While some 80% of all businesses in Cyprus are family-owned, only a handful of them were founded prior to the island’s independence in 1960. By contrast, Anna Petrof Prouskova, CEO of the celebrated Czech piano maker PETROF, heads the company that was founded by her great-great-great grandfather in 1864. It not only survived nationalisation following World War II and the loss of its European markets after the ‘Velvet Revolution’ of 1989, but it is once again thriving, helped in part by some recent unexpected publicity from Taylor Swift.
Anna Petrof Prouskova spoke to GOLD during her recent visit to Cyprus.
In the 162 years since Antonín Petrof built his first piano, your company has produced around 635,000 instruments under the PETROF name. How has PETROF survived – and, indeed, thrived – for so long?
I think it comes down to two things that have to work together: craftsmanship and adaptability. We still make our pianos essentially the way my great-great-great-grandfather did – about 80% of every component is produced in-house, from the solid spruce soundboards to the cast iron plates – and that uncompromising approach to quality is something we have never been willing to trade away, even in the hardest years. But craftsmanship alone would not have carried us through two world wars, 40 years of state ownership and nationalisation, and the collapse of our traditional Eastern European markets after 1989. What has kept PETROF alive is that every generation of the family was willing to rebuild the business when the world around it was changing: my mother’s generation spent two decades shifting the company’s whole identity from a mass-market, quantity-driven manufacturer back to a premium, quality-driven one, and my generation is now continuing that work by opening new markets, from the United States to Asia and the Middle East, and by finding new ways – through art, culture and through the artists who choose to play our instruments – to keep the PETROF name meaningful to people who may never have thought about buying a piano.
You belong to the 6th generation of the founding family. When you were growing up, was it understood by everyone that you would work in the business? Did you ever have any other ambitions?
There was never an ultimatum placed on me, but growing up in Hradec Králové with this family and this factory, PETROF was simply part of the air I breathed. I found my own way in gradually, through the parts of the business that spoke to me most personally. I started representing the company at international trade fairs when I was still a teenager. I also helped in marketing with social media, then I joined the international sales team and later became a manager of PETROF Gallery (our cultural centre). So rather than one ambition being replaced by another, I would say my path into the company grew quite naturally out of watching my mother build something meaningful.
How does it feel to be heading a company that was founded by your great-great-great-grandfather? Is there a lot of pressure to ensure that the quality and reliability – for which PETROF pianos are known all over the world – is maintained in today’s competitive business environment?
It is a responsibility I feel every single day but I try to see it as a privilege rather than a burden. When you know that a piano leaving our factory might still be played and still sound beautiful in a hundred years’ time (as is the case with some of Antonín Petrof’s own instruments), you simply cannot allow yourself to cut corners. The pressure is real: the market for acoustic pianos is shrinking worldwide and we compete with manufacturers who can produce far more cheaply than we can. But I would rather protect what makes a PETROF a PETROF – the sound, the craftsmanship, the story behind every instrument – than chase volume at the expense of quality.
As well as being played by celebrated Czech classical pianists, including Ivo Kahánek, Jitka Čechová, Karel Košárek and Adam Znamirovský and others such as Mary-Victoria Voutsas, PETROF pianos have more recently become known to a new generation thanks to being played by global pop icons such as Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift. How important is this for your sales of ‘ordinary’ pianos to non-professional musicians and music lovers?
It has been enormously important, and quite moving for us as a family business. When Finneas mentioned in the studio how well our piano performed for Billie Eilish’s recordings, or when Taylor Swift shared a photograph of herself at an ANT.PETROF grand piano built around 1900 (one that Antonín Petrof himself personally oversaw), that reached millions of people who would never read a classical music review but who trust the taste of their favourite artist. For someone who is not a professional pianist and is simply thinking about buying their first piano, seeing an instrument like ours in that context does far more than any advertisement could: it tells them that this is a serious, living brand, not just a museum piece with a long history.
A century ago, many homes in Europe and elsewhere would have had a piano. That is not the case today, so how has PETROF – one of the very few family- owned European manufacturers – successfully adapted to this social change?
We have accepted that we will never again sell the volumes of pianos that were common a century ago, so instead of competing on quantity we have concentrated on being irreplaceable at the top of the market – in concert halls, conservatories, recording studios and the homes of people who genuinely care about sound quality. At the same time we have worked hard to bring the piano back into people’s everyday lives in new ways: hybrid instruments that combine an acoustic piano with a silent, practice-friendly digital system, cultural programming such as our PETROF Gallery and concert hall that keep the instrument visible as part of contemporary culture, and a deliberate push into markets – Africa, Central Asia, the Balkans, Eastern Europe and, now, the United States, where the piano is still gaining, rather than losing, cultural ground.
Did you ever consider expanding into other less expensive or even electric instruments?
During the decades of state ownership, PETROF did in fact produce large quantities of cheaper, entry-level instruments and, for a long time, some dealers still associated our name with that lower end of the market. Since the family took the company back in the 1990s, we have deliberately gone in the opposite direction – away from cheap, mass-produced pianos and towards premium, handcrafted instruments – because that is where our real value lies. Rather than moving into electric instruments, our answer to the digital age has been to integrate silent, sensor-based practice systems into our acoustic pianos, so that a musician gets the authentic PETROF touch and tone but can also practise quietly through headphones. We remain, at heart, an acoustic piano maker.
Today, you export to more than 65 countries on five continents. Where is your largest customer base today and what kind of people buy PETROF pianos?
Our customers range from concert pianists and conservatories to serious amateur musicians and families who want an instrument that will genuinely last for generations. We have been present in the Indo-Pacific region, including Japan, for more than a hundred years, while Europe and Central Asia are our core market, and we are currently investing in growing our presence in the United States, where we have just opened a local distribution company, PETROF Pianos LLC.
What can you tell us about your recent visit to Nicosia?
I attended an event organised by the Czech Embassy in Nicosia, which included several concerts and an exhibition of Czech musical instrument-making. PETROF was there, together with Czech clarinet makers and highly respected family-owned violin makers. A big thank you to Ambassador Jana Hybášková and Pavel Šusták for organising the event!
Finally – and perhaps most importantly – are PETROF pianos available in Cyprus?
Yes, absolutely! PETROF pianos, both new and used, are available through our partner in Cyprus, so anyone on the island who falls in love with the sound will have no trouble finding one. PETROF pianos are represented in Cyprus by Mic Roussos, one of the most respected piano technicians in the region. We are also preparing a permanent showroom where customers will be able to see and try PETROF instruments.
This interview first appeared in the October edition of GOLD magazine. Click here to view it.
