Arpège exists for a single purpose: to design and handcraft bespoke grand pianos that belong to no catalogue, follow no template, and answer to nothing except your imagination and our obsession with perfection.
No piece of furniture commands a room like a grand piano. Its silhouette, its materiality, its sheer physical authority — nothing else comes close. Yet most grand pianos look alike. We find that unacceptable.
At Arpège we design custom grand pianos from a blank page. Tell us about the space - the stone of the floor, the grain of the joinery, the light at four o'clock in the afternoon - and we will conceive an instrument that belongs there as if the room were built around it. Or bring us a vision entirely your own: a childhood memory rendered in lapis lazuli, a favourite painting translated into marquetry, your family crest etched in bronze.
We work with architects, interior designers, yacht studios and private clients who refuse to choose between musical excellence and visual splendour. The instruments we deliver satisfy both, without concession.
Described by the Financial Times as a "person of note," Muzz brings a rare convergence of disciplines to the craft of bespoke piano making — part lawyer's precision, part polymath's restless curiosity.
Muzz qualified and practised as a lawyer in the City of London before spending years immersed in the study of piano construction: the physics of soundboard resonance, the metallurgy of cast-iron plates, the century-long evolution of action geometry in the workshops of Steinway and Pleyel. That technical depth, married to an instinct for materials and design, led him to establish Grand Passion Pianos — today the UK's only showroom dedicated exclusively to Steinway & Sons and Pleyel grands — at 32 Newman Street in Fitzrovia.
Over fourteen years of handling, restoring and voicing these instruments, a pattern emerged. The most discerning clients — collectors, architects, superyacht owners — did not want a production piano in a different colour. They wanted something conceived for them from the first pencil stroke. Arpège was created to deliver exactly that: a dedicated atelier for bespoke grand piano commissions, unconstrained by any manufacturer's standard catalogue.
The Atelier
A single Arpège commission can draw on marquetry, stone inlay, gilding, lacquer work, acoustic engineering and half a dozen other specialist crafts — all coordinated under one roof. The result is coherence that no outsourced assembly line can replicate.
Figured walnut, macassar ebony, bookmatched burr elm — hand-selected, hand-cut and laid by ébénistes whose techniques trace back to the great Parisian ateliers. Every surface tells a story in wood grain.
The Renaissance art of hardstone mosaic, adapted for piano lids, fallboards and music desks. Lapis lazuli, malachite, onyx and mother-of-pearl, cut and fitted with sub-millimetre tolerances.
Hand-chased bronze fittings. 24-carat gold leaf. Custom leg profiles machined from solid brass. Each metal element is designed and fabricated to the specific aesthetic of your commission.
From mirror-deep polyester in any colour to hand-applied French polish built up over weeks — including automotive-grade metallics and colour-shift finishes for those who want something no one has seen before.
Visual splendour means nothing if the piano does not sing. Our technicians voice and regulate every instrument to concert standards — adjusting hammer density, string tension and damper response until the tone is as compelling as the casework.
Entirely new silhouettes or sensitive adaptations of classic Steinway and Pleyel profiles — developed from technical drawings, 3D renders and physical material samples in close collaboration with your design team.
Pedigree
Arpège is the bespoke division of Grand Passion Pianos Limited — the only piano company in the UK to specialise exclusively in Steinway & Sons and Pleyel. We hold the exclusive UK representation for Pleyel, the world's oldest piano manufacturer, in continuous production since 1807. That heritage — Franco-German, deeply technical, uncompromisingly musical — runs through every commission we accept.
Whether we build an entirely original instrument or reimagine a Steinway or Pleyel to your specification, the work rests on an encyclopaedic understanding of piano acoustics, construction and the two-hundred-year lineage of these remarkable houses. It is this foundation that allows us to push the boundaries of what a grand piano can look like, without ever sacrificing what it must sound like.
Who We Serve
Send us your material palette, mood boards and floor plans. We work as a specialist trade resource from concept stage, delivering a custom grand piano that reads as an organic extension of the scheme — conceived alongside your joinery, not bolted on at the end. Request a lookbook or book a private tour of our atelier.
A grand piano at sea demands marine-grade materials, humidity-resilient construction, vibration isolation and installation engineering for confined spaces. We have delivered custom pianos to superyachts worldwide and understand the constraints — and the ambitions — that come with these extraordinary commissions.
Whether the vision is a sculptural contemporary statement or a period-faithful Art Deco treasure, we translate it into an instrument you will keep for generations. Every bespoke piano we build is a one-off — your name, your story, your design, never repeated.
A bespoke Arpège piano in a lobby or flagship store is remembered long after the visit ends. We consult on placement, acoustics and brand alignment to ensure the instrument makes the impression you intend — visual, sonic and emotional.
Commission Your Piano
You might have a fully realised brief or nothing more than an instinct. Either way, we would like to hear it. Tell us what you are imagining and we will show you what is possible.