Unveiling the Genius Behind the Bogányi Grand Piano: A Modern-Day Masterpiece

And I'll hires it all down there. You must be calling off. Now winter winter is coming, but we're going to have a hot spell over the next week and a bit goes back up to high twenties, almost thirty. Yeah, I can't wait.

I'm trying to get back to Hungary soon. I lived between aut Apace and Hawasinki's Okay, Fundad is very small, five million people. Hunger is ten million people. But Hungry is in the middle of Europe.

It's an export economy. It has agriculture. Fundland is more of a tech and services industry, and they even though they have a big paper industry before and then obviously Nokia which went out the window. Now it's full of the little startups in gaming and obviously some industrial tech companies, a lot of them.

I worked with it. And Hungary is a black centerpiece of Eastern and Central Europe. So it's a big logistics center to big Aga cultural center. And obviously the Greater Hungary was much bigger, so this well.

It was the Austro Hungarian Empire for a long period of time, so they did dominate Central Europe. Yeah, it was a massive empire. I mean it was one of the malting pots of centuries. I mean, the Hungarian borders are like more than a thousand years old.

It's not that new country. But I really appreciate that because my family is Polish, so we've sort of seen a bit of what happens in the eastern European side. But it's been probably twenty five years since I traversed Hungary from we did Austria Hungary and then went into the Slovak Czech Republic and Slovak Republic. But everyone forgets that.

I suppose it's the eastern side of Hungary that is the bit that lay people like me over here in Australia don't usually do much with. You see the beautiful Buddha and Pest with the Danube going through it, but you don't realize, you don't realize how close the east really is, like the Russia and Ukraine. Like I permitted that, I just then joined the doss. Of course, Ukraine's right next to you go border.

Yeah, And it's funny because here we just think of I know, because hungry is just hungry is just there. Yeah, and you know, worry about what's on that side. But it's perfectly central. You've got all the beautiful culture you know from from.

The it's it's, it's, it's. Just renowned for music and good cultural classical music, amazing composers, amazing musicians that have lasted centuries, and and how it were so culturally advanced many centuries ago when you know there were still barbarians in England exactly. And also this whole you know, like Lubric's quit comes from Hungry. They're all they're very maybe if because of the language, they're very high up with the mathematics.

And yeah, Bill Gates the next guy, and Microsoft was a Hungarian guy. The programers and and Hungary and Budapest was the Hollywood of viewer. If you look at before the Second World War and the movies and everything around that, the Hungary in TV is insane, like the films and the way they're set up. That's why you see a lot of the Trump Cruise and a lot of Bollywood movies and even now not only Hollywood, but people want good production and amazing architectures.

So different. The country is so different, and there's lots of people who want to work. It's cheap, so there's a massive film industry and that still goes in Hungary and that cultural thing is still carried on, and obviously the chess champions and business mathematical minds and all of that stuff. But when you look at like the last twenty years of how Hungary is developed and the investment and how the export economy, and obviously now it's a manufacturing hub, and Hungary has a lot of nuclear power plants, which help you know.

I think they have the cheapest energy in Europe now, so that's why you have all the investment from the East. You have byd the biggest factory Samsung. I mean, these battery factories are just insane and BMW all the German manufacturers coming there, and that's that's good in one way. Also on the natural resources, you don't want too much of that huge industry eating away your nice beautiful landscapes.

Hungary, I say, it's not a big country from what it was, and it has amazing natural resources and just countryside and stuff. So people are already sensitive about that. Maybe can you give us a bit of a background to yourself and your relationship with Goge. The Begunny piano projects started off because Gergay is my by there in love.

I met him obviously in Hungary and over the years he kept telling me about his project, what he wants to do and that's crazy, and he showed me some drawings and this was two thy eleven or twelve. Him being one of the top classical woman Zacher rock Start and Hungary for classical music. He's he's one of the top top chopin and list performers worldwide. M h m hm hm hm hm.

And he was really interested to start this piano project. And once he got the whole author movie, he asked me to jump in and help him creating the branding and the marketing, and obviously more than happy to do that. And he he was really you know, his passion for music, as you know, these guys are so I always say, obsessed in a good way about what they did. When he was talking to me about it, you said, yeah, So, once upon a time I played one of lists of old pianos and he said the sound of this piano was so soft and round and smooth, and he said, I've been playing all these other pianos and the concert halls and they're great, but I just the concept suddenly came into my head that I want to play something that I just feel that it's me playing.

