Prelude to a Brilliant Performance: Custom-made Pianos

By Kevin Downey

Say you have an extra quarter-million dollars lying around. You may want to head out to buy a piano. Yes, a piano.

For just under $300,000 one of the most lush-sounding, luxurious pianos in the world can be yours. Custom-made pianos are exceedingly hard to come by. But playing one—and making that kind of investment—is worth the price, say pianists who’ve tinkled the keys on custom-mades.

“As a pianist, I get sucked in,” says Robert Springer, a piano technician and composer whose commissioned work Balloons was performed by the Mesquite Junior High School band in Gilbert in May. “I’ll sit down and play, and two hours will just flash by. The experience is just so different.”

As it turns out, the North Valley boasts one of only four custom-made piano makers in the world. That’s Michael Spreeman, who’s been a piano technician for 36 years and whom Springer happens to work for.

Two of Spreeman’s custom-made Ravenscroft Pianos will be on display at Bally’s Resort & Casino in Las Vegas in late June, and one was in a performance at the 33^rd Annual Paradise Valley Jazz Party in May.

Piano technicians tune pianos and also repair and sometimes rebuild and restore them. Technicians who excel at their craft are highly sought after. It’s a complicated process and takes years to learn. For example, Spreeman says that there are “about thirty different adjustments you can make to each individual key that affects the performance of the piano.”

Even rarer than finding a good technician, though, is finding someone who builds custom-made pianos. Spreeman learned how to build these pianos from the ground up. He worked for a few years as a concert technician. Concert technicians have to fix pianos fast for demanding performers.

“It’s like being an Indy 500 mechanic,” says Spreeman. “You have to be twice as fast and twice as good as the average technician.”

After many years working as a technician, Spreeman began contemplating starting up a piano-rebuilding shop. He did just that. And six years ago, he began building custom-made pianos, averaging about one a year.

“My entire focus right now is building the Ravenscroft Pianos, which requires all the skills I’ve learned over the years,” Spreeman says. “One of the things I love about this business is that it’s like being an artist. If it was possible to learn everything that everyone has ever learned about it, there’s still more to learn.”

For more information about Ravenscroft Pianos, call (480) 664-3702 or visit spreemanpianoinnovations.com.