Rich Galassini and Tim Oliver co-own Cunningham Piano, which once manufactured its own instruments. Today, the store is a Yamaha dealer.
A t Cunningham Piano, the goal isn’t sim- ply to sell more pianos. It’s to get more people playing them. That philosophy is behind the company’s new 15,000-square- foot headquarters in King of Prussia, Penn- sylvania, where its piano showroom now shares space with five lesson classrooms, a restoration workshop and a 120-seat per- formance hall. It’s a large investment at a time when the acoustic piano market is navigating some changes of its own. But Cunningham isn’t viewing declining acoustic sales as a reason to pull back. “I don’t think there are fewer people interested in playing piano or fewer people willing to spend money on it. I think the interest is still there,” said Tim Oliver, who co-owns Cunningham Piano with his business partner Rich Galassini. “Some- thing I absolutely feel is that there’s a little bit of a failure in our industry in creating customers.” With its new location, Cunningham Piano is looking to change that. From its new monthly concert series First Fridays to its outreach to schools and religious insti- tutions, Galassini said the future of piano retail lies not in waiting for customers to walk through the door, but in giving them more reasons to come inside. “In our new performance hall, we’ll be offering our First Fridays concert series that we hope inspires new players,” Galas- sini said. “A huge number of the people who take lessons with us purchase pianos with us, sometimes two or three or four. And when it comes to attracting customers
outside of a 10-mile radius, we’ve found that one successful way to do it is helping schools bring more pianos to their students, so we get out there and meet with school [music programs]. The same goes for work- ing with churches and temples which also helps develop more music makers.” From Piano Retailer to Community Hub Oliver and Galassini know Cunningham from the inside out, having worked at the dealership for decades before purchasing it from its previous owners in 2008. Oliver has been with the company for some 29 years, while Galassini joined Cunningham in 1988. That knowledge helped them ensure that Cunningham Piano’s new location is more than just a change of address, but a deliberate shift in how it thinks about its role as a piano dealer. For the last 80 years, the 135-year-old piano retailer had operated in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia. Now, with its new state- of-the-art space, it’s entering a new era. “With this new showroom, we’ve combined our factory and warehouse operations with our retail and our mu- sic school operations all under one roof,” Oliver explained. “What’s interesting is that the customer experience is going to be significantly upgraded, because they’re going to see everything together. From our operational standpoint, everything’s going to be significantly more streamlined and much more efficient. From our vendors’ standpoint, we’re way more accessible.
But all of this started a couple of years ago when we thought to ourselves, ‘How do we control our contraction? We were over here, and over here, and over here.’ So, what’s unique about this situation is that it’s our controlled contraction that’s offering a significantly enhanced customer and operational experience.” In addition to increasing efficiency, Oli- ver said the new showroom will improve the cultural side of the business for customers. “Having a location that does everything is efficient. Period,” he said. “And, this new showroom is also going to become a culture hub and be inclusive. With First Fridays, we’re going to bring music to the people. Our first performer is Eric Wortham, who is better known as Adele’s pianist. He toured with her for many, many years. He grew up in Germantown, so as a kid he would come into our store and sit and play piano before he really knew that was going to be his life’s ambition. So, we’ve got a bond with him, and he’s also a Yamaha artist. We’re the Yamaha dealer for the greater Philadelphia area, so we’ve got all these strong connections like that. Our whole First Fridays series is packed with really, really cool nights. ” Fostering Inclusivity & Technology One way Cunningham Piano stands apart is by challenging the perception that piano retail can sometimes feel exclusive. Instead, the retailer is creating an environment where customers can feel that piano is for everyone.
36 I MUSIC INC. I NOVEMBER 2026
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