I want this sound, this smooth, round sound. And he said this piano was really small. And he said that the pianos of say list error that that time we're made for concert halls with maximum I think two hundred to three hundred people. So the des parent of the piano in the last two hundred years, they goo, oh, it's in a concert hall, just needs to be bigger, So they just made it bigger.

So if you think of anything like automotive design, how much that's changed over two hundred years with the needs of people or roads or travel or engine sizes and the design has changed. That didn't just make the same you know, bluebird bigger or smaller. And he's obviously into his sports cars and design, and he was thinking well made, and I've also made some really good carbon fiber guitars and shallow. He said, there must be a way to figure out what is the main issue.

The pain point of every concert pianist is that the piano is consistency and quality of sound is always affected by the soundboard and obviously the tuning, which means that there's dust humidity playing as well obviously decreases increases attention and the keyboard area and strings. And so he was thinking, well, if I could get a soundboard that wasn't wood and I made it out of carbon fiber, a composite that would now have a much crisper and clearer resonance, maybe that would work.

And so he started off with this carbon Father sound and flitted it into the piano. He headed home and they tried a few different versions of the composite mix, so it's not purely carbon Father and that. He was like, Wow, this winning makes a big difference. But what if I changed the whole thing?

What if I changed the whole design? Because the Formula one cars and aerodynamics and sound of change, there must be a different way. So you had a really good friend of his, guy called Peter Rijesh, and we called him mister New York and he's this really introverted industrial design and he designed guitars. And he said, I'll have a go, and so he said, can you make it like a sports call, but something totally different that attached into account, and see if you can make it like a modern design.

They obviously sat and talked, and they came up with the fact that the piano the way it's made the third leg, the one at the front, the sound goes out and then it goes down into the floor again. So if you play on an normal piano design as an artist, you feel like the sound is going away from you and out. It's not like with you, and it's a little bit of a not a delay, but it just feel different to now. You said, if I tacked the third leg out, we would get the sound more instantaneous and more more resonance towards the audience and less friction on the sound because of the design and the flow of the piano put on like a plint and not with the third leg going into the floor.

So so you made up some wild designs and somehow they came up with it. And that was the essence of the story, is that you wanted to make this design that just gave them this round, flowing sound. But just thinking about it and getting into the carbon fiber and having these ideas that could work, they ended up with this what they called it back piano. Looks like a batmobile.

Is it physically bigger than a traditional grand piano? The size I think that, yeah, there's there's two sizes. There's two meters ninety two and two meters sixty two with sixty two is almost the sort of in between size, but the two ninety two is bigger. So it's based on the size fairly close.

But I wouldn't say it's massively bigger, but I think it can be wider. It is a it is a more aerodynamic shape, so so that I don't think it's massively bigger, but it is very close to the same size. It is. It is bigger and one of the latest inventions that is done is the heaviest part of the piano is the cost iron centerpiece, you know, so to hold all the strings together with the tension.

I forget about how much pressure, but I don't. I want to say third tons, but I think it's more really yeah, you know the pressure. Yeah, so to keep the tension because there's the strings are held together by the centerpiece and then you have the mechanism which then hits them to give the residents. Now that that is out of cost iron, I think they're wells more than two hundred kidos or grand pianos, a massive great that's why the pianos are so heavy.

So he's made a carbon faber centerpiece to fut that into like as a replacement. So it's takes a whole lot of white talk the piano as well added to the design, so he's actually managed to make a carbon fiber centerpiece is able to hold the tension, so they can make all the elements in the faction as well, so it's already a good piece of caftsmanship. You know, the guys are in the factory. You know, it's literally some really good friends and guys that work in woodwork and have learned everything from from scratch to make this happen.

So with the try to get my head around. So the team anology is that it's a bigger, cleaner sound on the back of the sound waves coming out of a different shape. But also the materials are different because you don't have the timber soundboard, You've got a carbon fiber. So it's really utilizing modern materials to play an ancient instrument, but refining it in such a way that it projects and is cleaner in it's in the audio that's coming out of it, and it's.

Lighter as well. But the most important part is obviously that the keyboard mechanism. So they've even modified to make their own mechanism because not many piano manufacturers. It's a pit duck bosh with automotive.

You know. They don't make the winskin, wipers and those kind of internal elements. They make the body. But then and they are luck famous keyboard manufacturers that make their specialize in keyboards.

So that with the shape of the piano being slightly different and the bullet of possibility to make this called a graph system and slightly modify it to assess the sound the way that I mean Derek, he did make some adjustments and to make the actual keyboard and the mechanisms slightly different so that he gets a bit of sound out of it. And after now it's out ten years, I think they've where he got the consistency and the quality of the sound. So it has to be said that when when he wanted to make the piano, it wasn't to compete with Stanway or Yamaha or bosen offer.

