Onofrio, a name synonymous with pianos in Denver for 116 years, will fade into history effective Monday.
The store at 1332 S. Broadway will change its name to Classic Pianos as it becomes the Denver outlet of Portland, Ore.-based Classic.
Classic Pianos purchased in 2012 but until now has continued to operate as Onofrio.
“We left the name. It made sense because it has been around for so many years,” said general manager Don West. “But now we’ve got big plans going forward as Classic Pianos.”
In coming weeks, Classic intends to refurbish part of the building into a recital hall capable of showcasing traditional acoustic pianos as well as new lines of digital and hybrid-technology pianos.
When the lease on a ground-floor mattress store expires in two years, a bigger and more elaborate recital hall will be built.
A so-called liquidation sale taking place at the store through Sunday is intended to raise money for the renovations, West said.
, with plunging sales and a sharp drop in the number of retailers.
But West said his Denver store has managed to reverse the downturn that accelerated with the economic recession and a movement toward electronic keyboards.
“It’s definitely a shrinking industry, no question about it,” he said. “But there is still a market for very high-end pianos. People who have the means are still buying.”
At the top end of Onofrio’s inventory is a $110,000 Bösendorfer and a Yamaha listed at $101,000. Another Yamaha, the 9-foot CFX concert grand, would be priced at about $180,000 but is reserved for use by top musicians visiting Denver. Spinets, uprights and smaller grands sell for considerably less.
Nationally, the average cost of a new grand piano last year was just over $16,000.
New technology is finding its way into piano showrooms, such as that found in the Yamaha Disklavier enabling it to be played like a traditional acoustic piano, play prerecorded music as a “player” piano and reproduce songs that the piano’s owner previously played. The Disklavier starts at a list price of $20,000.
Onofrio’s origins date to 1898, when Angelo Fillippo Onofrio, an Italian immigrant, opened his Denver piano store. Unaffordable to typical wage-earning citizens of the day, the pianos’ chief buyers were saloons, bordellos and the occasional miner who had hit a mother lode.
The business passed down to Onofrio’s son Joseph, then Joe Jr., then Joe III. In 1974, the family built a store at the current South Broadway location.
Joe Onofrio III declined to be interviewed for this article.
Stores dedicated to selling pianos are dwindling across the country as fewer people take up the instrument and those who do often opt for a less expensive electronic keyboard or a used piano.
Some blame computers, while others note the high cost of new pianos. But what’s clear is that a long-term decline in sales has accelerated.
The best year for new-piano sales in the U.S. was 1909, when more than 364,500 were sold. But after gently falling over the years, piano sales have plunged more recently to between 30,000 and 40,000 annually.
Larry Fine, a Boston-based piano technician, consultant and author, said it is an indication of a changing society.
“Computer technology has just changed everything about what kids are interested in,” said Fine, who also publishes a website offering consumer information on new and used pianos. “People are interested in things that don’t take much effort, so the idea of sitting and playing an hour a day to learn piano is not what kids want to do.”
Steve Raabe: 303-954-1948, sraabe@denverpost.com or twitter.com/steveraabedp
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
