At Your Service: Piano Lessons

Andrew Myers

01/01/2008

Erica vanderlinde Feidner is a matchmaker with more than a thousand happy unions to her credit. But her pairings are not person to person; they’re person to piano. In the last 16 years, Feidner has sold an excess of $41 million in pianos—first at a Bösendorfer dealership, later in a 13-year stint at Steinway & Sons (where for eight consecutive years she hit the high note as the company’s top worldwide sales representative), and most recently at Piano Matchmaker, which she founded in 2005 in Westport, Conn., and through which she matches client and high-end klaviers the world over.

Born into a musical family and a house with 26 pianos, Feidner seemed destined to be a concert pianist—one performance helped her claim the Miss Vermont crown her junior year in college, and her rendition of Liszt’s "Forest Murmurs" secured a talent scholarship in the Miss America pageant later that year. A skiing accident and torn thumb ligament, however, prompted a career change. Out went the daily seven hours at the keyboard, in came an MBA and a part-time job selling pianos. With that a different kind of star was born.

"Like people, every piano is born unique with its own DNA," says Feidner, whose artistry is in the alchemy of successfully matching one with the other—with a dedication that extends to traveling to meet with potential clients and offering phone consultations. Her pianos’ divorce rate? "I really don’t recall a single client dissatisfied with his or her selection," says Feidner.

Piano Matchmaker, 203.644.9197, www.pianomatchmaker.com