It was to make his own so sound that he liked that he knows is going to add something to the more value and sound beautiful to the audience. It's not to say that, oh no, we don't like Stanway or because you can't compete with those guys their massive manner factoring guides, and they've obviously got huge heritage and skills and they're amazing at what they do. But this is almost like someone making a like a Bugatti instead of a Foi or you know, it's it's just the two of their cars or their their pianos.

But the ones is a buguetti. It sounds like that, and the other ones are for it sounds like that. The traditional pianos or what they are, and the beginning piano is what it is, except that the whole point is to make some easy on the eye and the ear, so it sounds as good as it looks. And as far as the interface from the pianist with the piano, that side of it still remains the same.

So it's still played exactly the same way. So you could jump from Steinway to to this this piano and the technique is not different in any way, shape or form. However, the sound is different. Yeah, absolutely, it's it's luck driving a car.

You same thing, you just got a different engine. It's going to feel different. Obviously, maybe the pressure of the keys and then the resonance of the sound. What the musicians have said, they had a good quote from the guy that would look worth the launches a famous jazz pianist called Joel Clayton.

He's from New York. He said that it feels like you are hovering in a cloud of sound when you play like the sound you're just in this bubble of sound, compared to when you play another piano where the sound is moving away from you. What I find fascinating about looking at the pictures of that is just it's like our art piece. Traditional pianos are pretty standard and therefore they have never really changed much.

So if you look at traditional top piando as they all looks similar, but yours looks completely different and it looks like a huge artful. I know. That's the feeling I got what was really interesting. And I think that you hit the nail on the head in the sense of making a piano.

Obviously, it's the high end pianos very expensive, and if you look at the market, it's hard to break into the high end markets or the top concert hall and music academies around the world because they have contracts or they bound and the bigger, more established manufacturers like Stanway or Young Vergent offer and all the international competitions are obliged to use certain brands. So to come from nowhere unless you've got a massive investment and to come into that that market is you know, it's a different game.

But I don't think that's not the sort of idea that Getty had, was to make something that you love and put it out there and make it just at least get it into the world, not to suddenly not become a musician and a huge businessman and lose your focus on your music. He's never lost that focus in this sort of the Duke world that he wanted it to be. But what it really is is a piece of functional art. That's what I call it.

Because for the people that buy these, I mean normally the prices around turn and fifty thousand viewers and give or take the customization or the duties and transport your area. The people that buy them are normally like will really wealthy real estates owners or very good for yachts, super yachts because of the humidity and the way that the piano handles or weather conditions. Not to say that you don't need to maintain it or clean it. It's a nice piece of art you have in your lounge or your hallways or your entertainment areas.

And for that reason, the self playing systems are really useful. You don't need to hire a pianist to play. You can get the self playing system and play you know, your favorite chairs or whatever you want, and you have this centerpiece or artwork that's giving you some nice life piano music, which is really cool. So mm hmm.

The core of it was actually also, what do we call this thing? What should it be? You know, does it need to have the name of the inventor or shat it be another burn name? And the funny thing was was that it's like this, the bagani piano is the only piano that's been invented by a pianist, you know, every other piano, of course, I've had influence from famous pianists asking, but normally this is the first one that that's been really designed by a pianist.

You said, you know, i'm playing it, I wanted to sound like this or when when he's playing. So that's why it was, you know, brainer for me to s well, you've got to have your name on it, because that gives it the credibility because all other manufacturers are obviously the names of the inventors or engineers or like, that's where the credibility comes. And so if you make it another name, is about reputation and people's belief in the product and expertise. If we gave it another name, we'd still have to explain why it's good.

Getting Gunning is involved. So it just made much more sense. And to make it like the Will premium luxury signature brand that would cut through the clutter of this sort of old classical, two hundred year old state design and something more interesting that. That was the main idea around it.

Just it just made connected with the story and the old philosophy and expertise behind it much tighter. It sounds like a simple thing, but we had some really long discussion the hotest name on the piano, or if guys don't like the way it plays, and it said, well, there's there's a lot of sensitivities. So but eventually we came back around it to it makes the story much more simple. Branding needs strong, simple messaging that people can believe and when they look at it and find out it stays, it's not not too much of a weave to get there.

M yeah, yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah. Yes, yes, yeah, yeah, we did a few sort of i would say internal and external things and and it's actually a bit of a dichotomy, Like the hard hard problem is is you've got this amazing instrument that sounds great, but the way yet he plays and he can play anything and make it sound good.

