Action Adventure: Sonia Andikelian Plays An Epic Role

Sonia Andikelian is good with multitasking, always has been. Two decades ago, back in her native Armenia, the mother of three and grandmother of seven was head nurse in a surgery unit at one of the capital Yereva’s busiest hospitals. Prior to that, she had a career in a hematology institute, and in both of those roles she honed that uncanny ability—often a hallmark of healthcare professionals—to juggle dozens of disparate tasks, often under tight time constraints and with inviolate procedural precision.

That’s a good thing for Steinway & Sons, where Sonia has applied her organizational magic for nearly twenty years. As lead woman in the Steinway factory’s legendary action department, Sonia is responsible for a team of more than a dozen people, all of whom engross themselves daily in the task of creating and piecing together the intricate action assembly that drives each note emitted from a Steinway & Sons piano.

It’s no small feat. But Sonia’s no small talent. She brings an infectious passion and a love of the instrument to her job. She also brings a detail-minded precision and an insistence on perfection. It’s in her blood, after all. Taking care of Steinway pianos, just like taking care of people, is a labor of love.

In The Neighborhood

Sonia’s day begins early. She’s out of the house before seven-thirty each workday—rain, snow, or shine—to walk the ten minutes from her home on 21st Avenue down the sloping streets of Astoria to the Steinway factory abutting Luyster Creek off the East River. She’s lived in the same home for twenty years, and in fact she found her position at Steinway through a neighbor—long since retired—who sang the praises of working at the old factory just blocks away from their homes. "I’m lucky," Sonia admits, appreciating her proximity when compared to the long commutes of some of her co-workers. "It’s easy."

Once at the factory, she clocks in and makes her way up to the second floor, where the action department, an expansive workroom filled with an intricate network of saws, vacuums, worktables, and precision fitting instruments, will soon be buzzing with activity. The not-unpleasing scents of sawdust and wood glue compete for supremacy here, and the department is kept brightly lit to assist the workers with the close tasks of action assembly.

The day unfolds quickly: soon the workroom is a hive of wood, felt, pins, and hands. When completed, each action assembly functions like a delicate wooden spider to deliver a decisive hammer blow to its waiting string and thus create the legendary sound of a Steinway piano. The process of creating the action assembly is long, complex, and intricate. Through each stage, Sonia is there—leaning in to lend an extra set of hands or standing back to look for opportunities to help.

"I think the fact that she was a head nurse in Armenia helps her bring a great deal of leadership to her role here," said Milind Chavre, Foreman of the Action Department. "She has a great deal on her plate, a great deal of responsibility. She takes it in stride. She’s naturally gifted at working with people. It’s very impressive."

A Piece Of The Action

Steinway & Sons is the only American piano builder to manufacture its own action assemblies, and each intricate unit is created on the second floor of the Steinway factory under Sonia’s and Milind’s watchful eyes. The action mechanism consists of 58 parts, and each piano contains a full set of 88 different mechanisms to correspond to the keys. The felt and metal components come from hand-picked suppliers, but every wooden part is cut, carved, and finished in-house.

Steinway & Sons is well known as the architect of a number of patents that changed the course of piano manufacturing, and the metal action frame that Sonia works with today is one example. C.F. Theodore Steinway, son of the company’s founder Henry E. Steinway, invented and patented a unique tubular metal frame for the action in 1868. This frame contributes to the unparalleled durability and strength of the Steinway action.

In Sonia’s department, bespectacled workers take this legendary metal frame and use it as the foundation for dozens of wooden, metal, and textile pieces, some no bigger than a raisin. They fabricate spindly wooden pieces out of knot-free maple and fashion hammer heads out of virgin wool felt. It’s a time-honored process that has continued unchanged since the mid-1800s. And Sonia is proud to be a steward of the tradition.

"I feel good," Sonia says, when asked about her role with Steinway & Sons. "I’m happy here. I have great friends who work together well and respect each other. It’s like a family. And not just that—it’s a family proud of its legacy. That’s a good feeling."

When the end-of-shift whistle sounds in the late afternoon, with only a ten-minute walk before her, Sonia is most likely the first Steinway & Sons factory worker to arrive home. It’s a good life, she says. She pauses a moment, thinking, taking stock of it all: her family, the home-life, the two decades building the legacy of Steinway & Sons pianos. "I’m rich," she says simply.

CAN’T MISS: Take a close look at the intricate mechanism of the Steinway & Sons action assembly in this independently-produced video: