piano costs $300,000, bare bones. There is a six-months wait once
ordered.
“It is now at the stage where production is underway, and with a humble but powerful soul and mind I have managed to give the world a new
instrument,” Boganyi said.