I am looking at how the piano, a historic and iconic instrument, can be made to fit more appropriately into our modern lives. It seeks to retain the acoustic grand piano with all of its richness of sound and its impressive, monumental stance, whilst also making it a less cumbersome instrument. We aim to radically rethink how a piano works and looks.

In October 2017, ten years after having the idea, I got funding from Innovate UK, to undertake detailed design/engineering work on a really new kind of piano. My project will be familiar to all of you who have seen my piano-endeavours over the last decade but this took my idea onto a whole new level, working with outstandingly creative and technical people to bring it closer to becoming something real. I led a team including Keechdesign UK, Jigsaw Structures, the National Composites Centre and piano builder extraordinaire, David Klavins (his super-light UC piano will be known to some of you and, through pianist Nils Frahm, you might also have heard his impressive pianos at the other end of the scale). Keechdesign UK are a leading London-based design company led by talented brothers Tristram Keech, former Design Director at Conran & Partners and David Keech, who was the first non-Japanese designer to join Yamaha’s creative team in Hamamatsu. Jigsaw Structures are Tim Evans and Chris Vaissiere, experts in how to put different materials together and finally, the National Composites Centre is like a dream aeroplane hangar of materials possibilities where, just maybe, my piano might get built one day… :)

We talked to around 70 people to get views on existing pianos, what it could be, the constraints it currently has (especially musically or logistically).

The team has now focused and, with Jigsaw Structures and David Klavins, we are hoping that 2019 might see the build of our first lightweight prototype.

Please just drop me a line, tweet, etc with the #futurepiano if you’d like to be part of this conversation.