The fear of performing is called "topophobia."

The first portable piano was designed in 1800 by John Isaac Hawkins of Philadelphia. It came with carrying handles and a fold-up keyboard.

The only German piano manufacturing facilities that were still intact after World War II were Steinway's.

The late piano virtuoso, Arthur Rubinstein, sang constantly for the first few years of his life, but he refused to speak.

It is estimated that there are more than 18 million amateur pianists in the US; 79% of them are female, and 21% are male.

The first public performance of a piano duet was on March 10, 1784. It was played by Muzio Clementi and his most-promising pupil---13-year-old John Baptist Cramer.

American spinet pianos started being produced in 1935. Some of the names used to market them were “Minipiano,” “Vertichord,” and “Acrosonic.”

Francis Hopkinson of Philadelphia published his "Six Songs for the Harpsichord or Pianoforte" in 1787, and claimed to be the first native-born American to produce a musical composition. He dedicated the pieces to George Washington.

Before 1740, building harpsichords and clavichords was a sideline for cabinet-makers. After 1740, the demand for keyboard instruments grew to the point that building the instruments could become an independent trade.

A 5-movement sonata for piano and dog was performed at a Carnegie Hall concert and on TV. It was written by Julliard-trained composer, Kirk Nurock. The sonata is an elaborate 35-minute piece composed and performed by a (human) pianist and "sung" by three dogs.

In Mozart's and Schubert's time, only people of the same sex could play piano duets together unless they were engaged or married (or they played separate pianos). Men and women were not allowed to sit that close to one another, and other than shaking hands, it was considered indecent to touch hands unless couples were engaged. A well-bred lady of the time probably would have fainted if her thigh touched a male partner's leg on the bench!

Having a piano in the home started becoming fashionable in the 1790's.

The first concert we know of in the United States took place in Boston on December 30, 1731. New York's first traceable concert was in January 1736.

Thomas Jefferson was one of the first people to import a pianoforte to the US. He originally ordered a clavichord to give his fiancée, but changed his mind once he saw the newly developed pianoforte. He made the purchase in 1771.

The first Steinway piano was made in the kitchen of founder Henry Steinweg in Seesen, Germany, in 1836. (He changed the family name to Steinway when he emigrated to the US in 1850.)

Pianist/comedian Victor Borge originally started using comedy in his concerts to cover up stage-fright.

Soon after Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration, Mary Todd Lincoln acquired a 7-octave grand piano. It stood in the Red Room, where their sons, Willie and Tad, took their piano lessons.

By Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency (1933-45), the piano in the East Room was in need of repair, so Steinway offered to build a new White House piano as the firm’s 300,000th piano. President Roosevelt helped to design the piano, which has eagle-shaped legs and paintings on the case depicting American musical scenes.

The flashy Hungarian pianist Balazs Havasi, is known for pushing limits. He has produced crossover albums with pop stars, spoken at TED conferences, and on November 29, 2009 attempted to set the world record for the fastest fingers on a keyboard. The nimble pianist was able to play a single note 498 times in one minute (that’s faster than eight times per second!) to capture the record for most key hits in 60 seconds.

The term “grand piano” was introduced in 1777 in Robert Stodart’s application for an English patent for a combination piano-harpsichord. It was called “grand” to distinguish it from the smaller square pianos being made.

At the Paris Conservatory, separate piano competitions were held for men and women throughout the nineteenth century, with different assigned competition pieces each year. A work that was assigned to the men one year might be assigned to the women the next year. What mattered was that there should never be a direct comparison between women and men students because it was too controversial to test the belief that women couldn’t play as well as men.