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.

"The first time I played on your piano with the new [FVA] action, I found it an amazing experience - it was difficult to believe I was not playing on a grand piano. I could see that I was sitting in front of an upright instrument, but the sensitivity to the touch and its capability of giving many degrees of shading and tone coloring were astonishing. Even grand pianos, unless they are the finest, do not respond with the gradations of tone that this upright can give. Recalling the poor pianos often found in practice rooms throughout many music schools and colleges, I cannot help thinking what a boon this piano would be to many aspiring young musicians. In homes also, this piano will greatly help student pianists to develop sensitivity to tone and touch. If a student has a good piano which responds to the various types of touch, gives different tone colors, and lets him know when he has gotten the touch right, he is going to develop greater control and skill in less time. I feel this invention will prove a blessing to all students and their teachers."

-- Michiko Morita Miyamoto