I mean, that's that's a hard part when you're making a product. It's a bit like asking, you know, you get Kimmy Wakon and to drive your car and he's like, yeah, no, this is not bad, but he can do things that normal people can't. You have to sometimes be caref howardvanced the quality of just normal is so that that was one thing too, not to go too deep into it, but to go, well, hold on, we're going to make something that is not going to sound like the stanoid. It's not going to sound like its own but that level of playing and quality and experience or a concert pianist at the highest level to play must feel at the same level of qualities.

Yes, so that was the you know, the kind of quality control we have to try to figure out. It's not that easy because it's quite subjective, and you know, some people can go, I know, this is not good for me, or it's too stiff forwards, too soft, thoughts, too loud, or you know, it's it's not an easy balance to just ask opinions. Eventually you have to try to look at the manufacturing standards and then you have to draw the line and go right now. We finished this is it, and we also did do some sound tests and just to get an idea of where the resonance of like say a Steinway or other pianos were, just to make sure that the quality is there.

And obviously we have a few musicians in our families, so the whole families or musicians, so there's a lot of critique coming from there, you believe you me on how you know whether it's good sound or bad sound, or short or long. That has obviously taken place on our musician level, but also on a sort of commercial level. Obviously taken to places in Munich and Germany for showcase events. We even had a show at the Big Boys Toys in WW to test it out there.

But I think going too far on the sort of luxury and in terms of that environment, maybe that's too far. But then also going into the music world, you don't want to be too tight there either, because we're not trying to compete with anyone. It's almost in a category of its own between functional art and beautiful music and a whole different genre. We almost had to think that, yeah, okay, the world position is okay, is it better than a stand we're as good?

Does it fit into the classical music world? Of course it has to perform at that level. Guaranteed we're not as a business, you're not going to succeed by going head on into that market point. They're so well established and we are just a small manufacturer in hungry and growing to brand.

So that's a big challenge and also to be a boutique business. More about China position with interior designers, architects, maybe big real estate developments as well, who link to the interior designers who want people that want very high end furniture and these kind of things that fit into their designs, which is why now they're making a few smaller versions and things that could be more suitable for homeowners and not so massive. Being such an interesting project like that because you crossing between so many genres, like it's a bit like you know, yeah, Audi makes the A two and then they also make the R eight and we sort of jumping into the R eight se because scenario from zero.

But you still want to appeal to normal drivers, So this is this is it and and and also you're jumping into the whole zone of competition that's been established and very well established for many years with a whole new design. Where have you solved the first pianos? Where's your main market being? So far?

Obviously there's a lot of support from the Hungarian government and so they purchased the first few into all the main concert halls and one or two of the embassies as well, So that's like a showcase of Hungarian innovation and productivity if you want to port order obviously music, and then the other clients are basically super richual well of people that want some really interesting furniture because you can customize the piano and obviously each one is made with a serial number and it's you always.

They obviously like that exclusivity and luck high end luxury item. They're buying an expensive furniture anyway, and normally it's not the owners themselves. They all have people that look after the projects. So whether it's the architect or the or luck designer.

They'll both have interior design firms or consultants showing them certain things. So that's one of the news areas we try to talk do so to any not about massive marketing, and it's about trying to get into the zone. And most of the people who sell who don't want their names know it's it's very private because at that level they're not wanting driven the names rested around, which is also tough in a way. But you want to showcase some of your your pieto is in the right area.

At least mainly in Europe where they mix in the Middle East as well. Yeah, Africa, America obviously the Middle Easter is a market that we want to get into and we're working on that. You also need people that luck for music, not just a nice piece of art. It's that they're expensive and there's not being used that often.

And obviously looking at China as well, I mean, I think at this point starting with so there's more pianos into China than Europe almost wow. So the Chinese have a really good you know, they have a massive affiguration for classical music and they have unbelievable work ethic and I mean my son's pianists as well, So the competitions to go to all the academies all over Europe. You see these guys. They were not only piano, but all kinds of classical music.

The Asians are. They have an amazing work ethic and passion for that. It's quite incredible. They over index in our private schools here from a music perspective, and they're incredible.

The skills and technique just amazing, Amazing to listen to, amazing to think, Yeah, they're. Discipline for kids. You know, I've seen kids in Hungary and now you know, don't want to be wrong, but they are ten, eleven, twelve, and you can see they're basically on their own with the future and their parents or maybe sort of China, and they're learning and being looked after and coached it on the way because it's just his zone, proper focus. It's quite fascinating.

Actually sometimes a bit disconcerting because if you look at the Western especially Western European waye as well, the music academies and all that, most of the income and tours and that are going towards the East. The market is there. You know, you really need to keep a good balance. You know it's not a bad thing, but like I find it really interesting.

