Estonia piano

[Ron Torrella]

The Detroit-Windsor Chapter had the president of Estonia pianos as a
distinguished guest, last spring. Nice fellow and a pretty darned good
pianist, to boot. (Believe it or not, he's a college student(!) at either
Julliard or Manhattan School...can't remember which.) He performed several
pieces on a 6' instrument that sounded pleasant. Didn't have a huge sound,
but it was remeniscent of the now-extinct Falcone.

During the chat session with the president of Estonia pianos, we learned
that the Estonia was the "state piano" for the Soviet Union. All Estonia
made was one (or several?) grand piano model(s) - no uprights, another
company was granted that "privilege." (That's why you see a lot of
Estonias in Cuba, Newton.) So, they thought they'd gotten pretty good at
turning out inexpensive grand pianos. Now that Estonia is a sovereign
state, they *could* make upright pianos, but they've decided not to for
the time-being. They're concentrating, instead, on making improvements to
their grands using never-before available resources.

I thought the piano showed a lot of promise. If they can stay in business
(read "compete with other upstart piano manufacturers") they should do
pretty well.

Of course, your mileage may vary.....

Ron Torrella, RPT
Piano Technician		"And like that...he's gone."
University of Michigan		     - Roger "Verbal" Kint (Kevin Spacey) 
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