Pianos by Fandrich & Sons

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Home of the one and only Fandrich Vertical Action that plays like a grand.

Fandrich & Sons Pianos opened in a small store in Seattle, WA in 1993. It is family owned and operated, since 2000 at our home on 5 acres in the woods near Stanwood, WA. The rise of the internet allowed us to move home, where we have our 2000 sq.ft. workshop and our studio with the finished pianos on display.
	Darrell Fandrich, RPT studied violin and piano as a child. He became interested in how pianos worked, and at age 16 studied piano technology at the University of Minnesota's McPhail School of Music, which began a lifelong fascination with how to make pianos more musical. He has put his degree in mechanical engineering to use in developing several innovations that have received significant recognition. See Darrell's resume for more details.
	Heather Fandrich began piano lessons at age 5. She studied piano for 8 years, but with less and less diligence, which she now realizes was largely due to an uninspiring practice piano. She got her BA and master's degree in social work and worked in the juvenile justice system for 28 years. She and Darrell met because her father, Robert Jenny, wrote Darrell's first two US patents. Only after she and Darrell were married did she learn that pianos were in her genes--her great, great grand-father was Frederick Mathushek, a noted piano designer and builder in the late 1800's. Her first experience with a musical piano was playing the prototype of Darrell's Fandrich Vertical Action™. Now she fervently wishes she had grown up with a musical piano, as she knows the results of her musical studies would have been quite different.

"I have played many pianos over the past half century and consider myself an expert in judging the quality of the instrument, both the action and of course the sound. The Fandrich & Sons pianos I heard and played during our recent visit were beautiful instruments. One expected the grands of course to be able to produce a big, beautiful sound and they did indeed. But I was nearly knocked off my feet when I heard what the Fandrich & Sons upright pianos could do. In the past the only upright I ever heard which was halfway decent was the old Steinway upright. But it was nothing compared to your uprights. I wouldn't have ever believed that an upright could sound like a grand but as the saying goes... 'Seeing is believing' or in this case 'Hearing is believing'. This should prove a blessing to those who need the sound and performance of a grand but whose limitations of space make it impossible to own one. I add my congratulations to those of many others."

-- Robert Steinberg, MD
Husband of Dorothy and retired concert performer.