I'm going, look, I one, that's funny because you know, like we love karate and and all these martial arts, okay, and the Asian guy. I love the classical music and they get they're super good at it, but there are not many worse and people playing Chinese music, you know, like the Hops, and they're like, you know what I meant. It's obviously a human connection in the mathematical minding with them and sound that makes this connection which is a very far one from classical music into like the Far East.

I've always been hard does it connect so well because you wouldn't think that it would. And that's in that way because it's it's but I think it's about music, culture, education, discipline and ability and technique as well. They fascinated by that this work ethic and ability to perform at the highest level. So I mean, you have Yo more Lang Lang, all these guys, and that's just the top ones.

You have conductors, this phenomenal. The next steps from here? Where do you see you guys going from here? You're going to keep on doing what you've been doing?

Or do you have some quite big plans of what you want to achieve. Yeah, I think one of the things to achieve is obviously more fluid business and sales, and also maybe trying to ian after freaking from my own behalf. But I think the fact itself as very small. I guess we can produce maybe three or four a year, but normally it's like one or two pianos a year, keeping it clean, doing some innovation.

It's not a super fast moving business. But that's also driven by sale. So you know, I think I said, a perfect time now to look at it carefully and think, well, you know, if we do, you know, want to invest and get some investors in. We've got a good footprint out there, we've got a great product.

You've got everything in place for the next phase. And like I said, already now, I haven't seen the funnest product of this. There's a smaller grand piano coming. I think it's two meters twelve.

The smallest one now is two media six, and then even working on I think an upright piano as well. But with the Bergunia you kind of designed, I'm not sure if that's hot for the press right now, but I know that that's what's coming out in the sum set when the factory is got some extra funding and is working towards that. It's focusing on that design and inno version more than making new ones, because all the pianos are made to order and it takes around three to four months for one to be finished on screetch, obviously depending on customization and keyboard.

So you can change the colors, you can add cool fixtures of gold or diamonds or whatever it is. Is some really interesting cosmetics. You can make carbon fiber. Well, obviously you can paint a normal piano as well, but the carbon fiber has some really nice qualities that you can use to make different colors and shapes.

And we've made one Luck really sky sort of sea blue piano, one Luck sort of champagne brown. One looked amazing red one for all we read one. So you have different options that make it make it cool. So it's really a small business, sort of family one at the moment.

And this is really I would say it's it's an unbelievable project for me because it's a it's a family business but created literally Luck from scratch with h pertise, with a whole creative endeavor. Luck that is normally it's just never happened. It's just yeah, yeah, that would be nice. You know, it looks good, but you never make it.

And so for all the guys that work in the factory and girls and the designer and has got some really good potential for the future. I think, boy, that was fantastic. That's it's an amazing product. What an evolution, not evolution, what a revolution in something that has been so stayed for so long.

And you're right, it's a segment that's been dominated by these old European family businesses, that and that the heritage of those brands. It's I take my hat off to you because it is a challenge to you're really going up against the establishment, and the establishment is not just a small it's a juggernaut. So you've got a groundbreaking product with a totally groundbreaking design, but with an incredible sound. And I like that when you're described it the it's the you're surrounded in this cloud of sound, as opposed to the sound just going producing the sound and going away to the audience.

So that must be an incredible experience for the pianist, let alone the people that are sitting around listening to that, and it has to give the pianist a lift within themselves that they're actually submerged in the music that they're creating. That then it's almost like this self fulfilling cycle of it takes you to another level. And I'm actually my sister played for you. I'm a drummers.

I'm the guy that hangs around musicians, But when I see musicians that get where the music takes them and it takes them to another level, I'm actually excited to see this this inciment being played and hear it being played, because it's just from what you've described, it's like, I really want I want to experience this, this this instrument. I want it because it's the thought of being immersed into something that you're creating the music in that then is giving you that feedback that is stronger than any other instrument of its type can do.

It gets you get goosebumps. So and I'm only I'm only a hack music. But for people like yourself, your family and it's it must be just incredible to experience it, and it's like driving the front and it's the the the that you're correct. I think it's exciting, what an exciting project to be involved in.

And you're right in that you're in the epicenter. You're in Central Europe, which is the heartbeat of classical music. Wow yeah, and and and and made by the actual guy who himself who plays you go, well, what can I do to make something better? How can I make it better?

It's an amazing I mean, there's clarity and the endeavor of people to make that happen. It's just incredible. I think, boy, thank you so much for your time and sharing your story. That's that's that's really exciting.