David Klavins
David Klavins ( Latvian spelling: David Klavins ) ( born July 5, 1954 in Bonn ) is a German - Latvian piano maker. With the " Model 370 " presented Klavins 1987 to today 's biggest piano before. In 2012, an implementation of the instrument appeared as a software piano.
Life
David Klavins parents Paulis and Zeltite came in 1945 as refugees from Latvia to Germany. David is the third of eight children. The mother played piano, his father - in the 1990s, a deputy in the Saeima - violin. After high-school diploma in 1971 David Klavins took an apprenticeship as a piano builder Wilhelm Schimmel at the piano factory and closed the doctrine in 1974. He then worked as a piano tuner and piano technician in Bonn in 1976 and founded the "Piano House Klavins ". The Workshop restored and sold second-hand instruments, and later new upright and grand pianos. Klavins from 1980 put the master's examination.
The Model 370
Klavins was a critic of traditional construction through his experiences with the restoration of a concert grand. In particular, the materials used are only traditionally justified and did not comply with the state of modern materials science. With this premise designed Klavins a keyboard instrument whose size and construction should follow primarily acoustic motives, instead of standard specifications and limitations. The result was that in November 1987 the public for the " Klavins piano model 370 ". In contrast to horizontal -built concert grand model 370 is built vertically. It weighs two tons and is run over two floors because of its height of 3.70 m. The pianist is seated on a sort of dais at the keyboard. The sonically relevant soundboard surface of the instrument is twice as large as that of a normal grand piano, resulting in a fuller sound and greater wealth of overtones. The deepest bass string is about three times as long as for a standard piano with 3.03 m. In addition, Klavins used for the model 370, a novel technique of anchoring strings and preserves especially in treble a longer post the string ( sustain).
The pianist, who officially introduced the Model 370, Cyprien Katsaris was. Today the instrument is in Pfleghof in Tübingen is (The photos are from a multi-purpose hall in Bochum). In May 2012, the Berlin music software company Native Instruments was a created by Uli Baronowsky software version of the instrument out under the name "The Giant ". The sampling for recordings took place in the Mehtzweckhalle.
Klavins floated with the model 370 no serial production; it remained at this single copy. At the request of numerous pianists for a built with the latest technology ( horizontal ) Konzerflügel constructed Klavins together with the qualified designer Frank Lenz, the model 408, it has not been built.
Music labels and years of travel
In 1988 he founded his own music label Klavins, " Klavins Music" and invited well-known pianists, to play music on the Model 370. It originated eleven publications with Michael Ponti, Thomas Duis, Joachim Arnold, Gülsin Onay, Michael Denhoff, Simon Nabatov and Wadik Polyonow. The label was bought because of the strong resonance in the Asian region of " Elite Music" in Taiwan and then sold to BMG Asia. Since then, no further recordings were made with piano.
1998 moved David Klavins the land of his parents, Latvia, and worked there politically. To drive further his piano constructions, he went in 2006 to the USA to Woodbridge. In 2011 he returned to Germany. David Klavins has eight children and now lives in Balingen.