New Shigeru Kawai grand pianos
Shigeru Kawai were created as a handcrafted range of grand pianos by Kawai in 1999, by the Chairman of Kawai at the time – Shigeru Kawai. In Japanese culture, by attaching both his first name and surname to these instruments, he committed his personal and family honour to the ideal of creating pianos of the highest standard.
Building on the Kawai family experience of 92 years as a piano manufacturer, the Shigeru Kawai range have reached the top echelon of concert and elite personal instruments in the world.
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Shigeru Kawai were created as a handcrafted range of grand pianos by Kawai in 1999, by the Chairman of Kawai at the time – Shigeru Kawai. In Japanese culture, by attaching both his first name and surname to these instruments, he committed his personal and family honour to the ideal of creating pianos of the highest standard. Building on the Kawai family experience of 92 years as a piano manufacturer, the Shigeru Kawai range have reached the top echelon of concert and elite personal instruments in the world.
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"Takanori Otake, a Master Piano Artisan and member of the original team who developed Shigeru, travels all over the world to work on Shigeru Kawai grands. While I was working with him in Japan, he told me that most of the Shigeru owners he works for used to own Steinways, and have chosen to move to Shigeru."
Value
There are no other brands competing at this level that can offer comparable value for money. Shigeru Kawai are unstinting in their attention to detail at every level, yet they manufacture with such superb process efficiency and skill levels that they are more cost effective than anyone else hand building pianos.
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There is one exception in the relative price scale: the Shigeru Kawai
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SK-EX concert grand commands a higher price than any other concert grand on the market. This is because in the SK-EX range each of these pianos are literally one-off instruments. The team of around 20 master Piano Artisans who build them create new features in every piano, enhancing touch and tone and making each particular piano unique. These features work their way all through the Shigeru range, including the home size pianos, forming the core of research and development. When building Shigeru Kawai pianos, the Master Piano Artisans are given far more time than is common in piano manufacturing.
The materials used in Shigeru Kawai pianos are superb - from the very fine-grain hand selected spruce in the soundboards, which gives a beautiful singing quality - to the hand wound bass strings and finely finished cabinets.
Shigeru Kawai is an option which deserves serious consideration for any pianist or concert venue looking to acquire a piano of the highest calibre.
Shigeru Kawai SK2
The SK-2 offers the elegant profile of a classic grand with a richness of tone unmatched by other pianos in its class. At 180 cm it is a very good size for a home piano, being in the middle of the usual range of pianos from baby to concert size.
Shigeru Kawai’s design gives their instruments exceptional power for their size.
Shigeru Kawai SK6
The SK6 is an instrument of profound beauty and character that will captivate both the eyes and ears in any performance setting.
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It is an incredible piano to sit and play. The tone is dark and rich – solid and silky. The bass and mid ranges contain more of this warmth while the top end has a bit more sparkle. Touch is tapered so that at soft levels, it is delicate, almost like breathing. As you step up to mezzo forte and then fortissimo, it gradually moves to appropriate firmness matching the force of the keys.
The SK6 retains the lovely dark tones even at highest volumes.