The Steinway Hunter A Memoir

“Every piano has a story to tell. And Bob Friedman has been chasing pianos and the stories behind them for decades!” -Jon Regen Editor, Keyboard Magazine

“The average life span of a piano is about seventy-five to one hundred years. If a piano could talk, what would it say? What has it witnessed in its lifetime? Whose fingers have played it? How many times has someone played ‘Happy Birthday’ on it? How many children have learned to love music through its ivory keys? Has it been neglected in a cold, dark, damp basement for the last fifty years, or has it graced the stage of one of the world’s most prestigious concert halls? In this book, Bob gives a voice to some of those pianos and we learn the answer to some of those questions.” -Joe Ross Founder, PianoMart.com Piano Technicians Guild Registered Piano Technician

“Bob Friedman’s legacy as the Steinway Hunter has no doubt connected more Steinways with more people than anyone else. His quest embodies the fascination of a child finding a great treasure, only to share it enthusiastically with his friends seeking the same. His heart of compassion, integrity, and sense of fair play all speak of his love of people, pianos, and piano craft.” -Dale S. Erwin ErwinsPiano.com Piano Technicians Guild Registered Piano Technician

Part treasure hunter, part problem solver, and part keen observer of human nature, Robert Friedman has spent decades buying, restoring, and finding new homes for pianos built by one of the finest manufacturers in the world: Steinway & Sons.

In his search for grand pianos that could be brought back to their original magnificence, Bob–aka the Steinway Hunter–has traveled from the Canadian border to south Florida and west to the Mississippi River. Navigating through hills and hollows and along dark city roads before the era of GPS and cell phones, he relied on pay phones and paper maps to locate old country churches, opulent mansions filled with surprises, and the homes of an astonishingly wide range of people, from genteel elderly ladies to a down-on-their-luck family about to lose their ramshackle home and on to a faded but wily Southern belle intent on revisiting her glory days and getting top dollar for her piano at the same time.

Throughout his trove of stories and experiences, Bob’s love of music, family, friends, and colleagues shines through. By turns humorous and poignant, the Steinway Hunter’s accounts of his journeys give us a look into a life spent in one of the best ways imaginable, combining a passion for music and fine pianos with a desire to bring about the happiest possible ending not only for his clients, but also for the venerable, beautiful pianos he seeks out along the way.