It looks like a premium keyboard and its price is in line with higher end keyboards. For players with shorter hands, this could be a wonderful solution. I wonder why the big boys (Yamaha, Kong, Casio, etc.) never thought of it.

As I’m in the final third of my career, I’m trying to down-size my gear collection. At one point, I had enough equipment for three modest recording g studios! Little by little, I’ve been selling/giving away/junking stuff. At one point, I had 14 keyboards! I don’t think I’ll buy an Athena.

I’m not sure I understand this product as a political/social issue but as I wrote, I’m in a different position than you. Good luck with your health! I, too, have had some issues this year that have affected my left hand so I can’t play for the time being. At least we can listen to the great compositions!



ETA
This idea would have been useful for me a number of years ago. I was living and traveling on a cruising sailboat and the choice of keyboards was severely limited by the space I had available. If this company made a 4- or 5- octave keyboard with narrow keys, it might have fit on my boat. Alas, I ended up with a Casio instrument with chiclet-style keys (3/4 sized). It worked but only for arranging/composing/orchestrating. It was too small to play expressively. The other solution would be to get a bigger boat…

not sure how long, maybe 15-20 yrs ago. they didnt market it well, and it was a bust, so they’re dead set against it. the ceo of steinway is a magat, so….
there is a german company that will make them, steinberg. not cheap. and hailun, a chinese co is bringing them to market here. better prices, but who knows w asshole in charge. afaik, athena is the only digital.

as far as a political issue, it reminds me of back in the day when i was a carpenter. it was sooo hard to get proper safety equipment. gloves, boots, hard hats. even the stuff that was adjustable just wasnt as stable when u had to ratchet it all the way down. leads to a lot of injuries, and shortened careers.

And publishing the standards necessary to support 3rd-party keyboards.

Once the idea gets started, you realize it shouldn't be any more complicated than upgrading your hard drive or RAM, and millions of untrained people have done that.

Oh, and watch prices decline pretty quickly when that happens.

Maybe we'll end up with the circuitry in one box (user servicable and upgradable), and the keyboard connected by USB or Ethernet cable. Changes the transportation problem drastically. "Pretty crowded on this gig -- better unpack the compact keyboard. But keep the big guy around for the final performance."

who’s a major advocate for this. she did her own swap on her grand. she had no experience, but she did it.
it rly isnt hard, but it’s just not a known thing. there is a guy who machines down old keyboards. it does take some $$$ to set up, but if this gets bigger, it wd b a money maker. it’s rly not that complicated.

From my thumb to my center of my pink fingertip in 9.25" in piano spread position.
But, it's cool someone thought to do this.
Seems like it would help young kids learning to play piano, too.

there is a foundation, and that’s 1 of their goals. but rn their big thing is getting them into concert halls. no pros want to use them if that’s not what they will play on in concert. the shift is supposed to b pretty easy, but i can see where switching back and forth wd b hard.

i saw this 1 and thought- what a great school piano-
https://klavins.co/una-corda-w/
not cheap, but a great investment.

there r some crazy designs out there.

...back in the 90s experimented with narrower keys to make 61 key synths take the space of 49.
I didn't care for the feel, and figured it would be tricky if the other keyboards were standard.
Would have to adjust to not only narrower keys, but narrower for only one hand on many songs.
Besides, these were lower powered instruments so I never really pursued one.
Few others did, which is why only Casio had such a keyboard for more than a couple years.

and if u have big hands, i can see that it wd make it harder.

i just see it as leveling the playing field for women, which is exactly y steinway hates it. even tho they invented it many yrs ago for a guy named hoffman, iirc, who had small hands. they have made them for many concert pianists who have the stature to bring their own instruments w them, but they made them sign nda’s. daniel barenboim finally was allowed to admit that he had a 6.0 steinway.
they will make u an upright but they upcharge $5k. for using less material. make it make sense…