Piedmont Piano Company

Sightlines are straightforward and focused on the piano, with the rest of the trio or ensemble arranged tight around it. Volume is full but not overwhelming, and people tend to actually listen rather than treat it like background music.

Most of the events are jazz, with touring artists like the Michael Ragonese Trio and long-running collaborations such as Ben Allison, Steve Cardenas, and Ted Nash using it as an Oakland stop. The room suits small groups and soloists, so expect trios, duos, and solo piano more than big amplified bands. Shows are usually early evening, the kind you can get to after work and still be on a normal schedule afterward. The crowd skews toward musicians, serious listeners, and neighborhood regulars. Street parking in the area is metered and opens up more in the evening, and 19th Street BART is a short walk away through Uptown.

Piedmont Piano Company is a long-running, family owned shop that has been selling and servicing pianos in the Bay Area for over forty years. The concert series itself started in 2005 in the company’s former San Francisco location and now continues in this Uptown Oakland space. The history shows in the way the room is set up for the piano first and everything else built around that, so hearing a show here is very much about being in the middle of a working piano store that happens to host regular concerts.

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