Introducing the Octave Opus I
Most pianos are made.
Ours are composed.
Three years from raw spruce to first chord. A single instrument, built by two hands, voiced to one owner. Not a product line — a commission, signed and numbered, tuned for the century.
An instrument, not an appliance.
In an age of sampled sound and disposable design, Octave was founded on a single, quiet conviction: to build instruments of permanence.
There is no production line. Each grand is built in our Vienna workshop by a master builder and a voicing artist working in absolute tandem — from the felling of the soundboard tree to the final regulation of the action.
"We do not build for a recital. We build for the century."— Henri Vaudron, Master Builder
Timber of Tone
We season our soundboard spruce for a decade before it is touched. Close-grained, high-altitude, split — never sawn — so the grain runs true and the board sings as one.
Regulated by Hand
Every one of the action's thousands of parts is weighed, balanced, and regulated by hand to a uniform touch — the difference between playing a piano and conversing with one.
Purely Acoustic
No amplification, no electronics, no shortcuts. Tone is shaped only by geometry, tension, and timber — physics rendered as music.
Lifetime Voicing
Every Octave owner receives lifetime access to our travelling voicing artists, who return to re-regulate and re-voice the instrument as the timber matures.
The Anatomy of Tone
Draw the slider to disassemble the instrument layer by layer. Hover or tap each element to examine the craft beneath the lacquer.
I. The Lacquered Case
Up to sixty layers of hand-rubbed polyester lacquer over book-matched veneer, mirror-polished across three weeks to a flawless, liquid depth.
II. The Resonant Soundboard
A single book-matched panel of close-grained Alpine spruce, tapered by hand and crowned under tension to breathe as one living membrane.
III. The Hand-Regulated Action
Eleven thousand parts of pear-wood, felt, and leather — each key weighed, balanced, and voiced to a uniform touch measured in fractions of a gram.
IV. The Cast-Iron Plate
A single sand-cast iron frame bearing over twenty tonnes of string tension, bedded into a laminated maple rim for absolute pitch stability.
The Voice of the Timber
The soundboard is the instrument’s lung. Each spruce has its own grain, density, and speed of sound — and therefore its own voice. Select a board to hear how its character renders below.
“A warm, blooming fundamental with a long, even decay. The classical voice — rounded, vocal, and endlessly forgiving in the upper registers.”
A Lineage of Sound
This voice was not found overnight. Trace the breakthroughs that shaped the Octave grand.
The Vienna Bench
Founder Henri Vaudron apprenticed under the last of the city's imperial piano builders, learning to crown a soundboard by ear and thumb alone — a method never written down.
The atelier's first grand was built from a single felled spruce over fourteen months.
The Tension Plate
After two decades, the workshop perfected its sand-cast iron plate and laminated maple rim — holding twenty-one tonnes of string tension with pitch drift measured in cents per year.
Achieved tuning stability of under 2 cents annual drift across the full compass.
The Numbered Commission
Octave now builds a limited fifty instruments each year, each signed, numbered, and assigned a lifetime voicing artist. Found in conservatories, concert halls, and private salons worldwide.
Every grand carries a unique registry block, hand-signed beneath the soundboard.
Where geometry becomes music.
Step inside the Vienna workshop of master builder Henri Vaudron. The scale design — string lengths, bridge placement, soundboard taper — is drawn by hand before a single board is pressed.
Henri Vaudron
Founder & Master Builder
Commission Your Grand
Every Octave is built to commission. Specify the case, the keyboard, and the hardware below to generate your build certificate and estimate.
OCTAVE OPUS I
Generating a certificate opens a private line to our concierge for salon auditions and build scheduling.