From British pianist and inventor, Sarah Nicolls comes The Standing Grand – an exciting new vision for the future of the grand old instrument.

As a contemporary pianist, Sarah often came across the problems faced with playing prepared piano. Reaching inside a grand piano to play the strings can mean loss of contact with keys, leaning over music stands and difficulty playing pedals standing up. Sarah’s idea was to change the design of the grand piano entirely.

The Standing Grand is at the forefront of piano technology. The new design from Sarah Nicolls puts the sound of a grand piano in a package half the size.

Under the company name Future Piano, Nicolls began prototyping the idea back around 2016 – and with the help of company KeechDesign – managed to design a lightweight & portable acoustic grand piano. By sending the strings up vertically from the keys both the layout and accessibility of the instrument is optimized.

The piano design includes rear-mounted hammers and string dampeners that sit behind the strings. This gives the players easy access from the front of the piano for sound manipulation. The straight strung format also means that there is access to every single string on the instrument, perfect for students or contemporary professionals.

Simply moving a grand piano from one room to another can be insanely costly. Luckily, The Standing Grand boasts a weight of only 82kg. A number less than half that of a usual grand piano, which comes in at a whopping 450kg. With almost $5000 pledged on Kickstarter, hopefully this instrument can have a bright future.

You can find Sarah’s Kickstarter page here and visit the Future Piano website here.